Suppose you are a marketing assistant for a consumer electronics company and are in charge of setting up your company’s booth at tradeshows. Weeks before the shows, you meet with the marketing managers and determine what displays and equipment they want to display. Then you identify each of the components that need to be shipped and schedule a shipper to deliver them to the tradeshow site. You then supervise convention personnel as they set up the booths and equipment. Once the show is over, you supervise the packing of the booth and all equipment as well as schedule its shipment back to your home office. When the equipment arrives, you check it into your warehouse to ensure that all pieces of the booth and all equipment are returned. If there are problems due to shipping damage or loss, you handle those problems. Your job is important; at a typical show you are responsible for more than a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of equipment.
a. You will need to track data about booth components, equipment, shippers, and shipments. List typical fields for each type of data.
b. Could you use a spreadsheet to keep track of this data? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of doing so?
c. Using your answer to part ‘a’, give an example of two relationships that you need to track. Show the keys and foreign keys for each.
d. Which of the following components of a database application are you likely to need: data entry forms, reports, queries, or application program? Explain one use for each that you will need.
e. Will your application be for one user or for multiple users? Will you need a personal DBMS or an enterprise DBMS? If a personal DBMS, which product will you use?