Information Systems & Database Design

Module Reflection  ·  MSc Computer Science (Conversion)  ·  Author: Orville Fernandes

What I Brought In

I work part time as a Civil Enforcement Officer and Supervisor for Watford Borough Council. This offered me an operational understanding of the systems and workflows involved in managing parking enforcement across a borough – including the machines, the maintenance cycles, the cash collection runs, the reporting needs of different teams. I also had some prior exposure to relational databases through my BSc and Cloud Engineer role at Blockware Nation.

The Module

COM7112 covered the theory and practice of relational database design: data modelling, entity-relationship diagrams, normalisation, an introduction to SQL, DBMS and schema architectures. The module leader was genuinely exceptional. She made every session engaging, brought real enthusiasm to the subject, and created an environment where it was easy to get absorbed in the work. It was, by some distance, my favourite module on the programme.

The Coursework

For the assessment, I designed and implemented a Pay and Display machine management database for Watford Parking Services. The brief was open-ended in terms of domain, and the choice of scenario was deliberate. My experience as a Civil Enforcement Officer meant I understood the operational reality and could design for actual user needs rather than imagined ones (Ricardo et al., 2022).

The design process ran from initial requirements gathering through to a normalised ERD implemented in HeidiSQL, with data constraints, foreign key constraints, and SQL triggers to enforce data integrity. One of the key design decisions was introducing a MachineDeployment associative entity rather than linking machines directly to locations. This allowed the schema to handle the real-world complexity of machines being relocated or decommissioned over time without corrupting historical records. Queries were written to be role-specific: a hotspot analysis for managers, a cash collection summary, and an open issues dashboard for technicians, to name a few (Hoffer et al., 2020; Sandhu et al., 2002).

The group presentation required communicating the full solution to the class and module leader, covering ERD design, normalisation decisions, RBAC implementation, triggers, and an honest evaluation of the system's limitations. I prepared the slides and coached my teammates on the content ahead of delivery. The module leader's response was positive, and I found the whole experience – from design through to presenting – very satisfying.

The database repository is on GitHub here. The database project continued beyond this module. For COM7114 Programming for Business, my teammate and I built a web frontend for the system, connecting it to a live backend. The combined project is showcased separately here.

Critical Reflection

This was the module where I felt most in my element, and where the coursework design matched the level of thinking a Masters programme should demand. The open-ended brief rewarded genuine engagement with the problem domain.

One criticism I would make is that hands-on use of database management software was largely deferred to an external online course rather than covered in class sessions. The theoretical grounding was thorough, but structured lab time working directly in HeidiSQL or a comparable DBMS would have strengthened the practical element considerably.

Learning Outcomes

LO1 – Design, develop and implement data solutions: Achieved in full. The end-to-end process from requirements analysis through normalisation to a live implemented database, with constraints and triggers, demonstrated both design thinking and practical implementation.

LO2 – Evaluate methods and practices in database technologies: Achieved through the design trade-off analysis, particularly the MachineDeployment entity decision and the role-specific query design. Each choice was assessed against the operational requirements of the scenario rather than applied mechanically.

LO3 – Professional communication on complex topics: Achieved through the group presentation. Communicating schema design, normalisation, and RBAC to a mixed audience required structuring a technically dense subject into a coherent, accessible narrative.

References

Hoffer, J.A., Ramesh, V. and Topi, H. (2020) Modern Database Management. 13th edn, Global edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Ricardo, C.M., Urban, S. and Davis, K. (2022) Databases Illuminated. 3rd edn. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Sandhu, R.S., Coyne, E.J., Feinstein, H.L. and Youman, C.E. (2002) 'Role-based access control models', Computer, 29(2), pp. 38–47.

Marks