Entities and relationships

  • Hi there,

    I am a computing student and I am currently working on designing a database system for a charity organisation. Unfortunately, I am having some difficulties and my problems will be best answered if I give the specifications.

    I have identified some entities and relationship from the specification but i'm not certain that i am in the right direction. My entities include; Contributor, Donator, Volunteer, Person, Founder, Governor, Beneficiary institute, Sponsor.

    It will be very much appreciated if you can help me check to see that I have the right entities and disclose any missing ones. I will also like to know the relationship between the attributes.

    Specifications

    GTH is a non-political and non-profit organisation that co-ordinates people’s donations of various

    types around the world and it is based in the UK (at present). It does not discriminate among

    various ethnic groups neither is it influenced by any geographical factors.

    The collected money and any other donations are distributed among various organisations and

    voluntary bodies on request.

    You are to undertake this assignment individually, although you may discuss ideas with your fellow

    students. However, the final submission must be your own work.

    Where information is not available you should make reasonable assumptions. Make sure that you

    include all business constraints that have been captured during the analysis part.

    Specification

    The Director of GTH requires you to design a database system to assist with the

    administration of the office. The requirements collection and analysis phase of the

    database design process, which is based on the Manager’s view, has provided the

    following requirements specification for the GTH database system.

    The donations are collected in two ways from people. Hence, we classified the people

    according to their donations. For the purpose of this coursework, the following

    definitions apply:

    1. A “Donator”, refers to a person who donates money or equivalent items (e.g.

    gold, shares, properties, etc).

    2. A “Volunteer” refers to unpaid helper who voluntary provide his/her service

    free of charge (e.g. professional people such as Physicians, Engineers,

    Lecturers, etc.) or assist in certain activities.

    3. A “Contributor” refers to a person who can be a Donator, Volunteer or both.

    Each month a record of the actual total hours spent by a Volunteer is recorded.

    Labour hours are evaluated later in money by multiplying the monthly total hours by a

    suitable rate depending on the Volunteer profession.

    A record of each Contributor’s donation preferences must be kept. This is used to

    direct the donation to the favourite charity or institute at the Contributors’ wish.

    These preferences are restricted by the following categories: Religious Assistance,

    Natural Disaster, Health Care, Family Care, Humanitarian Aid and Cultural Care. A

    Contributor can have at most one corresponding address when it is different from

    his/her usual address. Comp1302 Cswk_DBD_G&T_Charity_May 11_V1.docx Page 3 of 7 printed on 18-Jan-11

    Money contribution from a Donator must be all paid in one method only at any one

    time. However, a Donator can change his method of payment from one time to

    another. It can be Cash, Cheque, Bank Draft, Standing Order, or others. Non money

    payment by a Donator can be Shares, Property, Food, Clothes, Medicine and Bedding.

    One of the most important activities of a Volunteer is to persuade candidate

    Donators to give their donations. A Volunteer is responsible for communicating with

    many Donators that are allocated to him. No other Volunteer is allowed to

    communicate unless he is doing it on behalf of the main allocated Volunteer. Changing

    the allocated Volunteer is allowed but must be recorded. A Donator can only be

    approached by one Volunteer at one time. A record of the date of the last Donator

    contact and with whom it was made must be stored in the DB.

    Initially there was a plan to keep details of all founders of the GTH, but recently it

    has realised that the list of Governors of GTH would be more useful. The information

    should include each governor’s starting and finishing dates.

    The term Administrator is used to anyone works at the GTH (voluntary or paid).

    Some details on each administrator are to be kept. This includes name, address,

    contact numbers, type of contract, salary or hourly rate, as well as the position each

    occupies (e.g. a member, president), etc.

    A person can be a Founder, Governor, Administrator or any combination of the above.

    There is a high chance that any of these people become Donator (donates money or

    others) or Volunteer (labour participant in voluntary activities).

    Contributions (money or otherwise) are to be delivered to Beneficiary Institutes.

    Information is to be kept on each institute such as the name of the institute, contact

    name and address, name of any sponsors or caretakers, last annual spending budget

    (usually of the previous financial year). The DB also should hold information or brief

    descriptions of any future activities that a beneficiary institute is planning to engage

    in and awaiting sponsorship. The category of each activity is also classified in the

    same way as the donators’ preference categories above.

    A sponsor or a caretaker of a beneficiary institute can be of one type. These include

    Religious Authority, Government Organisation, International Organisation,

    professional Society, Personal or Family. A beneficiary institute can have at most one

    corresponding address when it is different from its usual address. An institute can

    share an address, phone and fax with another institute.

    Thanks in advance

  • Since you decided to double post, here's a copy of my reply, still awaiting your reply (on either thread).

    LutzM (2/24/2011)


    David,

    dont' you see some kind of a contradiction when reading the following two statements?

    "I will be very much grateful if you can help solve this problem of mine."

    vs.

    "You are to undertake this assignment individually, ... However, the final submission must be your own work."

    If you have some spare time I strongly recommend to look up the words "plagiarism" and "copyright".

    What I'd really like to know: What is your intention to ask someone else to do your (home)work even if you're asked to provide your own solution?

    How much do you respect a result someone else came up with (not limited to the given situation)? Do you immediately "sell" it as your own work?

    Please share your motivation.



    Lutz
    A pessimist is an optimist with experience.

    How to get fast answers to your question[/url]
    How to post performance related questions[/url]
    Links for Tally Table [/url] , Cross Tabs [/url] and Dynamic Cross Tabs [/url], Delimited Split Function[/url]

  • I think you have to read again the specs... specially the part that clearly reads "You are to undertake this assignment individually, although you may discuss ideas with your fellow students. However, the final submission must be your own work"

    So, if you have an specific - conceptual question feel free to ask.

    _____________________________________
    Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

    Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

    Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.

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