A bus company is responsible for offering public transportation in the suburbs of a large metropolitan area.
Question:
A bus company is responsible for offering public transportation in the suburbs of a large metropolitan area. The company has significant data management requirements: It needs to keep track of its 150 vehicles, 400 drivers, 60 bus routes, and hundreds of scheduled departures every day. In addition, it is essential for the company to know which drivers are certified to drive which buses. The data that the company has available include the following attributes:
"RouteID, RouteStartPoint, RouteEndPoint, RouteStandardDrivingTime, ScheduleDate, ScheduledDepTime, ScheduledArrTime, DriverID, DriverFName, DriverLName, DateDriverJoinedCompany, DriverDOB, VehicleID, VehicleMake, VehicleModel, VehiclePassangerCapacity, DriverCertStartDate, DriverCertEndDate."
Sample data for this set of attributes are as follows:
"28, Grand Avenue, Madison Street, 38, {9/12/2012, 8.30, 9.18, 8273, Mary, Smith, 5/2/2007, 3/23/1974, 1123, GreatTrucks, CityCoach, 58, 6/10/2012,6/9/2013| 9/12/2012, 9.30, 10.12, 7234, John, Jones, 10/12/2011, 12/15/1991, 5673, GreatTrucks, CityCoach 2, 62, 4/12/2012, 4/11/2013 | 9/12/2012, 10.30, 11.08, 2343, Pat, Moore, 2/24/1982, 1/19/1958, 4323, PowerTransport, MidiBus, 32, 8/20/2012, 8/19/2013}"
The information for specific bus schedules (starting with the attribute ScheduleDate) is repeated three times in the sample data set and is separated by the “|” symbol.
Also, take into account that in this case, the certification is specific to a particular vehicle driver pair. Based on the facts stated above,
a. Identify the functional dependencies between the attributes.
b. Identify the reasons why this set of data is not in 3NF and indicate the normal form (if any) it is in.
c. Including all intermediate stages, organize the attributes into a set of 3NF relations.
d. Draw an E-R diagram based on the normalized relations.
e. Based on the E-R diagram you just drew and the case narrative, explore the areas in which there could be opportunities to expand the data model to achieve better tracking of the company’s operations or improved clarity, such as maintaining more detailed route information.
Step by Step Answer:
Essentials of Database Management
ISBN: 978-0133405682
1st edition
Authors: Jeffrey A. Hoffer, Heikki Topi, Ramesh Venkataraman