1. It is easier to organize data and retrieve it when there is little or no dependence between programs and data. Why is there more dependence in a file approach and less in the database approach?

2. Spreadsheets have become quite powerful for data management. What can be done with database management systems that cannot be done with spreadsheet applications? Give several examples.

3. What is the difference between a database and a database management system?

4. DBMSs are usually bundled with powerful programming language modules. Why?

5. DBMSs are a component of every enterprise application, such as a supply chain management system. Why?

6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of object-oriented databases?

7. What is the relationship between a website's local search engines and online databases?

8. When constructing a database, the designer must know what types of relationships exist between records in different data sets, such as one-to-many or many-to-many. Give three examples for each of these relationships.

9. Give an example of a one-to-one relationship in a relational database.

10. What is SQL? In which database model does it operate? Why is it so popular?

11. What is a data warehouse? How is it different from a transactional database?

12. Why is it not advisable to query data from transactional databases for executive decision making the same way you do data warehouses?

13. What are the phases of adding data to a data warehouse?

14. What does it mean to cleanse data before it is stored in a data warehouse?

15. What are data marts? How do they differ from data warehouses?