What should my entities be?
Consider the following situation.
A manufacture of computers receives orders from customers through its sales office. Each order can have several products in it (different types of computers, lap tops, monitors, and other stuff). The producer checks the content of the order with the inventory list. If the required quantities exit, sends a confirmation to the customer with the price, delivery time and all the other details based on which the customer puts the confirmed order. If the required products are not available in the inventory, then sales department asks from the production planning about the availability time and based on that will give the information to the customer. If the confirmed order is received and part or all of the products are not in the inventory, then production planning will calculate the requirements of targeted production by using the Bill of Material and a Material Requirement Planning Software and prepares the orders for the required products. This order will go to the purchasing department who will actually purchase the product by selecting the proper supplier. The related information from different steps will be communicated to the accounting department for payments and to the warehouse.
a. Draw a context diagram for this situation
b. Draw a DFD for this situation (go to the lowest level as you deem necessary.
c. Draw the structure chart based on your DFD. Make sure that you consider all the issues related to structure charts such as type of structure chart, cohesion, couplings fan-in, fan-out and other issues.
d. Identify all the entities required for your problem and draw the related ERD. Make sure that your entities match your DFD.
e. Take one of the processes in your level zero DFD (level next to the context diagram) and develop a complete pseudocode for that process that shows the input, output and process
f. Identify all the user interfaces for this problem. For the inputs explain where the input is coming from, in what form and what do you do with it when entered into the system. For outputs, explain what goes into the output, where it is coming from and what format you will need to use, and where this output is going to.
g. Using ACCESS, develop your database and make at least two of your interfaces, one input and one output in ACCESS (create a FORM for input and a REPORT for the output with all the elements required such as macros, help system, and connections. This should match exactly to what you say about these two interfaces in item “f” above. .
h. Insert at least two records for each of your tables to make sure your table works.
Please repost with the complete data.
You description was cut off.
Product (you have to keep track of what you sell and what customers order)
Order (you have to keep track of orders)
Customer (not absolutely necessary - you could just enter the Customer information for each order, if you are a small business - but storing Customer info becomes more valuable the more customers you have, the more repeat customers you have, if you want to target customer for promotional offers, etc.).
How big is the sales office? Is it just 2 people who answer phones? Is it a team of professional sale people? How soon does the system need to be ready? But in general, I imagine that you would keep info on the sale office.
You probably would also need an Employee entity.
To determine what your entities should be for this problem, you would need to analyze the given situation and identify the key elements or objects involved in the process. Based on the provided information, the following entities can be identified:
1. Manufacturer
2. Sales Office
3. Customer
4. Inventory
5. Production Planning
6. Bill of Material
7. Material Requirement Planning Software
8. Purchasing Department
9. Supplier
10. Accounting Department
11. Warehouse
These entities represent various components and departments involved in the order fulfillment process. With the entities identified, you can proceed to create an Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) to represent the relationships and attributes of these entities.
The ERD would include the entities mentioned above along with their attributes and the relationships between them. For example, the Manufacturer entity may have attributes like manufacturer ID and name, while the Inventory entity may have attributes like product ID, quantity, and availability status. The relationships between entities would depict how they are connected or interact with each other.
Once the ERD is created, it can be used as a reference for developing the database schema in a database management system like Microsoft Access. You can create tables for each entity and define the appropriate fields/attributes, data types, and relationships between the tables. This will provide the structure and organization for storing and managing the data related to the problem.
From there, you can proceed to develop the user interfaces, such as forms for input and reports for output, based on the identified user requirements and the entities involved. These interfaces would allow users to interact with the system, enter the required information, and generate meaningful outputs.
To complete the rest of the steps mentioned in your question (such as drawing a context diagram, DFD, structure chart, pseudocode, and implementing the database and interfaces in Microsoft Access), it would require a detailed understanding of the problem and its specific requirements. It is recommended to consult relevant resources or seek assistance from a qualified professional in the field of system analysis and design to ensure accurate and effective implementation of these steps.