Database Systems Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering core Database Management Systems concepts based on the provided questionnaire and answer key.

Data Inconsistency

A condition in file systems or data management where different departments or individuals maintain separate versions/copies of the same data that do not agree, leading to conflicting reported values or statistics.

NoSQL Database (or Big Data Database)

A type of database appropriate when a conventional relational database cannot efficiently handle extremely large volumes and diverse forms of content.

Fundamental Components of a Data Model

The four fundamental elements regarded as components of every data model: Entities, Attributes, Relationships, and Constraints.

Timeliness (or Currency)

The quality of useful information that is lacking when data needed for daily decisions is updated only once each month.

Information

Data that has been processed and given meaning.

Structural / Program Dependence

A limitation of traditional file systems that causes delays when producing a new report requires extensive programming work.

Business Policies, Procedures, and Operational Manuals

Organizational sources considered dependable for determining business rules when their contents are confirmed with managers and users.

Reduced Cost (or Financial Savings)

An outcome that is not automatically a benefit of moving from a traditional file system to a database system, given that databases may require costly hardware, software, and specialized staff.

Relational Data Model

A data model that offers structural independence and allows access through SQL.

Constraints

The component of a data model that defines restrictions on acceptable data values in order to maintain data integrity.

Network Model

A database model that permits a record to be connected to more than one parent record.

Automated Constraint Enforcement

A guarantee that is not automatically provided simply by documenting business rules, as documentation alone does not ensure direct enforcement by the database.

Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD)

A graphical modeling tool that presents entities and the relationships among them more clearly than a purely textual description.

Business Rule

A concise, exact, and unambiguous statement describing an organization's policy, procedure, or principle.

Multi-user DBMS (or Concurrency Control)

A solution that enables multiple staff members to update shared records simultaneously while managing access and update conflicts.

Application Logic (or Application Software / Triggers)

The component where a business rule must be enforced if it cannot be represented directly in the data model itself (e.g., pilot flight hour limits).

Cloud Database

A type of database built and maintained through cloud services such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS.

Single-user (or Desktop) Database

A kind of database that normally runs on a personal computer and permits only one user at a time.

Data Redundancy

A file-system problem that occurs when identical data (such as an agent's name and phone number) appears in several different files.

Knowledge-to-Action Link (or Action Step)

The connection in the DIKAR sequence that breaks down when managers possess useful knowledge but lack authority to make decisions or change procedures.

Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO)

A principle stating that poor-quality input will also produce poor-quality information.

Data

Raw facts and figures that have not yet been given meaning.

Discipline-specific Database

A database classification suitable for confidential research data intended for a specific academic or professional discipline.

Context (or Experience / Human Understanding)

The additional factor that must be combined with information for knowledge to develop.

Attributes

Characteristics or properties of an entity, such as a customer's last name, telephone number, and credit limit.

Liability

What organizational data may become instead of a valuable asset if it contains many duplicates and errors due to poor management.

Deletion Anomaly

An anomaly that occurs when removing a record unintentionally deletes other important information that should have been retained.

Backup and Recovery Services

A DBMS function that allows database records to be restored after a server failure.

Database Management System (DBMS)

Software that serves as the link between users and the files in which database data is stored.

Entity

The data model component that is usually represented by a noun when converting a business rule into a data model.

Proprietary Information

Organizational information (also called Knowledge Capital or Core Competency) that provides a lasting competitive advantage because rivals have difficulty copying it.

One-to-Many Relationship (1:M)

A relationship type where one entity instance (e.g., a customer or department) can be associated with many instances of another entity (e.g., invoices or staff members), but each of the latter belongs to only one of the former.

Data Integrity

The property preserved by a database system while reducing redundancy, compared to separate spreadsheets maintained by individual departments.

Knowledge

A higher level of understanding created when personal or professional experience, context, or human thinking is applied to information.

Update Anomaly

An anomaly that occurs when a value is updated in one file but the same value remains unchanged in another file.

Unreliable Information

Information produced from guessed or inaccurate source data (also referred to as garbage information).

Information Resource Management (IRM) / IT Governance

An organizational practice considering investments intended to manage information, even though such investments cannot guarantee that every managerial decision will be correct.

Data Representation (or Conceptual Schema Design)

The concept showing that design can exist in more than one form when two different data models satisfy all stated requirements for the same problem domain.

File (or Table)

A group of related records in file-system terminology.

Data Independence (or Logical Data Independence / Abstraction)

A DBMS capability that lets users see an integrated view of data without needing to know its physical storage location or organization.

Action (or Action Stage)

The stage in the DIKAR model that turns knowledge into organizational decisions and activities.