Applicants Table
Aaron Tainter and Partner Table
LinkedIn Table
Relationship Diagram
Based on our interview with Aaron Tainter, AlphaLab’s application process has many data needs. In the application process, AlphaLab will acquire data about their applicants, AlphaLab’s data about their applications, and data from the applicants LinkedIn accounts. Some data that AlphaLab may have about their applicants include application number (primary key), the name of their startup company, their website, and their phone number. On AlphaLab’s side, some examples of data they will create in the process include application numbers, application status, and the date that each application was received. From the applicants’ LinkedIn pages, AlphaLab may acquire data such as application number, account information, and application date received. The relationship between AlphaLab (Aaron Tainter and his team) and the applicants has one-to-many cardinality because the team, while they review each application one at a time and each application goes through its own review process with AlphaLab, the team also looks at many different applications and there are many different application numbers - there is a primary key for each application. Each company only has one application. The relationship between the applicants and their LinkedIn accounts has one-to-one cardinality because each applicant has only one LinkedIn account and each LinkedIn account belongs to only one applicant. These items are all key elements in the data model of AlphaLab’s application process.
As mentioned in our textbook, MIS Essentials (4th edition), written by David Kroenke, metadata (data that describes data) is important to databases, and therefore, AlphaLab’s application process. Metadata is often naturally found in databases including Microsoft Access. This is because metadata makes databases much more useful because no one needs to guess, remember, or record basic information in the database. Metadata such as dates, timestamps/ submission times, company names, etc. are very useful to Aaron Tainter and his company, as they can be used to keep track of their applicants’ information and when documents were submitted and by whom. This information is readily available without having to dig around for it, which would be inefficient and wastes time. The metadata needed for the process is different dependent on what information is needed during each specific point in the process. For example, Aaron and his team need to know when a company submits their application. If they see that a company submitted it 5 minutes before the deadline, then that company may not be the best candidate. In another step of their process, Tainter and his team will need to know application numbers to differentiate between companies.
References:
Kroenke, D. M. (n.d). MIS Essentials, 4th edition.
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