Case study: XYZ database system

Disclaimer: This case study is solely an education exercise and does not
necessarily reflect a real-world organization’s system or fully capture all aspects
of a corporate organization.
XYZ is a proudly owned Papua New Guinea business located in a city that specializes in retail. The
management of XYZ has approached you to build a relational database that will be used as the most
critical backend software component in their enterprise management system so that the relevant
business data will be recorded appropriately and further information queries will be processed
efficiently. The proposed database system requires efficient tracking and monitoring of all XYZ’s shops,
customers, employees, products, sellers or distributors and other relevant retail activities. Consider the
following user requirements carefully and design a database conceptual schema (i.e ER Model) to
support such an application.

The organization owns a large number of shops for retail purposes only. These shops are located city-
wide with distinct addresses. Each shop has a unique shop number XYZ000 format used as an identifier.
All shop names, employers, assets and shop descriptions must be recorded. Each shop maintains assets
such as vehicles, computers, cash registers, tools, furniture & other machinery. Only a tally of assets is
required for this case study, finer details are not to be captured .

The system also needs to handle two different kinds of people: XYZ’s employees and customers. All
employees in this case study hypothetically fall into a number of categories such as management,
supervisors, trainees, clerks, cashiers, etc. Further, clerks are sub-categorized into store clerks, inventory
clerks, office clerks, and front-office clerks. The wage rate for each employee is dependent on their
employment category. Management has a rate of K40 per hour while supervisors get K20 per hour. All
cashiers can rate K10 per hour while trainees are paid at K5 an hour. The store clerk gets K15, the
inventory clerk K15.50, the office clerk K14 and the front-office clerk gets K13.50. Total hours worked
per week are recorded via time cards, however, overtime is captured and not paid. XYZ ensures each
employee is medically insured. The related insurance details are required to be stored in the database,
which include the insurance ID number, insurance name, amount of insurance entitlement, start date
and expiration date of insurance.

An employee’s main duty is to make their customers happy by selling, recommending and providing
quality customer care. Each sell transaction has a unique receipt number, items purchase, item costs,
tax and record of customer purchase. Other data on employees needed to be recorded are their
birthdate, job level, wage rate and working location.
For each customer, in addition to an identification number assigned, it is necessary to record his/her
full name, gender, age, address and mobile phone. Customers are generally categorized into two distinct
types: individual and corporate. For an individual customer, whether the customer is a regular or gold
member is recorded. For a corporate customer, the organization name, purchase order information such
as authorized names, addresses, contact numbers and payment terms are recorded) and lastly, whether
special discounts are applicable or not being recorded.

To purchase an item from XYZ, the customer must visit a shop to get items. Customers must bring one or
more items to be served by a cashier. XYZ often stores details of some customers who are frequent
shoppers (reward program) but customers can opt not to sign up. The database keeps customer details
on record to give a discount or identify a category of customers. For each transaction, a receipt number
will be created automatically. Time and date, who served the customer, items and total cost are all
recorded.

Trainees can work as any clerk or assist cashiers. The store clerk assists customers with product
information, production recommendation and the location of items in the shop. The inventory clerk
tracks a shop’s inventory and informs supervisors of low stock to order. Both the inventory and shop
clerk must stock shelves. Office clerks manage financial, maintenance and human resource matters of a
shop. The front-office clerk provides customer care, answers telephone calls and email, and contacts
business partners. XYZ state that employees can work or belong to one shop.

All items or products sold by XYZ are kept in an inventory. Items must be uniquely identified, have a
name, cost per item, qualities of items on the shelf, qualities of items in inventory, number of items
expected in inventory, the total value of each item, category of item and supplier information. According
to XYZ management, they need the supplier name, contact number, email address and two supplier
employee full names.

The database must keep track of relevant transactions with date and time, each item cost, total cost,
discounts, tax and inventory stock as well as employee information in the system. Finally, the database
also stores an image for each employee and product so that the customers or management can identify
them.

Business Rules:
 Each Shop maintains Assets. (Assets include vehicles, computers, cash register, tools, furniture,
and other machineries. Assets kept in tally.)
 Customer visits shop.
 Customer purchase item.
 Cashier serve customer.
 Trainee can work as any clerk.
 Trainee assist cashier.
 Store-clerk assist customer
 Inventory-clerk track shop’s inventory.
 Inventory-clerk informs supervisor.
 Inventory-clerk stock shelf.
 Store-clerk stock shelf.
 Trainee assist Employee