Description

Jelle Hellings
Department of Computing and Software

Description
A local chain of cinemas has decided that their current information system is not sufficient in a modern world in which online ticket sales are the norm. As the first step to renew their system, the owner of the cinema approached a consultant firm that drafted requirements for the new information system. Following is the high-level description of these requirements.
1. the screen type (e.g., normal, purpose-built IMAX, digital IMAX) and screen size;
2. the projector type (e.g., analog or digital, resolutions, supported 3D modes, 48FPS, and so on);
3. the sound system (e.g., the number of speakers and the supported sound options such Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, and DTS); and
4. the available accessibility options.
This information is not only available for cinema visitors, but will also be communicated to private parties that are looking to hire a room (e.g., for a corporate event). Finally, per room the system also needs to know the exact seat arrangement, as the online system will allow customers to order tickets for specific seats. Hence, the system keeps track, per room, of each seat and—per seat—its location in the room, the row it is in, and the seat number (within the row). Furthermore, some seats are standard reserved for disabled people.
Assignment
The goal of the assignment is to present the above requirements for an information system into an ER (entityrelationship) diagram. To do so, you have to write a report in which you translate the above requirements into an ER (entity-relationship) diagram. Your submission:
1. must be a PDF file;
2. must include an analysis of the requirements of the information system: which parts of the above description are important, which parts did you ignore, which constraints did the requirements provide, which of these constraints did you incorporate in the ER diagram, and which constraints did you exclude (and motivate why they are excluded);
3. must provide a readable and complete presentation of your ER-diagram (that matches your analysis, any discrepancies between your analysis and the resulting ER-diagram should be explained); and
4. must have ER-diagrams that are drawn using software (hand-drawn and scanned submissions will not be graded); big diagrams can be submitted as a separate PDF, PNG, or GIF alongside the report.
Submissions that do not follow the above requirements will get a grade of zero.
Grading
While evaluating your work, we will look at:
completeness Does your diagram contain all entities, attributes, relationships, and (if possible) constraints described in the requirements?
correctness Does your diagram use the correct notation and do you take the right design decisions? Are all included constraints correct? Do all excluded constraints have a proper motivation?
presentation Is the diagram and the report readable? Is the report presentable as a stand-alone report to an external party (e.g., the cinema chain owners)?
In specific, the presented report will account for 10% of the maximum grade; the required entities, attributes, and relationship will account for 60% of the maximum grade; and the required constraints (e.g., keys, relationship participations) will account for 30% of the maximum grade. Every error and inconsistency in your ER-diagram notation will result in a reduction of the overall grade (with the lowest possible grade being zero).
Remarks on drawing ER-diagrams
There are plenty of modelling and drawing programs that support the creation of beautiful ER-diagrams. Most programs will use a notation that is slightly different from the textbook and the slides, however. You are allowed to use such a different notation, but if you do so: make clear what notation you exactly use (e.g., specify what each type of arrow that you draw means) and stick to a single notation.