The person who has central control over data and programs accessing the data. Responsibilities of the database administrator include data structure definition, storage and access methods specification, schema and physical organization modification, granting of authorization for data access, and integrity constraint specification. In highway agencies, the database administrator usually belongs to the information systems division,… Continue reading Database Administrator (DBA)
Database (electronic)
A repository for information or data organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. Databases are often indexed so they may be searched more efficiently. Traditional databases are organized by fields, records, and files. A field is a single piece of information; a record is one complete… Continue reading Database (electronic)
Data Warehouse
A collection of databases designed to support management decision-making. The term “data warehousing” generally refers to combining a wide variety of databases across an entire organization. Development of a data warehouse includes development of systems to extract data from operating systems plus installation of a warehouse database system that provides users flexible access to the… Continue reading Data Warehouse
Data Structure Diagram
A diagram type that is used to depict the structure of data elements in the data dictionary. The data structure diagram is a graphical alternative to the composition specifications within such data dictionary entries.
Data Scrubbing
The process of filtering, merging, decoding, and translating source data to create validated data for the data warehouse (see definition).
Data/Process Flow Diagram
A diagram that shows the types of data produced by one business process and used as input by another. It also refers to a representation of the flow of data into, out of, and between procedures, systems, or subsystems. Data flow diagrams show the actual flow of data between designed business activities and data stores,… Continue reading Data/Process Flow Diagram
Data Partitioning
The process of physically or logically dividing data into segments so it can be easily maintained or accessed. Existing relational database management systems provide this kind of distribution functionality.
Data Modeling
A method used to define and analyze data requirements needed to support the business processes of an organization. The data requirements are recorded as a conceptual data model with associated data definitions. Actual implementation of the conceptual model is called a logical data model. To implement one conceptual data model may require multiple logical data… Continue reading Data Modeling
Data Mining
The process of extracting previously unknown, valid, and actionable information or relationships from large databases and using that information to make important decisions.
Data Migration/TransforMation
The process of converting data from one format to another. Data migration is necessary when an organization decides to use a new computing system or database management system that is incompatible with the current system. Typically, data migration is performed by a set of customized programs or scripts that automatically transfer the data. Data migration… Continue reading Data Migration/TransforMation