Incorporating business requirements and constraints in database conceptual models

Entity relationship (ER) approach is predominantly used for conceptual modelling of database systems in terms of entities and their relationships. The approach does not provide sufficient support for incorporating business constraints and their impact on the entity relationships, thus leaving a gap between the requirements elicitation and database implementation. This paper makes an attempt to bridge this gap by proposing a construct that would enable the system architects to illustrate business requirements and constraints at the conceptual model with minimal effort. To do this, we have proposed an approach called attribute-oriented business requirements and constraints (BRCs). We classify five different categories of attribute-oriented BRCs for binary relationships. Based on this approach, we propose a construct to enhance the modelling capabilities and expressiveness of the ER approach without introducing any conflict with the current features. Our main contribution in this paper is a new construct to specify the business rules and constraints along with the systems requirements in database conceptual modelling

Incorporating Business Requirements and Constraints in Database Conceptual Models

Entity relationship (ER) approach is predominantly used for conceptual modelling of database systems in terms of entities and their relationships. The approach does not provide su#cient support for incorporating business constraints and their impact on the entity relationships, thus leaving a gap between the requirements elicitation and database implementation. This paper makes an attempt to bridge this gap by proposing a construct that would enable the system architects to illustrate business requirements and constraints at the conceptual model with minimal e#ort. To do this, we have proposed an approach called attribute-oriented business requirements and constraints (BRCs). We classify five di#erent categories of attribute-oriented BRCs for binary relationships. Based on this approach, we propose a construct to enhance the modelling capabilities and expressiveness of the ER approach without introducing any conflict with the current features. Our main contribution in this paper is a new construct to specify the business rules and constraints along with the systems requirements in database conceptual modelling

SMEs in developing countries need support to address the challenges of adopting e-commerce technologies (Pucihar, Andreja)

Although research indicates e-commerce offers viable and practical solutions for organizations to meet challenges of a predominantly changing environment, the few available studies related to SMEs in developing countries reveal a delay or failure of SMEs in adopting ICT and e-commerce technologies. The various factors identified as causes for the reticence can be broadly classified as Internal Barriers and External Barriers. This paper presents a model for barriers to adoption of ICT and e-commerce based on the results of an exploratory pilot study and survey. It identifies support for SMEs in Sri Lanka at different distinct levels of sophistication in SMEs with regard to ICT and e-commerce. It also determines a strong need for necessary support and discusses the availability of the support. Finally it proposes an initial framework to eTransorm SMEs

Analysing stillbirth data using dynamic self organizing maps

Even with the presence of modern obstetric care, stillbirth rate seems to stay stagnant or has even risen slightly in countries such as England and has become a significant public health concern [1]. In the light of current medical research, maternal risk factors such as diabetes and hypertensive disease were identified as possible risk factors and are taken into consideration in antenatal care. However, medical practitioners and researchers suspect possible relationships between trends in maternal demographics, antenatal care and pregnancy information of current stillbirth in consideration [2]. Although medical data and knowledge is available appropriate computing techniques to analyze the data may lead to identification of high risk groups. In this paper we use an unsupervised clustering technique called Growing Self organizing Map (GSOM) to analyse the stillbirth data and present patterns which can be important to medical researchers

An e-tourism adoption model and its implications for tourism industry in Nepal

Although Nepal has tremendous tourism opportunities, the small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) that constitute the largest percentage of tourism service providers, are lagging behind in e-Tourism adoption. This research conducts a comprehensive analysis of existing literature to propose an e-Tourism adoption model based on the Technology-Organisation-Environment and e-Readiness models. This model is supported by empirical data using qualitative in-depth interviews with seven key stakeholders and quantitative survey with 198 SMTEs. An operational model is outlined to identify the barriers and motivators for e-Tourism adoption in Nepal. Implications of this model for key stakeholders such as the government, tourism organisations and tourism associations are discussed. As Nepal moves to a federal political structure, the findings and recommendation from this research are expected to help policy makers, tourism associations and SMTEs to develop specific e-Tourism based programs in order to provide superior services to tourists