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Welcome
Administrivia
Course
Objectives
Catalog Description
An
Honest Description
Textbooks/Readings
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About
Instructor
Tentative Schedule
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Welcome to Acc 682,
and to the world of databases. This course is not a
requirement for the one-year or two-year M.S. Degrees in the
Department, and therefore I assume that you have made a committment to
be an information systems professional. I also assume that you are
curious, and passionate in learning about information systems by DOING,
i.e., by programming, and not hearing or talking about them. If not,
you will be doing yourself a favour by looking elsewhere to cover your
semester schedule. If you do continue in the course, I expect you to
be deeply committed to the field of information systems, passionate
about learning new things, and demonstrate such passion and
committment by setting this course (along with Acc 681) at the
TOP of your priorities.
During the course of
this semester you will have ample opportunity to master the
theoretical foundations of record-oriented structured (relational and
object-relational) as well as self-describing schema-less
(text-oriented) databases in the context of accounting systems. You
will learn how to extract information from such databases using
programming languages (SQL and Java). You also will have an
opportunity to design and implement a relational database for a part
of the accounting system for a small toy company. I also might assign
to some groups real-world database projects depending on the
skill-sets of group members. While we will use ORACLE database
management system for most class-work, you will have ample opportunity
in the course, should you wish, to experiment with most
commercial-grade database management systems such as IBM's DB2 or
Microsoft's SQLServer 7. You also will have an opportunity to learn
the basics of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and some of its
alphabet soup, specially XML-Schema, XML namespaces, X-Link and
X-Path/Pointers.
You have access to one of the finest
stocked (in terms of hardware as well as software) computing facility
any where in the Arthur Andersen Laboratory. We have most major
industrial strength databases (Oracle, DB2, and SQLServer) as well as
toy database systems such as Microsoft Access and Visual FoxPro. For
classroom purposes I shall be using Oracle, but for homework and group
project purposes you are required to use atleast one industrial
strength database systems. Use the lab, and enjoy the courses!
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Semester:
Fall, 1999
Time: M: 4:15 - 7:05 PM
Room: BA
223 (PriceWaterhouseCoopers Classroom)
Instructor: Jagdish
S. Gangolly
Graduate assistants: Ernst Kuschel &
Jongwoo Park
Office: BA 365A
Phone: (518)
442-4949
Fax: (707) 897-0601; (518) 442-3944
Office
Hours: M: 2:45 - 4:15 PM. or by appointment
Instructor
Homepage: http://www.albany.edu/acc/gangolly
Newsgroup:
sunya.class.acc682
Announcements
Page:
http://www.albany.edu/acc/courses/acc682.fall98.html
Prerequisites:
This course is
intended to be taken concurrently with Acc 681.Therefore you
are expected to be familiar with the unix operating system, the Emacs
(or vi) editor, and the Java programming language (or some other
higher level language with object-oriented features such as C++/Visual C++), to
the extent covered in that course. You will NOT be able to handle the
materials in this course unless you fully understand the materials
covered in Acc 681. As a graduate student, it is your responsibility
to clear all doubts you may have before it is too late.
Materials on topics such as data structures, discrete mathematics, or
algorithms, to the extent needed and covered by the textbooks, will be
covered in the course. You are also expected to have background in
accounting at least at the level of Intermediate accounting, and be
quite familiar with the fundamentals of controls in accounting
systems.
Handouts:
This will be the only web handout you will get during the
semester. All future handouts will be postscript.
Therefore it is important that you learn to print postscript documents
in the Lab, or, if you have computers at home, to download the latest
versions of Ghostscript interpreter and Ghostview browser from
ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/
(or some other site) and install them on your home PC so that you can
print them on non-postscript printers. At the time of this writing,
the latest versions are Ghostscript 6.01 and Ghostview 2.9. You also
will need to download and install Ghostscript interpreter and the
fonts from the same site. If you have difficulties in software
downloads or installations at home, please contact one of the graduate
assistants (Ernst Kuschel or Jongwoo Park).
Class
Conduct:
The course consists of lectures, solution of
problems, short cases, and discussion of late-breaking developments in
the field. You are expected to do the readings well ahead of the
class. Class time is to be used for the clarification of any doubts
that you may have. Do not expect to merely listen to the instructor
and gain knowledge. Databases is a practical field backed by robust
theory. A good understanding of the theory and its use in practice is
essential to excel in the field. This is a hands-on course, and you
are required to demonstrate competence in the topics covered in order
to receive an acceptable grade. I shall be giving quizzes and
occasional homework assignments. I also shall be calling upon some of
you to come to the board and solve problems assigned.
Software:
I
shall be using most software under unix, and expect you to use
cayley.bus.albany.edu to write and test most programs.
I shall also be providing hints on doing the same things under
Microsoft windows 2000.
I shall be using Oracle 8i for much of the semester and expect you
to do the group project in Oracle 8i, or, if you choose, Microsoft
SQLServer or IBM DB2. You will also get in class tutorials on
Microsoft Access and Visual FoxPro. You will find it very helpful
to do some of the design and implementation for homework as well
as the project initially on Visual FoxPro. I expect you to be
conversant with these software.
Most software we will use is available free on the
internet for both unix and windows. Those
of you using your PCs at home may like to download Microsoft Windows
95/98/2000 version of software and use it. My graduate assistant(s)
and I will provide some support, but you are expected to be
self-reliant. During the semester, I shall provide you with sources
for Java2, XML parsers, XML APIs, etc. via this page. Therefore you
are expected to visit this page very often.
Newsgroup
and e-mail:
I shall be using the class newsgroup
(sunya.class.acc682 extensively for making announcements regarding
tests, homework, quizzes, added links to this course homepage, etc. In
fact, the newsgroup will be the primary means of communication between
us outside of the class. You should post to the newsgroup all your
questions and doubts for clarification. Use it as a sort of virtual
classroom. You are strongly encouraged to answer queries posted by
others, and such responses will count towards class participation
points for grading.You should communicate with me via e-mail only for
individual problems and questions.
Arthur
Andersen Laboratory Access:
As a graduate student in the
Department, you have access to the Arthur Andersen Laboratory. You
will need to get from Ms. Lisa Scholz the password to enter the lab.
Contact her in BA 365 as soon as possible. Should you have special
requirements for software (DBMS servers) or hardware (Windows 2000
Servers) for your projects, let me know, and arrangements will be
made. for your access.
You also will need logins to the
University unix cluster and the Department's Windows 2000 server. You
will need to apply on-line for an account on the unix cluster, and
contact Ernst Kuschel or Jongwoo Park regarding login for the Windows
2000 server. You can not use any machine in the lab without these
logins.
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The main objectives of
the course are:
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Basics
of relational database theory in the accounting context. Semantic
modeling of accounting data including the REA model. Use of CASE tools
for the analysis, design & documentation of accounting databases.
Languages for retrieval of information from accounting databases.
Controls in accounting databases.
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A
brief history of database systems - Database Modeling - The Relational
Model (including conversion from ODL and E/R diagrams to relational
designs) - Database design (including functional dependencies &
database normalisation) - Relational Algebra and Structured Query
Language (SQL) - Constraints and triggers in SQL (including a very
brief discussion of SQL 3) - System aspects of SQL (including SQL/Host
language interface, transactions in SQL, security and user
authorisation in SQL); Extensible Markup Language (XML) and databases.
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The main textbooks for
the course are: A
First Course in Database Systems, by
Jeffrey D. Ullman & Jennifer Widom, (Prentice Hall, 1997). UW
in the tentative schedule below. Oracle
8: The Complete Reference by
George Koch & Kevin Loney, (McGraw Hill, 1997). KL
in the tentative schedule below. Java
and XML by
Brett McLaughlin, (O'Reilly, 2000). BM in the
tentative schedule below. The
Object Data Standard: ODMG 3.0 by
R.G.G. Cattell, et. al., (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2000). RC
in the tentative schedule below.
You also must refer to the following
resources:
In addition to the
above, I shall be assigning additional rtesaources to be used. They
will be mostly the specifications and recommendations of trhe World
Wide Web Consortium (www.w3c.org).
We will not have time
in the class to go over each and every minute detail in ORACLE 8.
Therefore, you will need to do much of the readings from the Koch &
Loney book by yourself, with help from me, Ernst, and Jongwoo. You
will need those details in order to successfully complete the semester
group database projects. You are most welcome to ask for
clarifications of the materials in these books either on the class
newsgroup or during my office hours either individually or in groups.
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The classes will
consist of database concepts, solution of problems, discussion of
cases and programming exercises. I shall be dividing the class into
groups of 3-4 each, balanced in terms of skills in accounting,
programming, facility with computers, mathematical maturity, needs of
the projects selected, and other such attributes. The groups will work
through out the semester in one group project:
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The final course grade
is dependent on the following factors:
The final course grade is strictly
relative, based on the total points scored.
The grades, once assigned can not be
changed except in case of errors in grading. It is NOT possible to
do extra credit work to improve the grade.
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Jagdish S. Gangolly is
currently an Associate Professor of Accounting and of Management
Science & Information Systems in the School of Business, and a
Senior Program Faculty member of the Ph. D Program in Information Science.
He holds a Bachelor's degree with a major in Mathematical Statistics, a
master's degree with a major in Operations Research, and a Ph. D degree in
Accounting. He is also a Certified Internal Auditor. He has previously
taught at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Kansas, Claremont
McKenna College & the Claremont Graduate School, and California State
University at Fullerton. He has worked in senior executive positions in
management services in the pulp & paper industry as well as in
soft-drink franchising. His articles have appeared in Journal of
Accounting Research, Auditing: Journal of Practice & Theory,
Journal of the Operational Research Society, Critical
Perspectives on Accounting, Expert Systems with Applications: An
International Journal, and Artificial Intelligence in Accounting &
Auditing. In 1989, he was the guest editor of Advances in
Accounting; currently he serves on the editorial board of the American
Accounting Association journal Issues in Accounting Education, and is an Asociate editor of the e-Services Journal.
His current research activities are primarily in the areas of conceptual
information retrieval and formal specification of control in accounting
information systems. He also has collateral research interest in the
relationships between Accounting and Legal Philosophy.
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