Assignment 5 Reflection

Creating the database schema took a lot of time and effort. I had to think through the one-to-one and many-to-many relationships between classes, which wasn’t easy. To make sure the schema followed the rules for normalization, I added ID attributes to some classes and threw in a few association classes to keep everything organized. It was time-consuming, but necessary for the design to work. Along the way, I finally started getting the hang of Visual Paradigm though I still wonder if there are better programs out there for this kind of work that are used professionally.

Working on the Data Access classes was more straightforward. I noticed I’d left out a few classes in the Reservation Multi-Layer Sequence Diagram from my last assignment, so adding them now gave me a clearer picture of how everything fit together. This part went a lot faster than the database work, and it helped me understand the data layer better overall.

The Access Control List (ACL) was a whole other challenge. I had to add some new methods to make sure all the permissions lined up properly. Organizing the list was tough because different user groups only needed access to certain functions or attributes. It took longer than I expected, but it was worth it since this part of the project really made me think through security and access controls.

By putting together the ACL, database schema, and Data Access classes, I realized some areas where I could improve the design. I also found a few attributes and methods I hadn’t thought of before that turned out to be essential. This project was a massive learning experience; even though I struggled with the complexity, I now see a few ways to simplify it if I had more time. Overall, working on the Car Sharing System taught me a lot about system design and analysis. It was challenging, but I feel more prepared for similar projects in the future.