Uni Reading List
Index / 001 EN
Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management cover

Computer Science

Computer Science

Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management

Carlos Coronel; Steven Morris

An introductory database textbook that teaches how to design, build and manage relational databases for business and organisational use. It emphasises practical database design through data modelling and normalization, develops SQL step by step, and places databases in the wider context of data management, analytics, big data and NoSQL systems.

Prerequisites: No prior database experience is assumed; general computer literacy and some exposure to programming or spreadsheets help.

Difficulty Level
Beginner
Academic Level
Undergraduate
databasesrelational modelsqldata modelingnormalizationTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Coronel, C., & Morris, S. (2026). Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management (15th ed.). Cengage.

Chapter Summary

The fifteenth edition has sixteen chapters in six parts, followed by fifteen online appendixes (A–O). The publisher describes it as a practical introduction to database design and implementation with in-depth coverage of SQL programming, and says that this edition revises and reorganizes chapters to emphasize SQL, the influence of artificial intelligence on databases and data professionals, and database ethics. It names Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server and Microsoft Access as the systems covered, and states that self-check quizzes now appear at several points in every chapter. The parts are Database Concepts (Chapters 1–3), Database Programming with SQL (4–5), Design Concepts (6–9), Advanced Database Concepts (10–14), Databases and the Internet (15) and Database Administration (16).

Chapters 1–3: Database Systems; Data Models; The Relational Database Model

The opening part introduces database systems, data models as ways of representing data for design, and the relational model on which the SQL and design parts build.

Chapters 4–5: Introduction to Structured Query Language (SQL); Advanced SQL

SQL comes immediately after the relational model and before the design chapters. Chapter 4 introduces the language and Chapter 5 continues with more advanced use.

Chapter 6: Entity Relationship (ER) Modeling

Introduces entity relationship modelling, the technique for describing entities and their relationships that the following design chapters build on.

Chapter 7: Advanced Data Modeling

Extends the ER material to more complex modelling situations.

Chapter 8: Normalization of Database Tables

Treats normalization as a way of evaluating and improving table structures.

Chapter 9: Database Design

Brings modelling and normalization together into the design process as a whole.

Chapters 10–11: Transaction Management and Concurrency Control; Database Performance Tuning and Query Optimization

These chapters move from design to how a database behaves in use: keeping transactions correct when many users work at once, and making queries run efficiently.

Chapter 12: Distributed Database Management Systems

Covers database management when data and processing are spread across several sites.

Chapters 13–14: Business Intelligence and Data Warehouses; Big Data Analytics and NoSQL

Turn to data used for analysis rather than day-to-day transactions, and to non-relational systems for large and varied data.

Chapter 15: Database Connectivity and Web Technologies

Deals with how applications and web technologies connect to databases.

Chapter 16: Database Administration and Security

Closes with the work of managing and securing databases in an organisation.

Online Appendixes

The appendixes include a tutorial on designing databases with a diagramming tool (Lucidchart), a two-part University Lab case that runs from conceptual design to implementation, converting an ER model into a database structure, a comparison of ER notations, UML, client/server systems, object-oriented, hierarchical and network database models, databases in electronic commerce, web development with ColdFusion, data warehouse implementation factors, and hands-on introductions to MongoDB and Neo4j.

Key Concepts

Part I: Database Concepts

  • Database system: a database together with the software and people that manage and use it (Chapter 1).
  • Data model: a representation of data structures and relationships used to design a database (Chapter 2).
  • Relational model: the table-based model on which the SQL and design chapters build (Chapter 3).

Part II: Database Programming with SQL

  • Structured Query Language (SQL): the standard language for defining and querying relational databases, taught over two chapters.

Part III: Design Concepts

  • Entity relationship (ER) modelling: diagramming entities and the relationships between them as the basis of conceptual design.
  • Normalization: improving table structures to reduce redundancy and the anomalies it causes.
  • Database design: the overall process that combines modelling, normalization and implementation.

Parts IV–VI: Advanced Concepts, the Internet and Administration

  • Transaction management and concurrency control: keeping data consistent when operations are grouped and run at the same time.
  • Query optimization: making queries execute efficiently, together with performance tuning of the database.
  • Data warehouse and business intelligence: storing and organising data for analysis and decision making.
  • NoSQL: non-relational database systems associated with big data, with MongoDB and Neo4j covered in appendixes.
  • Database administration and security: managing and protecting a database as an organisational resource.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • Broad scope in one book. The table of contents runs from basic concepts, SQL and design through transactions, performance, distributed databases, data warehousing, NoSQL, web connectivity and administration, so one text can serve a whole introductory course and the topics that usually follow it.
  • Practice tied to real products. The publisher stresses coverage of Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server and Microsoft Access, and the online appendixes add hands-on material for MongoDB and Neo4j and a diagramming tutorial, which suits courses with lab work.
  • SQL early. In this edition SQL follows the relational model directly (Part II), so students can start querying before the longer design chapters.
  • Design treated at length. Four chapters (Part III) are given to ER modelling, advanced modelling, normalization and the design process, supported by the University Lab case and the ER notation comparison in the appendixes.
  • Current topics and study aids. The publisher highlights new attention to artificial intelligence and to database ethics, and in-chapter self-check quizzes.

Limitations

  • Implementation of database systems is not its focus. The titles cover using, designing and managing databases; there are no chapters on storage structures or on how a database engine is built, which the computer-science textbooks in this course treat.
  • Some material sits online. Fifteen appendixes, including the main case study and the NoSQL tutorials, are published online rather than in the printed book, and the publisher's auto-graded labs are part of its separately sold MindTap platform.
  • Length and breadth. With sixteen chapters across six parts, a single course will need to choose; the advanced and administration parts are more than most first courses cover.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the databases course this is a broad introductory textbook aimed at applied and business-oriented study. Hernandez's Database Design for Mere Mortals is narrower: it teaches only logical design, step by step, with no SQL. Readers who find Coronel and Morris's design chapters fast can use Hernandez alongside Part III for a slower method; readers who need SQL, transactions or data warehousing will find those only here.

Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan's Database System Concepts and Elmasri and Navathe's Fundamentals of Database Systems cover overlapping ground but are written for computer-science students and go further into theory and into how database systems are implemented. Ramakrishnan and Gehrke's Database Management Systems and Gray and Reuter's Transaction Processing are the places to go after this book for query processing internals and the engineering of transaction systems; Chapters 10–11 here are a useful first view of those topics.

How to Use This Book

The authors are at Middle Tennessee State University, where Coronel directs the College of Business computer labs and Morris has taught database design, SQL and information systems courses, and the publisher frames the book around preparing students for careers in database design and management; it suits first database courses in information systems and applied computing, and readers who want to work with real database products. Part I starts from what a database system is, so no earlier database course is needed; some familiarity with spreadsheets or programming helps with the SQL chapters.

A one-semester introductory plan:

  • Core: Chapters 1–3 (concepts and the relational model), Chapters 4–5 (SQL), and Chapters 6–9 (modelling, normalization and design).
  • Common additions: Chapter 10 on transactions and concurrency, and Chapter 13 or 14 depending on whether the course looks toward analytics or NoSQL.
  • Second course or specialised topics: Chapters 11–12 and 15–16, which deal with performance, distribution, web connectivity and administration.
  • Appendixes: the University Lab case (Appendixes B–C) is a good companion to Part III; Appendix D helps when turning ER diagrams into tables; Appendixes N–O are a practical start with document and graph databases.

Install one of the systems the book covers and type every SQL example as you read Chapters 4–5. While working through Part III, design a small database of your own and implement it in the same system; then return to the SQL chapters to write the queries it needs. Students who want a more formal treatment of normalization or of how queries are executed should follow this book with one of the computer-science textbooks in the course.