Review of ICT qualifications #12 Draft for approval to list ... - Index of /

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Qualification details

Title New Zealand Diploma in Database Administration

Version 1 Qualification type Diploma

Level 6 Credits 120

NZSCED 020303 Information Technology – Information Systems – Database Management

DAS classification

Qualification developer Institute of IT Professionals NZ and NZQA National Qualifications Services

Next review 2018 (3 years from date of listing)

Approval date Dd Mmmm YYYY

Strategic purpose statement The purpose of this qualification is to provide Aotearoa New Zealand with graduates who have attained a range of specialist professional and technical skills to create, implement and

operate database systems. It will prepare people for employment in an entry-level database administrator role in a range of

organisational contexts, or to proceed to further study.

Graduates will be capable of configuring, maintaining, and monitoring performance of databases with skills that will be internationally relevant. They will also be able to operate with appropriate professional standards, independently within a small business and as part of a team in a larger organisation.

Businesses, organisations and communities will benefit from having IT professionals who are qualified in the administration of database systems, in all sectors of the economy and society.

This qualification includes the common core of Level 6 skills together with building on the generalist information systems skills developed at Level 5, or equivalent relevant experience.

Outcome Statement

Graduate profile Graduates of this qualification will be able to:

Technical Skills (90 credits)

1. Perform data modelling of complex business structures.

2. Design and implement a database, and perform queries and reporting.

3. Operate and administer database management systems in a range of application areas.

4. Perform monitoring and tuning of database systems.

5. Maintain continuity of service.

6. Analyse, select and implement business intelligence tools and methods to add value to an organisation.

7. Demonstrate broad knowledge of systems infrastructure and how it affects database operations.

8. Select and apply a range of technical and theoretical knowledge and skills to explore and analyse database administration issues in an organisation.

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Core skills (30 credits)

9. Behave as a responsible Information Technology professional to contribute to society.

10. Apply communication, information design, personal and interpersonal skills, clearly and professionally in an organisational environment.

11. Apply methodologies of project management to an IT related project, to analyse and solve problems.

Education pathway The qualification may provide a pathway to further specialist computer science, software engineering or IS related degree qualifications. It may also equip learners to attempt optional industry certifications at the appropriate level and area of specialty.

This qualification provides an education pathway from the:

 New Zealand Diploma in Information Systems (Level 5) or

 New Zealand Diploma in Information Technology Technical Support (Level 5)

Employment pathway Graduates of this diploma will have the skills and knowledge to work or gain employment in entry-level database administrator roles such as management information systems (MIS)

administrator, customer relationship management (CRM) administrator, or student management system administrator.

Qualification specifications

Qualification award Awarding bodies for this qualification will be any education organisation accredited under section 250 of the Education Act 1989.

The graduate will be awarded the qualification by the education organisation where the accredited and approved programme has been completed.

The formal document certifying the award of this qualification will display the full qualification title, date of award, the NZQF logo and may also include the name and/or logo of the qualification developer or programme owner or other awarding education organisation.

Arrangements for managing

consistency All education organisations arranging training or delivering approved programmes leading to the qualification must engage with arrangements for managing consistency, including covering actual and reasonable related costs.

The purpose will be to evaluate the consistency of achievement by graduates against the qualification outcomes.

NZQA Quality Assurance Division’s National Consistency Management System in liaison with the qualification

developer will appoint an external reviewer(s) to manage the process, review periodic consistency event outcomes, and prepare a report which will be distributed to the TEOs and other relevant stakeholders, including programme

developers. The report will highlight good practice and

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opportunities for improvement in achievement of outcomes.

Each year the focus of arrangements for managing consistency will be outlined. Programme owners, and education organisations delivering approved programmes leading to the qualification will be required to:

 submit to the qualification developer and/or NZQA Quality Assurance Division’s National Consistency Management System a statement outlining their intended delivery for the coming year

 provide evidence to show the consistency of their learners’ achievement against the requirements of the graduate profile outcomes of the qualification in the previous year.

Evidence will be reviewed by one of a group of appropriately skilled and experienced Evaluator(s) appointed by the qualification developer and/or NZQA Quality Assurance Division’s National Consistency Management System.

Detailed information regarding arrangements for managing consistency will be published and updated via the

qualification developer’s website.

For more information on assuring national consistency of graduate outcomes of New Zealand qualifications, please visit: http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/providers-

partners/consistency-of-graduate-outcomes/ and download the guidelines.

Credit transfer and recognition of

prior learning arrangements Education providers must have policies and procedures in place for managing credit transfer, and assessing

recognition of prior learning and recognition of current competency. These policies and procedures, and

information about associated fees, must be available to the learner prior to enrolment.

Information on and evidence of the application of the credit transfer and recognition of prior learning arrangements by accredited providers must be made available for

benchmarking as part of the arrangements for managing consistency.

Credit transfer will be automatic where standards on the Directory of Assessment Standards are used within approved programmes of study or training leading to this qualification.

Minimum standard of achievement and standards for grade

endorsements

The minimum standard of achievement required for the award of the qualification will be the achievement of all the graduate outcomes in the graduate profile.

There are no grade endorsements for this qualification.

Entry requirements (including

prerequisites to meet regulatory body Learners enrolling are recommended to hold the NZ Diploma in Information Systems (Level 5) or NZ Diploma in

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or legislative requirements) Information Technology (Technical Support) (Level 5), or to demonstrate equivalent knowledge, skills and experience.

International students must have an appropriate level of English proficiency for the level at which they intend to study. Details of English language entry requirements are contained in the NZQF Programme Approval and

Accreditation Rules 2013 (Appendix 2). E.g. IELTS

Academic score of 6, with no band score lower than 5.5 OR NZ Certificate in English Language (Academic) Level 5.

Qualification conditions

Overarching conditions relating to the qualification Conditions for programme

structure

This qualification is aimed at producing IT professionals. As such, professional practice must be an integral part of the curriculum and delivery. It is expected that all programmes have professionalism both purposefully taught and integrated with technical content. Here, professional practice includes the 'soft skills' of communication, team work, interpersonal skills, and ethical principles.

Programmes must reflect industry best practice and maintain currency with amendments to, and replacements of, relevant legislation, regulations, Australia/New Zealand standards (AS/NZS), and security responsibilities.

 Current legislation and regulations can be accessed at http://legislation.govt.nz

 Current AS/NZS standards can be accessed at http://standards.co.nz

 The Information Technology Code of Practice - Guidelines of good and acceptable practice for IT professionals and organisations operating in New Zealand can be accessed at http://www.iitp.org.nz/about/ethics, as can the Code of Professional Conduct.

Conditions for programme context

Programme design and delivery, and assessment, where applicable, will be conducted in and for the context of real or realistic

organisations and/or settings; and be relevant to current and/or emerging practice.

Programmes leading to the award of this qualification must identify the context, and must justify the allocation of credits to graduate profile outcomes within the programme, in light of the requirements of the context.

The graduate must clearly align with the definition of a Level 6 graduate on the NZQF. See the NZQF level descriptors for further information. All programmes are to be developed with Level 6 descriptors in mind – specialised technical knowledge and skills in a field of work, applied in specialised/strategic contexts.

Consideration should be given to bicultural, multicultural, and gender issues when designing programmes, in relation to encouraging a greater diversity within the professional IT workforce.

Programmes may be developed based on Māori principles and

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values, and are intended to enable Wānanga to meet obligations under the Education Act (1989, section 162(4)(b)(iv)).

Other conditions This qualification assumes a relational and object-oriented approach for all aspects of database design and administration. It is expected that specialised technical and theoretical knowledge will be applied.

It is envisaged that the assessment for this qualification will involve a capstone assessment; this could be a case study or real client interaction project.

Business in the context of this qualification is interpreted widely to include organisations and community entities.

Principles and practices of literacy and numeracy are inherent and are recommended to be embedded within programmes leading to this qualification.

Some content could also be aligned with industry certifications. There is a preference for open and vendor neutral standards where possible.

Specific conditions relating to the Graduate profile Qualification outcomes Indicative

Credits

Conditions Mandatory

or Optional

Technical Skills (90 credits) 1 Perform data

modelling of complex business structures.

10 credits Programmes must include the following:

 Data modelling - both relational and object, strategies;

 Data redundancy, system redundancy

 Business logic and requirements analysis;

 Information gathering;

 Organisational theory, behaviour and culture;

 Strategies for business analysis;

 Structured, semi-structured and unstructured data;

 Business systems concepts and values;

 Writing specifications;

 Database architecture;

 Business process modelling;

 Complex data types e.g. spatial, binary large objects (BLOB).

Mandatory

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2 Design and implement a database, and perform queries and reporting.

 Data modelling and structures, concepts, and skills;

 Query languages e.g. complex SQL statements;

 Database design, schema and data dictionary;

 Various database management systems (DBMS) e.g. distributed v centralised databases;

 Complex reports;

 Data validation techniques;

 Database creation, population and testing;

 Security considerations.

Mandatory

3 Operate and

administer database management

systems in a range of application areas.

 Fully featured multi-user database;

 Managing change and maintenance, migration of data, user management, interface issues;

 Managing privileges, user groups and roles, database version control;

 Related software and hardware;

 Compare and contrast common DBMS from a variety of vendors;

 Application areas e.g. GIS, Health informatics;

 Multi-user access considerations e.g.

concurrent updates, deadlocks;

 Non-traditional data sources e.g. live data feeds such as RSS, remotely sensed data.

Mandatory

4 Perform monitoring and tuning of database systems.

 Structures that impact performance;

 Monitoring e.g. query performance, identify bottlenecks, input output, networking performance, storage allocation;

 Relating performance to user demand;

 Service levels around performance expectations;

 Tuning e.g. database design, impact of locking, query design, de-

normalisation, hardware, database distribution, indexing;

 Monitoring security reports;

 Managing real time streaming data acquisition.

Mandatory

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5 Maintain continuity of service.

 Analyse, select and apply appropriate solutions to ensure integrity and resilience;

 Back up; recovery; security;

 Transaction management;

 Service levels (Service Level Agreements (SLAs)) - uptime, availability;

 Business continuity.

Mandatory

6 Analyse, select and implement business intelligence tools and methods to add value to an organisation.

10 credits Programmes should include several of the following:

 Interpreting data – strategic advantage to organisation;

 Advanced techniques for exploring data;

 Collaborative databases;

 Data warehousing;

 Data mining;

 Business intelligence for SME;

 Performance and usage statistics;

 Social context;

 Statistics;

 Analysis;

 Business and financial modelling.

Optional

7 Demonstrate broad knowledge of systems

infrastructure and how it affects

database operations.

10 credits Programmes should include systems infrastructure to support database operations e.g. operating systems, networks, user authentication directories such as Active Directory, virtual

machines, cloud, hardware storage devices.

Optional

8 Select and apply a range of technical and theoretical knowledge and skills to explore and analyse database administration issues in an organisation.

 Holistic approach, including technical and professional practices.

Please note that issues could be interpreted to include opportunities.

Mandatory

Core Skills (30 credits) 9 Behave as a

responsible Information Technology professional, to contribute to society.

10 credits Programmes must include:

 Application of professional,

sustainable, socially responsible and ethical principles relevant to an organisational environment;

 Ethical work practice;

 Professional behaviour;

 Implications of managing and complying with legal, regulatory,

Mandatory

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privacy and security responsibilities relevant to an organisational environment;

 Compliance with relevant legislation and regulations (e.g.

health and safety, contract management, licensing); and industry codes of practices and codes of conduct e.g. IITP;

 Equity, social and contemporary cultural issues relevant to Information Technology e.g. Treaty of Waitangi, accessibility issues.

10 Apply

communication, information design, personal and interpersonal skills, clearly and

professionally in an organisational environment.

10 credits Programmes must include people skills:

 Interpersonal and communication skills in a team environment - written, oral, digital;

 Information representation design for multiple purposes, audiences, genre and media e.g. data

visualisation; technical writing - help documents, user instructions, specifications;

 Personal and interpersonal skills including customer service, leadership, teamwork, self- management, relationship and conflict management.

Mandatory

11 Apply methodologies of project

management to an IT related project, to analyse and solve problems.

10 credits Programmes must include cognitive skills:

 Critical thinking skills, business logic and organisational processes;

 Evaluation of various project

management tools, including project methodologies;

 Project planning, management and control – cost, risk, quality,

stakeholder, change, configuration, contracts, and maintenance management;

 Consideration of innovative solutions and the use of emerging

technologies and the opportunities and risks for organisations.

Mandatory

Transition information

Replacement information