Databases and Information Systems Commons^™

A Sin Of Omission: Database Transactions, David Hansen

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Database courses are under increasing pressure to include new topics which inevitably leads to a decision about which topics are essential to the course and which can be omitted to make room for others. Recent surveys have indicated that many instructors are reducing or eliminating coverage of “transaction management” from their introductory database courses. As both an academic and a practitioner, I believe that this is a mistake. This paper discusses why the semantics of transaction management should be an integral topic in any introductory database management system course.