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Chapter 6. Data Modeling

This chapter discusses data modeling and entity relationship diagrams (ERDs). It covers the key elements of ERDs including entities, attributes, relationships, cardinality, and modality. The chapter explains how to create ERDs through identifying entities and attributes, and drawing relationships between entities. It also discusses validating ERDs using techniques like normalization and balancing ERDs with data flow diagrams.

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Vy Nguyễn
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372 views37 pages

Chapter 6. Data Modeling

This chapter discusses data modeling and entity relationship diagrams (ERDs). It covers the key elements of ERDs including entities, attributes, relationships, cardinality, and modality. The chapter explains how to create ERDs through identifying entities and attributes, and drawing relationships between entities. It also discusses validating ERDs using techniques like normalization and balancing ERDs with data flow diagrams.

Uploaded by

Vy Nguyễn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Software Development Life

Cycle

Chapter 6. Data Modeling

6-1
Chapter 6 Outline

 The Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD).


- Elements of ERD
- The Data Dictionary and Metadata
 Creating an Entity Relationship Diagram.
 Validating an ERD.

6-2
INTRODUCTION

 In this chapter, we discuss how the data are organized and


presented.
 A data model is a formal way of representing the data
that are used and created by a business system.
 During analysis (this Chapter), analysts draw a Logical
data model which shows the logical organization of data
without indicating how it is stored, created, or
manipulated.
 During design (Chapter 11), analysts draw a physical data
model to reflect how the data will physically be stored in
databases or files.
6-3
(cont’d)

 Topics of this chapter:


- Creating an entity relationship diagram (ERD).
- Normalization, a technique that helps analysts validate the
data models.
- How data models balance, or interrelate, with the process
models.

6-4
THE ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM (ERD)

 An entity-relationship diagram (ERD) is a picture showing the


information that is created, stored, and used by a business
system.
 Entities lists similar kinds of information
 Lines drawn between entities represent relationships among
the data.
 Special symbols communicate high-level business rules.

6-5
Reading an Entity Relationship Diagram

6-6
Elements of an Entity Relationship Diagram

6-7
Entity

 The entity is the basic building block for a data model. It is a


person, place, event, or thing about which data is collected.
 Entities represent something for which there exist multiple
instances, or occurrences.
- E.g., John Smith could be an instance of the
customer entity.

6-8
(cont’d)

6-9
Attributes

An attribute is some type of information that is


captured about an entity.
Attributes are nouns that are listed with an entity.
One or more attributes can serve as the entity
identifier - the attribute(s) that can uniquely
identify one instance of an entity.
Concatenated identifier - several attributes are
combined to uniquely identify an instance.
6-10
(cont’d)

Choices for Identifiers

6-11
Relationships

 Relationships are associations between entities.


 Every relationship has a parent entity and a child entity.
 Relationships should be labeled with active verbs.

6-12
Cardinality

 A relationship has cardinality which is the ratio of parent


instances to child instances.
 The 1:1 relationship means that one instance of the
parent entity is associated with one instance of the child
entity.
 The 1:N relationship means that a single instance of a
parent entity is associated with many instances of a child
entity.
 The M:N relationship means that many instances of a
parent entity can relate to many instances of a child
entity.
6-13
(cont’d)

Example of M:N Relationship

6-14
Modality

 A relationship has modality of null or not null, which


refers to whether or not an instance of a child entity
can exist without a related instance in the parent
entity.
 Null means that an instance of a child entity can exist
without a related instance in the parent entity.
 Not Null means that an instance of a child entity can’t
exist without a related instance in the parent entity.

6-15
The Data Dictionary and Metadata

 A data dictionary contains the information about the entities,


attributes, and relationships on the ERD, or metadata.
 Metadata is data about data.
 Metadata is stored in the data dictionary so it can be shared by
developers and users throughout the SDLC.

6-16
(cont’d)

Example of Data Dictionary Entry for Entity

6-17
(cont’d)

Example of Data Dictionary Entry for Attributes

6-18
(cont’d)

Example of Data Dictionary of Entry for Relationship

6-19
(cont’d)

Types of Metadata Captured by the Data Dictionary

6-20
CREATING AN ENTITY RELATIONSHIP
DIAGRAM (ERD)
 Drawing the ERD is an iterative process of trial and revision.
 The basic steps in building an ERD:
1. Identify the entities;
2. add the appropriate attributes to each entity; and
3. draw relationships among entities.

6-21
Step 1: Identify the Entities

 The entities should represent the major


categories of information that you need to store
in your system.
If you begin the data model using a use case,
look at the major inputs and outputs of the use
case.
If the process models are available, look at the
data stores, external entities, and data flows.
6-22
Step 2: Add Attributes and Assign Identifiers

 The information that describes each entity


becomes its attributes.
 Check in the CASE repository of the process model for details
on data flows and data stores.
 Check the data requirements of the requirements definition.

 Use requirements elicitation techniques (e.g., interview and


document analysis).
 One or more of the attributes will become the
entity’s identifier.
6-23
Step3: Identify Relationships

 The last step in creating ERDs is to determine how the entities


are related to each other.
 Lines are drawn between the entities that have relationships.
 Each relationship is labeled, and cardinality and modality are
assigned.

6-24
Advanced Syntax

 Three special types of entities:


 Independent Entity
 Can exist without the help of another entity.
 The identifiers is created from the entity’s own
attributes.
 Attributes from other entities are not needed to
uniquely identify instances of these entities.

6-25
(cont’d)

Dependent Entity
There are situations when a child entity does
require attributes from the parent entity to
uniquely identify an instance. In these cases, the
child entity is called a dependent entity, and its
identifier consists of at least one attributes from
the parent entity.
(E.g., the Chemical Request entity in Figure 6.1).
6-26
(cont’d)

 Intersection Entity
It exists in order to capture some
information about the relationship between
two other entities. Typically, intersection
entities are added to a data model to store
information about two entities sharing an
M : N relationship.

6-27
(cont’d)

 There are three steps involved in adding an intersection entity:


Step 1. Remove the M:N relationship line and insert a new entity
(intersection entity) in between the two existing ones.
Step 2. Add two 1:N relationships to the model.
Step 3. Name the intersection entity.

6-28
(cont’d)

Resolving an M:N Relationship

6-29
VALIDATING AN ERD

 General design guidelines.


 Normalization.
 Check the ERD against the process models to make sure that
both model balance each other.

6-30
Design Guidelines

6-31
Normalization

 Normalization is a technique that can help analysts validate the


data models.
 It is a process whereby a series of rules are applied to a logical
data model to determine how well formed it is.

6-32
(cont’d)

Normalization Steps

6-33
Balancing ERDs with DFDs

The process models and data models are interrelated.


Although the process model focuses on the business
processes, it contains two data components – the data and
the data store.
These two data components of the DFDs need to balance
with the ERDs.
The DFD data components need to correspond with the
ERD’s data stores (i.e., entities) and the data elements that
comprise the data flows (i.e., attributes) depicted on the
data model.
6-34
(cont’d)

 Many CASE tools provide features of identifying problems


with balance between DFDs and ERDs; however, it is
important to understand how to identify problems on
your own.
 Check your DFDs and ERDs to make sure all data
components correspond between DFDs and ERDs.
 A useful tools to clearly depict the interrelationship
between process and data models is the CRUD matrix
(create, read, update, delete matrix).

6-35
(cont’d)

A Portion of a DFD and the CRUD Matrix

6-36
SUMMARY

 Basic Entity Relationship Diagram Syntax


- Entity describes people, places, or things.
- Attribute is some type of information about the entity.
- Relationship conveys the associations between entities.
 Creating an ERD
- Identify the entities.
- Add the attributes to each entity.
- Draw relationships among entities.
 Validating an ERD
- Normalization
- CRUD matrix
6-37

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