Chapter 3: Modeling Data in the Organization

Objectives
  

 

 

Definition of terms Importance of data modeling Write good names and definitions for entities, relationships, and attributes Distinguish unary, binary, and ternary relationships Model different types of attributes, entities, relationships, and cardinalities Draw E-R diagrams for common business situations EConvert many-to-many relationships to associative many-toentities Model time-dependent data using time stamps time2

SDLC Revisited Data Modeling is an Analysis Activity (figures 2-4, 2-5) 2- 2Project Identification and Selection Project Initiation and Planning

Purpose thorough analysis Deliverable functional system specifications

Analysis

Logical Design

Physical Design

Database activity conceptual data modeling

Implementation

Maintenance

Data modelling and business rules

Data modelling involves documenting rules and policies of an organization that govern data. Business rules and policies govern creating updating and removing data in an information processing and storage system, hence described along with related data. Database Analyst identifies, understands, represents & implements these rules in database technology.
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Business Rules


   

Statements that define or constrain some aspect of the business Assert business structure Control/influence business behavior Expressed in terms familiar to end users Automated through DBMS software

A Good Business Rule is:

 

Declarative what a process validates (not how) Precise clear, agreed-upon meaning agreedAtomic one statement (indivisible) Consistent internally and externally (not conflicting, not contradictory with other rules) Expressible structured, natural language (no misinterpretation) Distinct non-redundant nonBusinessBusiness-oriented understood by business people, only business people can modify
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Gathering Business Rules

They appear in description of business functions, events, policies, units, stakeholders and other objects. Can be found in interview notes from individual and group information systems requirements collection sessions, organisational documents (like manuals, contracts, brochures) & other sources. Precise rules are formulated from iterative inquiry process (they may be vague initially)
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A Good Data Name is:

    

Related to business, not technical, characteristics Meaningful and self-documenting selfUnique Readable Composed of words from an approved list Repeatable (standard pattern)
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Data Definitions


Explanation of a term or fact

Guidelines for good data definition

ER Modelling
 

  

Conceptual data modelling Tool for communication between database designer and end user during analysis phase Ease of use CASE tool support Entities and relationships represent real world Represents structure and constraints of a database independent of software
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E-R Model Constructs

  

Entity instance - person, place, object, event, concept (often corresponds to a row in a table). Single occurrence of an entity type. Entity Type/Set collection of entities (often corresponds to a table) Attribute - property or characteristic of an entity type (often corresponds to a field in a table) Relationship instance link between entities (corresponds to primary key-foreign key keyequivalencies in related tables)

Relationship type category of relationship link between entity types

Sample E-R Diagram (Figure 3-1)

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Relationship symbols

Entity symbols

Attribute symbols

A special entity that is also a relationship

Relationship cardinalities specify how many of each entity type is allowed

Relationship degrees specify number of entity types involved

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What Should an Entity Be?

SHOULD BE:


An object that will have many instances in the database An object that will be composed of multiple attributes An object that we are trying to model A user of the database system An output of the database system (e.g. a report)
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SHOULD NOT BE:

Figure 3-4

Inappropriate entities

System user

System output

Appropriate entities

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Attributes


Attribute - property or characteristic of an entity type Classifications of attributes:

Required versus Optional Attributes Simple versus Composite Attribute SingleSingle-Valued versus Multivalued Attribute Stored versus Derived Attributes Identifier Attributes
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Identifiers (Keys)


 

Identifier (Key) - An attribute (or combination of attributes) that uniquely identifies individual instances of an entity type Simple Key versus Composite Key Candidate Key an attribute that could be a key satisfies the requirements for being a key
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Characteristics of Identifiers
  

Will not change in value Will not be null No intelligent identifiers (e.g. containing locations or people that might change) Substitute new, simple keys for long, composite keys

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Figure 3-7 A composite attribute

An attribute broken into component parts

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Figure 3-9a Simple key attribute

The key is underlined

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Figure 3-9b Composite key attribute

The key is composed of two subparts

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Figure 3-8 Entity with a multivalued attribute (Skill) and derived attribute (Years_Employed) Whats wrong with this?

Derived
from date employed and current date

Multivalued:
an employee can have more than one skill

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Figure 3-19 An attribute that is both multivalued and composite

This is an example of time-stamping

More on Relationships


Relationship Types vs. Relationship Instances

The relationship type is modeled as the diamond and lines between entity types the instance is between specific entity instances
These describe features pertaining to the association between the entities in the relationship

Relationships can have attributes

Two entities can have more than one type of relationship between them (multiple relationships) Associative Entity combination of relationship and entity
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Degree of Relationships
 Degree

of a relationship is the number of entity types that participate in it

Relationship  Binary Relationship  Ternary Relationship

Degree of relationships from Figure 3-2

One entity related to another of the same entity type

Entities of two different types related to each other

Entities of three different types related to each other

Cardinality of Relationships


One-toOne-to-One


Each entity in the relationship will have exactly one related entity An entity on one side of the relationship can have many related entities, but an entity on the other side will have a maximum of one related entity Entities on both sides of the relationship can have many related entities on the other side
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One-toOne-to-Many


Many-toMany-to-Many


Cardinality Constraints


Cardinality Constraints - the number of instances of one entity (B) that can or must be associated with each instance of another entity (A) Minimum Cardinality Minimum instances of entity B associated with each instance of A
 

If zero, then optional If one or more, then mandatory

Maximum Cardinality - Maximum instances of entity B associated with each instance of A

The maximum number

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Note: a relationship can have attributes of its own

Basic relationship with only maximum cardinalities showing Figure 3-16a

Mandatory minimum cardinalities Figure 3-17a

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Figure 3-17c Optional cardinalities with unary degree, one-to-one relationship

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Figure 3-11a A binary relationship with an attribute

Here, the date completed attribute pertains specifically to the employees completion of a courseit is an attribute of the relationship

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Figure 3-12c -- A ternary relationship with attributes

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Figure 3-13a A unary relationship with an attribute. This has a many-to-many relationship

Representing a bill-of -materials structure

Entities can be related to one another in more than one way

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Here,max cardinality constraint is 4

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Multivalued attributes can be represented as relationships

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Strong vs. Weak Entities, and Identifying Relationships

Strong entities
  

exist independently of other types of entities has its own unique identifier represented with single-line rectangle singledependent on a strong entity cannot exist on its own does not have a unique identifier represented with double-line rectangle doublelinks strong entities to weak entities represented with double line diamond
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Weak entity
  

Identifying relationship
 

Strong entity

Identifying relationship

Weak entity
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Associative Entities


It s an

entity

it has attributes it links entities together

 

AND it s a

relationship

When should a relationship with attributes instead be an associative entity?

All relationships for the associative entity should be many The associative entity could have meaning independent of the other entities The associative entity preferably has a unique identifier, and should also have other attributes The associative entity may participate in other relationships other than the entities of the associated relationship Ternary relationships should be converted to associative entities

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Figure 3-11b An associative entity (CERTIFICATE)

Associative entity involves a rectangle with a diamond inside. Note that the many-to-many cardinality symbols face toward the associative entity and not toward the other entities

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Figure 3-13c An associative entity bill of materials structure

This could just be a relationship with attributesits a judgment call

Figure 3-18 Ternary relationship as an associative entity

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Figure 3-22a E-R diagram for Pine Valley Furniture

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Microsoft Visio Notation for Pine Valley Furniture

Different modeling software tools may have different notation for the same constructs

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