Step by Step ERD Example

The scenario
A University contains many Faculties. The Faculties in turn are divided into several Schools. Each School
offers numerous programs and each program contains many courses. Lecturers can teach many different
courses and even the same course numerous times. Courses can also be taught by many lecturers. A
student is enrolled in only one program but a program can contain many students. Students can be
enrolled in many courses at the same time and the courses have many students enrolled.
Step 1 - Identify Entities
The entities in this scenario are
 University
 Faculty
 School
 Program
 Course
 Lecturer
 Student
Step 2 - Find relationships
  University Faculty School Program Course Lecturer Student
University   contains          
divided
Faculty            
into
School       offers   employs  
Program         contains    
taken
Course            
by
Lecturer         taught    
Student       enrolled enrolled    

Step 3 - Draw rough ERD

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Step 4 - Fill in cardinality
 The university contains many faculties
 Each faculty is divided into several schools
 Each school offers numerous programs
 Each program contains many courses
 Each school employs many lecturers
 Lecturers can teach many courses
 Lecturers can teach the same course many times
 Courses can be taught by more than one lecturer
 A student is enrolled in only one program
 Students can be enrolled in many courses at the same time
 Courses have many students enrolled

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Step 5 - Define primary keys
The primary keys could be
University – University name
Faculty – Faculty name
School – School name
Program – Program code
Course – Course number
Lecturer – Employee number
Student – Student number

Step 6 - Draw key-based ERD

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In this step any many-to-many relationships have to be eliminated. In the ERD so far
there are two relationships that fall into this category. They are Lecturer – Course and
Course – Student. As you can see Associative Entities have been included to rectify the
situation.

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Step 7 - Identify attributes
In the scenario there are no attributes indicated, so it is up to the analyst to ascertain
what data needs to be kept about each particular entity.
For example other attributes for Lecturer could be
 Employee Name
 Employee Address
 Speciality
Step 8 - Map attributes
An example of mapping the attributes would be
Attribute Entity Attribute Entity
Employee_name Lecturer Faculty_name Faculty
Employee_number Lecturer Student_number Student
Course_number Course Student_name Student
Step 9 - Draw fully attributes ERD

This is an example of what all the entities should look like when they have been fully
attributed.

Structuring system requirements: Conceptual data

modelling - ERDs
Contents
 Focus
 Objectives
 Set Readings
 Conceptual data modelling
o Process
o Deliverables and outcomes
 Gathering information
 Introduction to Entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs)

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 o Entities
o Attributes
o Candidate keys and identifiers
o Multivalued attributes
o Relationships
 Conceptual data modelling and the ER model
o Degree of a relationship
o Cardinalities in relationships
o Associative entities
 Step-by-step construction of ERDs
 Summary
Focus
The focus of this module continues with structuring system requirements. We now
move on to conceptual data modelling. In order to complete this Entity Relationship
Diagrams (ERDs) will be discussed.
Objectives
 Define the key data modelling terms
o Conceptual data model
o Entity Relationship Diagram
o Entity type.
o Entity instance
o Attribute
o Candidate key
o Multivalued attribute
o Relationship
o Degree
o Cardinality
o Associative entity
 Ask appropriate questions to determine data requirements for an information
system.
 Draw an ERD.
 Explain the role of the conceptual data model.
 Distinguish between and give examples of unary, binary and ternary
relationships.
 Distinguish between relationships and associative entities and use an associative
entity in an ERD.
 Relate data modelling to process and logic modelling.
Conceptual data modelling
A conceptual data model is a detailed model that shows the overall structure of
organisational data while being independent of any database management system or
other implementation considerations. Its purpose is to show as many rules about the
meaning and interrelationships among data as possible.

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Process
The first step is to develop a data model for the current system.
Next, build a new data model that includes all the data requirements for the new
system.
In the design stage, the conceptual model is translated into a physical design.
Using the project repository, all data modelling and design steps can be traced.
Deliverables and outcomes
The primary deliverable for the conceptual data-modelling step is the Entity Relationship
Diagram (ERD).
There can be as many as four ERD’s produced and analysed during conceptual data
modelling. These are
1. An ERD that covers just the data needed in the project’s application
2. An ERD for the application system being replaced
3. An ERD for the whole database from which the new application’s data are
extracted
4. An ERD for the whole database from which data for the application system being
replaced is drawn
The other deliverable is a set of entries about data objects to be stored in the project
dictionary or repository. The repository is a mechanism to link data, process and logic
models of an information system.
Gathering information
In requirements determination investigations have to be undertaken and questions
asked that focus on the data rather than focus on the process and logic. There are two
perspectives that can be used
 Top-down approach – the data model is derived from an intimate understanding
of the nature of the business.
 Bottom-up approach – the information is gathered for data modelling by
reviewing specific business documents.
Introduction to Entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs)
Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) – is a detailed, logical and graphical representation of
the entities, associations and data elements for an organisation or business area.
The basic modelling notation contains three main constructs
 Data entities
 Relationships
 Attributes

The following symbols are used to construct ERD’s

 

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Entities
An entity is a person, place, object, event or concept in the user environment about which the
organisation wishes to maintain data.
An entity type is a collection of entities that share common properties or characteristics. For example for
the entity Person could have types – Employee or Student
An entity instance is a single occurrence of an entity type. For example in the entity type Employee it
would be the names of the employees.
Attributes
An attribute ia a named property or characteristic of an entity that is of interest to the organisation
An example of attribute for the entity STUDENT would be Student_ID, Student_Name
Candidate keys and identifiers
The candidate key is an attribute (or combination of attributes) that uniquely identifies each
instance of an entity type. The candidate key for STUDENT could be Student_ID
The identifier is a candidate key that has been selected as the unique, identifying characteristic
for an entity type.
The following rules need to be applied when selecting an identifier
 Choose a candidate key that will not change its value over time.
 Choose a candidate key that will always have a value and never be null
 Avoid using intelligent keys. These area ones that could contain an abbreviation
of a location
 Consider substituting single value surrogate keys for large composite keys
For each entity the name of the identifier is underlined on the ERD
Multivalued attributes
A multivalued attribute is an attribute that may take on more that one value for each
entity instance. An example would be if Dept_Name was an attribute of the entity
EMPLOYEE and the EMPLOYEE worked for more that one department.
It can be represented on the ERD in two ways
 A double-lined ellipse
 A weak entity
A repeating group is a set of two or more multivalued attributes that are logically
related
Relationships

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A relationship in an ERD is an association between the instances of one or more entity
types that is of interest to the organisation.
This usually means that an event has occurred or that some natural linkage exists
between the entity instances.
Relationships are always labelled with verb phrases.

Conceptual data modelling and the ER model

The goal of conceptual data modelling is to capture as much of the meaning of data as
possible. The more details that can be modelled the better the system is that we can
design and build.

Degree of a relationship
Degree – the number of entity types that participate in a relationship
A unary or recursive relationship is a relationship between the instances of one entity
type
A binary relationship is a relationship between instances of two entity types
A ternary relationship is a simultaneous relationship among instances of three entity
types

Cardinalities in relationships
Cardinality is the number of instances of one entity that can (or must) be associated
with each instance of another entity

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Minimum cardinality is the minimum number of instances of one entity that may be
associated with each instance of another entity
Maximum cardinality is the maximum number of instances of one entity that may be
associated with each instance of another entity

(n is a number for an upper limit, if one exists)

Associative entities
Associative entity – an entity type that associates the instances of one or more entity
types and contains attributes that are peculiar to the relationship between those entity
instances
It is a relationship that can be modelled as an entity type.
Step-by-step construction of ERDs
There are several ways of constructing ERDs. This is just one.
Identify the roles, events, locations, tangible things or concepts about which the
1. Identify Entities
end-users want to store data
Find the natuiral associations between paris of entities using a relationship
2. Find relationships
matrix
3. Draw rough ERD Construct an ERD using the entities and relationships already identified
Determine the number of occurences on one entity for a single occurence of
4. Fill in cardinality
the related entity
Indentify the data attribute(s) that uniquely identify one and olny one
5. Define primary keys
occurence of each entity
Eliminate many-to-many relationships and include primary and foreign keys in
6. Draw key-based ERD
each entity
Name the information details (fields) which are essential to the system under
7. Identify attributes
development

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8. Map attributes For each attribute, match it with exactly one entity that it describes
9. Draw fully attributed Adjust the ERD from step 6 to account for entities or relationships discovered in
ERD step 8
10. Check results Does the final ERD accurately depict the system data?

Summary
Before you go on to the review questions, spend a few moments thinking about each of
the following key terms. If you are not really sure about the meanings revisit the various
areas in the textbook to refresh your memory
 Associative entity  Degree  Multivalued attribute
 Attribute  Entity  Relationship
 Binary relationship  Entity instance (instance)  Repeating group
 Entity Relationship
 Candidaty key  Ternary relationship
Diagram (ERD)
 Unary relationship
 Cardinality  Entity type
(recursive relationship)
 Conceptual data model  Identifier  

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