One of the earliest modeling techniques is entity-relationship, particularly for conceptual modeling. In 1976, Dr. Peter Chen created it. The style is no longer used in the majority of modern software models, but many businesses still have examples of it in their archives. Entities, relationships, and attributes make up the model. It uses ER diagrams to illustrate a conceptual database from the perspective of the end user.
By using the Entity Relation Diagram, the Entity-Relationship model effectively communicates the key entities in a given database and their relationships (ERD). Diamonds, ovals, and boxes are the most common symbols used by ERD.Ovals are used for representing attributes, while diamonds represent the relationship, and boxes represent the entities (Moody and Shanks 1994). Another reason why ER model is important is that it is simple to comprehend and create. Basically, it can be shown to customers during the design process for approval and contributions which provide room for changing and enhancing the design. The structure and symbols of the ERD make it easy for both the designer and the client to understand how the database design works.
ERD model has helped to create standard relational database environment. It acts like the blueprint for the database and makes it possible for the development of an authentic design that demonstrates the requirements of the project (Allen and Terry 2005). The model has enhanced database normalization which involves developing table designs by assigning particular attributes to each table in the database. The benefits of database normalization include the elimination of redundant data and enhancing data dependencies. These features ensure that the data is logically stored and the amount of space consumed by the database is reduced (Benefits of ERD).
References
Allen, S., & Terry, E. (2005). Understanding Data Modeling Methods: Graphical Syntax. Beginning Relational Data Modeling, 89-106.
Benefits of ERD. (2012, January 19). Retrieved September 23, 2017, from http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-erd/
Moody, D. L., & Shanks, G. G. (1994, December). What makes a good data model? Evaluating the quality of entity relationship models. In International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (pp. 94-111). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
