Entity Relationship Approach to Database Design

Overview

The entity-relationship approach is now recognized as one of the most important tools in the database design tool kit. It is incorporated in various forms, into all major CASE tools. Properly understood and used, the ER approach can greatly reduce the time needed during the analysis phase of the development cycle and at the same time greatly increase both the accuracy and completeness of that analysis. With only a few exceptions all popular development methodologies use the ER approach to model data.