Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Structuring System Data Requirements
Structuring System Data Requirements
Data Requirements
DFD
Chapter 9
Example
At the primitive
DFD level,
Briefly,
- Entity types
- Attributes
- Relationship
Data Store
-> Entity Type
Data elements
associated with
data flows
-> Attributes
Data dictionary
Attribute name
Permission
Data type
Source
Used by
Definition of terms
Domain
Chapter 9
11
Two perspectives
Top-down
Bottom-up
Attributes
Entity Types
Relationship
Noun
Unique within the same entity type
Follow a standard format
Faculty_Residence_City_Name and
Student_Residence_City_Name
Separate documentation
NULL?
Constant?
Identifier Attributes
Candidate key
Attribute (or combination of attributes) that
uniquely identifies each instance of an entity type
Example : Employee_ID for EMPLOYEE
Identifier
Identifier Attributes
Single attribute
Employee_ID
Multiple attributes
Home_Team, Visiting_Team
Employee_Name, Employee_Address
Identifier Attributes
(cont.)
1. Choose a candidate key that will not change its
value.
Multivalued Attributes
Chapter 9
23
Entity Types
Example
Not MY_CAR
Not MMU
Not PRESIDENT
Not MJ_CONCERT_2009
Not BUDGET_2009
Entity Guidelines
Singular noun
PURCHASE_ORDER or CUSTOMER_ORDER
Not just ORDER
Concise
Relationships
Chapter 9
31
Degree of Relationship
Unary Relationships
Binary Relationships
Ternary Relationship
Cardinality
Minimum Cardinality
The minimum number of instances of entity B that may be
associated with each instance of entity A
Maximum Cardinality
The maximum number of instances of entity B that may be
associated with each instance of entity A
Cardinality Constraints
Associative Entities
Example
Business Rules
Domains
Several advantages
1. Verify that the values for an attribute are valid
2. Ensure that various data manipulation
operations are logical
3. Help conserve effort in describing attribute
characteristics
Triggering Operations
Benefits
Reduced implementation time and cost
High-quality modelling