Database Model Design

Running head: DATABASE MODEL DESIGN
Database Model Design
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note:

DATABASE MODEL DESIGN1
Conceptual Model:
Figure 1: Conceptual Database Model
(Source: Created by Author)
The conceptual database modelling refers to the understanding of purpose of data from
user viewpoint. The conceptual data model provides the definition of the system it contains. The
data architects and business stakeholders are the target audience of this model. The purpose of
creating the logical model is defining the business rules and concepts. There are three concepts in
conceptual database modelling such as model, schema and instance. The model is referred to as

DATABASE MODEL DESIGN2
the collection of concepts for describing the database structure and operations. The schema is a
visualization that is utilized for offering the modelling construct. The instance is description of
reality for a specific given time. There are two types of data modelling tools such as entity-
relationship diagram or Object-oriented diagram. Identifying the entity, relationships and
attributes are the primary objective of the conceptual model. The conceptual model does not
include details of the final structure of the actual database.
There are four concepts in entity relational model such as entity, relationship, attribute
and constraints. The entity can be referred to as the place, person, event, concept or an object.
Entities can be of two types such as string and weak entity. The weak entity is referred to that
entity which does not have its own attribute as a primary key. The student, course, staff,
professor or similar objects that can have set of attributes can be considered as entity. The sole
purpose of the relationship is connecting one attribute with another. Relationships can be of
many types such as many-to-many, one-to-one, one-to-many and money-to-one. The
relationships has two factors such as multiplicity and cardinality. Multiplicity, cardinality and
relationship type together defines the relation between the entities. The attributes are part of
entity that characterize the entity. The constraints are considered as the protocols or policies
which are used for defining the how the processes in the database will be executed. An example
of constraint is that a user cannot be less than 18 years old.
The conceptual model offers business-concept coverage of organization wide scope. The
business audiences are the main destination of these kind of conceptual models. This is because
the business persons do not have any knowledge of database technologies and conceptual model
helps them understand only the concept behind the database. The conceptual model does not
require any hardware specifications such as location, data storage capacity.