Developing a Conceptual Model › Identifying Entities and Attributes

Identifying Entities and Attributes

This is the first task you perform to begin building a conceptual data model. The purpose of this task is to produce a list of primary entities and the attributes for those entities.

This task consists of two steps:

• Step 1 shows you how to identify the primary entities for your model. This step also discusses generalization and differentiation of the entities.
• Step 2 shows you how to identify the attributes for your primary entities.

Although you can identify the entities, attributes, and their relationships at the same time, it may be easier to follow the steps and examples in the order they are listed.

To guide you through and give you a complete picture of the process, a sample of an Order Entry application and examples will be used for this task.

The same examples will be used again in the next task, Identifying Relations.