Identifying Entities and Relationships › Identifying Data Entities

Identifying Data Entities

Identifying entities in the list of functions

Each data entity should appear as a noun in the list of sentences that define business functions, as illustrated below. Many nouns appear in the sentences that are not entities. Only nouns that describe data that is meaningful to the organization itself should be identified as entities.

Because each organization has unique data requirements, there is no single correct set of entities that can be derived from a list of functions. Given the same business functions, two organizations might select different key nouns, thereby creating unique lists of data entities.

   1.  Hire employees:
 
       a) Add an employee

       b) Assign an employee's position

       c) Assign an employee to an office

       d) Assign supervisory authority for an employee

       e) Assign supervisor for an employee

       f) Assign an employee to a department

   2.  Terminate employees:
 
       a) Delete an employee

       b) Delete an employee's position

       c) Remove an employee from an office

       d) Remove supervisory authority for an employee

       e) Remove an employee from a department

   3.  Maintain employee information:
 
       a) Assign or change an employee's position

       b) Assign an employee to or remove an employee from an office

       c) Assign an employee to or remove an employee from a department

       d) Assign or remove supervisory authority for an employee

       e) Assign or change supervisor for an employee

       f) List employees for a department


   4.  Maintain office and department information:
 
       a) Assign or delete an office

       b) Change an office address

       c) Add or delete a department

       d) Change a department head

   5.  Maintain information about salaries and jobs:
 
       a) Create a job

       b) Provide a job description

       c) Eliminate a job

       d) Establish job salaries.
 
       e) Change job description or salary.

   6.  Maintain skills inventory:
 
       a) Add a skill

       b) Add a skill for an employee

       c) Identify skills for an employee

       d) Identify skill level for an employee skill

       e) Identify all employees with a particular skill

       f) Identify all employees with a particular skill level

       g) Upgrade an employee skill level

   7.  Maintain personnel information about projects:
 
       a) Add a new project or delete a completed one

       b) Assign and remove employees from a project

       c) Assign or remove a project leader

       d) List names and phone numbers of all workers on a project

   8.  Maintain information about employee insurance:
 
       a) Add or remove a health insurance plan for an employee

       b) Identify the health insurance coverage for an employee

       c) Change coverage for an employee on a plan

       d) Add or change plan and coverage for an employee

       e) Add or delete a claim

       f) Show life and health insurance details for an employee

       g) Submit duplicate claim forms for an employee accident

Steps to identify entities

To identify the data entities for your organization:

1. Determine which nouns in the list of business functions are the key nouns.
2. List these key nouns on a separate piece of paper.
3. Draw a rectangular box around each noun.

Data entities for the Commonweather Corporation

Below is a list of data entities that was derived from the list of functions for the Commonweather Corporation.