Data Modeling, A Beginner's Guide

Introduction

The modeling of information systems took root in the late 1950s. By the early 1960s technicians took an interest in modeling data. However, a formal technique for data modeling didn’t appear until Peter Chen proposed the entity-relationship model in 1976. Data modeling emerged as a recognized specialty within the information technology (IT) industry in the 1980s. As you can see, data modeling is a relatively new discipline.

As is the case with many fast-growing technologies, industry standards and best practices have lagged behind implementations of information systems, and therefore many practitioners have learned lessons the hard way. It has become clear that one of the keys to successful IT projects is an effective database design. ...