Conceptual
Modeling begins long before databases—or even data—enter the picture; it starts with the business itself. A conceptual diagram should be as valid for describing the organization’s operating model as it would be for laying the foundations of its database landscape.
What it is
Conceptual modeling is a process of identifying and visually mapping the moving pieces, or entities, of a business operation. Before going further, let’s establish what an entity is.
Entity: A person, object, place, event, or concept relevant to the business for which an organization wants to maintain information. Examples of entities common to many companies include employee, customer, sale, and item. Entities are typically referenced in the singular and represent the class or type of an object (more on this and the singular versus plural naming debate in Chapter 10, Database Naming and Structure). Entity instances are occurrences of such a class or type:
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