Discussion

Data bases, and the data base management systems that lord over them, are the core information systems technology. They are used — and will be used — to store corporate data, web pages, on-line movies, work flow information, document databases — absolutely everything that is of interest to business. After taking this class you will clearly understand and be able to explain why this is a good thing. This understanding will allow you to see opportunities for exploiting this technology in innovative ways.

Both of the above will be useful for a student (and eventual businessperson) whether they be interested in accounting, marketing, human resources, or finance. Business process reengineering (BPR) (by whatever name) virtually demands that data bases take a more central role in a corporation's life. By its very definition BPR demands that people from throughout an organization apply information technology solutions to broad problems. Data bases are one of the more frequently applied solutions. Thus, I propose that a great percentage of students interested in business should be knowledgeable about data bases.

In these pages I introduce the concepts of entity-relationship (ER) modeling. At the end of these pages you should be able to explain and apply these concepts.

  1. A simple modeling exercise
  2. More details
  3. Advanced concepts
  4. Exercises
er
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