Hierarchical entity-relationship diagrams: the model, method of creation and experimental evaluation

A bottom-up method for creating a hierarchy of entity-relationship diagrams (HERD) from a given, "flat" ER diagram (ERD) is proposed. The hierarchy consists of simple and interrelated diagrams--ER structures--with external relationships to other structures. The HERD-tree diagram, which pro...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Requirements engineering 2004-11, Vol.9 (4), p.217-228
Main Authors: Shoval, Peretz, Danoch, Revital, Balabam, Mira
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A bottom-up method for creating a hierarchy of entity-relationship diagrams (HERD) from a given, "flat" ER diagram (ERD) is proposed. The hierarchy consists of simple and interrelated diagrams--ER structures--with external relationships to other structures. The HERD-tree diagram, which provides the most general view of the conceptual schema, is located at the top of the hierarchy. The method is based on packaging operations, which group entities and relationships according to certain criteria. These operations are applied in several steps on a given (presumably large-scale) ERD. We describe the new constructs, which are added to the ER model to enable the creation of HERD, and a bottom-up method for creating HERD. We also evaluate HERD from the point of view of user comprehension and preference, based on an experimental comparison to flat ERDs.
ISSN:0947-3602
1432-010X
DOI:10.1007/s00766-004-0201-9