Re: Just one more anecdote

From: David Cressey <david.cressey_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2005 09:04:29 GMT
Message-ID: <xSkIe.2884$ns.1344@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>

"Gene Wirchenko" <genew_at_ucantrade.com.NOTHERE> wrote in message news:a9r1f1h7h47sk13foh61n6f4dbklhnmvfj_at_4ax.com...

> I like ERDs, too. It does not take much to read them. I like
> having notations that are fairly easy for non-IT people to follow.

Agreed.

I disagree with "Down's Law" ("Everybody understands tables just fine") just a little bit.

I think everybody THINKS they understand tables just fine, but they miss some of the finer points.

In particular, the fact that it takes a linkage table to specify a many-to-many relationship is outside of most people's active thought process. They'll recognize it if you force them to, but they won't do it on their own. They will accept a line with two crow's feet on the end far more readily than a linkage table.

And this means that an ERD works better than a table diagram for discussing the requirements with non IT people.

IMO, of course, and I surmise IYO, too. Received on Thu Aug 04 2005 - 04:04:29 CDT