Re: "No one does ER Modelling any more" <-- Is this claim true?

nupul wrote:
> Hi,
>
> There was a discussion on OOAD/UML at my workplace and the this was
> the facilitator's comments. It was difficult to digest but this is
> what was said/done:
>
> We have a business application to develop. We read the problem
> statement and do the following:
>
> 1. First we model the "entity classes" which we would like to store in
> the DB (aka persistent classes).
> 2. In case of any M..N relationships between classes, we add an
> "association class" to the relationship (strikingly similar to that of
> a "relation table" in an ER diagram.)
> 3. Next we tell the "Tool" to "Transform to data model"
> 4. The tool is capable of generating the corresponding ER diagram and
> the required DDL statements for the corresponding database chosen.
> (The generated ER model has a 1:1 correspondence with the
> corresponding class diagram, showing the appropriate Primary/foreign
> keys...so integrity constraint is not a problem)
>
> When I questioned about this approach, he said that "ER modeling is
> not done any more. Data Modeling Experts have now migrated to the
> Systems analyst domain where all the modeling is done using 'entity
> classes'...and i won't let any one touch/modify them"
>
> I even googled around and found some references that say "ER modeling"
> is a "Structured" approach to application design - Incase of OOAD, use
> UML 'instead of' ER notation!!!
>
> This left me with a few questions...Isn't data design as important as
> application design? What about maintaining functional dependencies and
> Normalization? If i "don't touch" the entity classes how will i
> normalize, won't this be a rigid approach? (i mean the tables will
> surely split up in case of normalizing)
>
> I hope I'm clear as to what my confusion is? Please help!!! :)
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Nupul

I don't think you are confusing anything per se. The problem is ignorance passes for expertise among the OO crowd. Received on Fri Jun 01 2007 - 15:44:19 CEST