DB Construction and Design

Data Model: Focuses on what data should be stored in the database (design the relational tables).

Function Model: deals with how the data is processed (design the queries that will access and perform operations on the tables).

Requirements Analysis

Modeling is preceeded by planning and analysis.
The goals of the requirements analysis are:

to determine the data requirements of the database in terms of primitive objects
to classify and describe the information about these objects
to identify and classify the relationships among the objects
to determine the types of transactions that will be executed on the database and the interactions between the data and the transactions
to identify rules governing the integrity of the data

The requirements analysis is usually done at the same time as the data modeling.
As information is collected, data objects are identified and classified as either entities, attributes, or relationship; assigned names; and, defined using terms familiar to the end-users. The objects are then modeled and analysed using an ER diagram.

Steps In Building the Data Model

Identification of data objects and relationships
Drafting the initial ER diagram with entities and relationships
Refining the ER diagram
Add key attributes to the diagram
Adding non-key attributes
Diagramming Generalization Hierarchies
Validating the model through normalization
Adding business and integrity rules to the Model