Step 5: Verify the design

Before you implement your design, you need to make sure that it supports your needs. Examine the activities you identified at the start of the design process and make sure you can access all of the data that the activities require.

  • Can you find a path to get the information you need?
  • Does the design meet your needs?
  • Is all of the required data available?

If you can answer yes to all the questions above, you are ready to implement your design.

Final design

Applying steps 1 through 3 to the database for the little company produces the following entity-relationship diagram. This database is now in third normal form.

The relationships between the following entities: Skill, Expert In, Employee, Office, and Department.

The corresponding physical data model appears below.

The physical data model shows the following foreign key relationships. The foreign key relationship between the Skill table and Expert In table is ID Number = ID Number. The foreign key relationship between Expert In and Employee is Employee ID = Employee ID. The foreign key relationship between Employee and Office is ID Number = ID Number. The foreign key relationship between Employee and Department is Employee ID = Employee ID. The foreign relationship between Department and Department/Employee is Department ID = Department ID. The foreign key relationship between the Departments/Employees table and the Employee is Employee ID = Employee ID.