Advantages and Disadvantages of ER Model

Advantages and Disadvantages of ER Model The advantages and disadvantages of ER model are –

Advantages of ER Model

1. Conceptually it is very simple – Making the ER Diagram is a very easy process. You just know about the notations about various types of entities, their attributes and the relationships between these entities.
2. Better visual representation – The E-R model gives graphical and diagrammatical representation of various entities, their attributes and relationships between entities. So, It helps in the clear understanding of the data structure and in minimizing redundancy and other problems.
3. Effective Communication Tool – It is an effective communication tool among users, domain experts ans database designers.
4. It is highly integrated with relational model, so converting ER Diagrams to tables is very simple.
5. Easy conversion to any Data Model – Conversion of ER Diagram to any other data model like network model, hierarchical model and the relational model is very easy.

Disadvantages of ER Model

1. Limited Constraints and Specifications – Example : minimum Cardinality
2. Loss of Information Content –  Example – FAN Trap, CHASM Trap (may be)
3. Limited Relationship Representation –  (only Binary Relationship)
4. No industry standard for notation – i.e. there is no industry standard notation for developing an E-R diagram.
5. Popular for high-level design – The E-R data model is especially popular for high level design.
6. No representation of data manipulation