{"id":7959,"date":"2018-06-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/"},"modified":"2024-10-01T11:07:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T15:07:05","slug":"entity-relationship-diagram","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/","title":{"rendered":"Entity Relationship Diagram"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"anchorlinks\">\r\n<li><a href=\"#what\">What is an Entity Relationship Diagram?<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"#visualizing\">Visualizing your business<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"#use\">Why would you use an ERD?<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what\">What is an Entity Relationship Diagram?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>An entity relationship diagram describes how entities relate to each other. In simple terms, it\u2019s a picture or a framework of your business or a certain business process. (Learn more about business process modeling).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Entities are the things we need to store data about. It\u2019s an aspect of your business that needs to store data, such as a department \u2013 or sales, revenues, maybe clients, for example.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>An entity relationship diagram gives a snapshot of how these entities relate to each other. You could call it the blueprint that underpins your business architecture, offering a visual representation of the relationships between different sets of data (entities).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>In the diagram, entities are represented by boxes with lines linking them to various attributes, which describe the entity\u2019s qualities or characteristics.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Everything links up according to the relationships between the entities \u2013 or how they interact with each other. Relationships are sometimes referred to as cardinalities, which describes the interactions numerically \u2013 but let\u2019s simply call them relationships.<\/p>\r\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Entity-Relationship Diagrams\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c0_9Y8QAstg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:embed -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading -->\r\n<h2 id=\"visualizing\">Visualizing your business<\/h2>\r\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Each branch of the business, or entity, may be related to another entity or to many entities, and vice versa.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>There are three main types of relationships: one-to-one (1:1), one-to-many and many-to-many.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>You could try imagining a one-to-one relationship as a manager\u2019s relationship with their department.<\/li>\r\n<li>A one-to-many relationship could be the department\u2019s relationship to its (many) employees.<\/li>\r\n<li>Think of a many-to-many relationship in this way: the relationships between many employees and the projects they\u2019re involved with. In business analytics, a query against a many-to-many relationship can produce problematic results.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading -->\r\n<h2 id=\"use\">Why would you use an ERD?<\/h2>\r\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>When it comes to <a href=\"\/ai-analytics-platform\/embeddable-analytics\/\">business analysis<\/a>, ERD is a critical part of designing your software systems or the way you implement your <a href=\"\/solutions\/\">business intelligence solutions<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Businesses with complex databases \u2013 in other words, lots of data \u2013 might use ERD.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>It\u2019s mainly used by analysts when designing a database. The database helps them communicate the landscape of the business to different teams, and this overview will help you build the applications needed to support the business.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Using a visual representation of your business will help you understand its structure and this information is useful for business management and formulating strategies \u2013 and ultimately making efficiencies.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Understanding the relationships between entities can also help you root out any ambiguities or unnecessary processes within your organization. If you can do all that, you\u2019re well on the way to streamlining your business.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:sisense\/link-button --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:html --><!-- \/wp:html -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:sisense\/link-button {\"text\":\"Back to Glossary\"} -->\r\n<p><a class=\"action-btn \" href=\"\/resources\/glossary\/\">Back to Glossary<\/a><\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:sisense\/link-button -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An entities relationship diagram describes how data elements relate to each other, within your business or a certain business process. Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8069,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"application":[46,26],"department":[6],"glossary-category":[28],"industry":[177,25,423,11,471,424,420,427,428,38,429,430,422],"role":[18,17],"topic":[24,195,66],"class_list":["post-7959","glossary","type-glossary","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","application-bi-analytics-teams","application-product-teams","department-it","glossary-category-data-science","industry-digital-marketing","industry-enterprise","industry-government","industry-healthcare","industry-industrial-manufacturing","industry-insurance","industry-logistics-transportation","industry-operations-logistics","industry-pharma-life-sciences","industry-retail","industry-software-saas","industry-supply-chain","industry-travel-hospitality","role-data-engineer","role-developer","topic-bi-best-practices","topic-data-sources","topic-visualizations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.5 (Yoast SEO v23.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is an Entity Relationship Diagram? | Glossary | Sisense<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An entities relationship diagram describes how data elements relate to each other, within your business or a certain business process.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Entity Relationship Diagram\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An entities relationship diagram describes how data elements relate to each other, within your business or a certain business process. Read more:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sisense\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-01T15:07:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/header-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"154\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"32\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/header-logo.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sisense\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/\",\"name\":\"What is an Entity Relationship Diagram? | Glossary | Sisense\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Network-Diagram.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-12T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-01T15:07:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"An entities relationship diagram describes how data elements relate to each other, within your business or a certain business process.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Network-Diagram.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Network-Diagram.png\",\"width\":1021,\"height\":534,\"caption\":\"Network Diagram\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Entity Relationship Diagram\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sisense\",\"description\":\"Build your business with anywhere-analytics\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sisense\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sisense-yoast-og.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sisense-yoast-og.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Sisense\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/sisense\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/sisense\",\"https:\/\/github.com\/sisense\/\"],\"description\":\"Sisense accelerates product innovation through AI\/ML capabilities. Our global analytics platform lets customers drive better, faster decisions for their business and end users.\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What is an Entity Relationship Diagram? | Glossary | Sisense","description":"An entities relationship diagram describes how data elements relate to each other, within your business or a certain business process.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Entity Relationship Diagram","og_description":"An entities relationship diagram describes how data elements relate to each other, within your business or a certain business process. Read more:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/","og_site_name":"Sisense","article_modified_time":"2024-10-01T15:07:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":154,"height":32,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/header-logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/header-logo.png","twitter_site":"@sisense","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/","name":"What is an Entity Relationship Diagram? | Glossary | Sisense","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Network-Diagram.png","datePublished":"2018-06-12T04:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-01T15:07:05+00:00","description":"An entities relationship diagram describes how data elements relate to each other, within your business or a certain business process.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Network-Diagram.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Network-Diagram.png","width":1021,"height":534,"caption":"Network Diagram"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/glossary\/entity-relationship-diagram\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Entity Relationship Diagram"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/","name":"Sisense","description":"Build your business with anywhere-analytics","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#organization","name":"Sisense","url":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sisense-yoast-og.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.sisense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sisense-yoast-og.jpg","width":1200,"height":600,"caption":"Sisense"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/sisense","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/sisense","https:\/\/github.com\/sisense\/"],"description":"Sisense accelerates product innovation through AI\/ML capabilities. Our global analytics platform lets customers drive better, faster decisions for their business and end users."}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/7959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/glossary"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/7959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"application","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/application?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"glossary-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-category?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"role","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/role?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sisense.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=7959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}