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Chapter 3: Concept of method of analysis and design of a System

Information (Part2)

The MERISE method

Merise is an IS design method based on the systemic approach. It defines three levels of
design aimed at covering the static and dynamic aspects of an IS as shown in the
following table:

Level Static Aspect Dynamic Appearance

Conceptual Conceptual data model (MCD) Conceptual Model of Treatment

(MCTs)

Logical or Logical Data Model (LDM) Organizational Processing Model

of organization Organizational Data Model (MLT)
(MOD) Organizational model of
treatments (WORD)

Operational Physical Data Model Processing Operating Model

(MPD) (MOpT)

In theory, we can make an estimate of the time spent by stage:

Analysis of the existing : 30 %
MCD + MCT + MOT : 40% (in parallel)
LDM : 15%
MPD and MopT : 15%.

The Conceptual Data Model (CDM)

The Conceptual Data Model (CDM), allows the static description of the information system using
the concepts of entity and association.

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Conceptual Model of Treatment (CTM)

The MCT makes it possible to describe the different business processes associated with an

information system, as well as the actors involved in these processes and the flows of information

between them. It is used to identify processing needs and to describe how those needs can be met by

the information system.

Logical Data Model (LDM)

The Logical Data Model (PDM) allows a representation of the physical structure of a
database.

Organizational processing model (MOT)

The Organizational Model of Processing (MOT) offers a global vision of the information
system. It is at this stage of processing analysis that the real constraints of the organization
are highlighted.

General design process with the MERISE method

The static and dynamic aspects can be treated separately at the conceptual and organizational
levels (two different teams can each deal with one aspect). However, before moving on to the
Operational level, a validation step of the different models built is necessary in order to be sure
that there have been no errors or omissions. This is done by comparing the MOT and MCD by the
"external models" or "Views". The design process is described by the following figure (Models of
the MERISE method):

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
 The Conceptual Data Model (CDM)

The objective of the MCD is to represent all the memorizable data of the studied domain. The
CDM is based on the “Entity/Association” model where entities represent objects and associations
represent relationships between objects. Its role is to:
Define the concepts or objects that are at the "centres of interest", the associations between these objects and

the constraints.

As example of objects we have: customers, orders and products. As example of

association between objects we have: “the order is composed of articles”.
Identify objects and associations, model them and describe them by assigning them
characteristics.

MCD concepts

The formalism of the CDM is based on 4 types of basic concepts which are:

The property;The typical individual;The relationship-Type;Constraints.

1)Property :
Definition :A piece of information is elementary data that can be attached to an entity or an
association; in this case, information is namedattributeOrproperty.
- A property is the descriptive element of the individual-type or of the relationship-type. To take on
its meaning, a property must be assigned to an individual-type or to a relation-type.
- A property is the modeling of manipulated or exchanged information.
- A property can take values.
- Each entity must be equipped with at least oneidentifier, which is a particular property such that each

value of this identifier corresponds to one and only one occurrence of the entity considered. When

generating the tables of a database, the identifier takes on the role of primary key. Placed first within

the entity, the property playing the role of identifier must be underlined.

Example :

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 Characteristics of a property:

- A property isuniquein a CDM is can only be attached to a single concept.

- A property can be decomposed, ie its value is obtained from the values of other
information through a construction rule.
Example:Social security number, car registration.

If one wishes to break down the meaning of all or part of a compound property in order to
reference it by parts, it must be made explicit by as many elementary properties.

2)INDIVIDUAL-TYPE:

Definition:A TYPE-INDIVIDUAL is the reflection of an entity or a concept manipulated by the organism

or whose existence the organism agrees to recognize. The INDIVIDUALTYPE expresses a type, a class,

a set of objects having the same characteristics.

Example:Customer, Invoice, Contract, Employee, Car, Child. The typical individual is described by a list of

properties. For example, the individual-type “Customer” is described by the properties “Customer

reference, Company name, Address, Bank account number”.

Notion of occurrence:An element of the set is called an occurrence of the individual-type.

Example :{2699, “SONATRACH”, “Hydra 16035 Algiers”, “4687-5589 K66”} is an occurrence of the
individual-type “Client”.

Formalism:We use a graphic formalism to represent an individual-Type.

Rules for modeling a typical individual:

a)- Criteria for choosing typical individuals:

They make it possible to describe the trade and the activity of the company. The fundamental criterion for

selecting them is the organism's interest in them.

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
 Other criteria should be considered, such as: stability over time and the existence of

the typical individual independently of its use (it is said to have an existence of its own).

From concrete or abstract objects of the real world, one can at will, compose a
infinity of classes.

A typical individual must keep his identity through all the transformations or treatments he may

undergo.

b) Identifier of a typical individual:

The occurrences of a typical individual must be distinguishable. To do this, each typical

individual must have an identifier.

An identifier is a descriptive property of the individual-type such as: 'An occurrence of the individual-

type concerned corresponds to one value and only one of this property'.

Example :Order number 125. Correspondence must target the present but also the future. How
to choose the identifier?
Often, the designer creates an "artificial" property which acts as an identifier for a given
individual type in order to avoid generating duplicates. This property can be:
- An order number: for example the order number
- A composite property: for example the registration of a vehicle
- A relative identifier: for example the chapter number and the article number in the chapter.

c) Verification rule:
At any occurrence of the individual-type, there can only be, at a given moment, at most one and only

one value of this property. If this rule is not verified for a property of an individual-type then it cannot

belong to the individual-type.

Example :A book can be written by several authors.

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 d) Standardization rules:
A-Any non-identifying property of a type-individual must depend on the identifier and only on the

identifier.

Example:Because we have the following functional dependencies:

Matriculation → Name, Service code, Service name and Service code → Service name B-each

non-identifying property of a type-individual must depend on the totality of its identifier if it is

composed.

Example:Because we have: Article reference → Article designation

* It is desirable that the properties attached to an individual-type have a meaning for all
its occurrences.
Example:The “power” property will never have a meaning for each of the occurrences of the individual-

type, such as for example a rolling machine of the bicycle type.

When such a problem arises, we must question the model of the typical individual. The following
question then arises: "Haven't several classes been nested within a single typical individual?" ".
Two solutions are then possible:
1/ Modeling is tolerated despite its lack of relevance. 2/The
typical individual is broken down into several sets.

3)RELATIONSHIP:
Definition:In general an association connects two entities; however, it can link an entity with itself

(reflexive relationship) or link three or even n entities (ternary/n-ary relationship).

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- A RELATION-TYPE models a set of links or associations of the same nature between two or more
occurrences of individuals of different type or of the same type.
- It is the set of two or more typical individuals defining a real situation in which each plays a
particular role.
Example:A CHILD and a VACCINE are typical individuals whose existence is real.
- VACCINATION can be seen as an encounter between a CHILD and a VACCINE, it is a typical
relationship.
- VACCINATION exists only because the child and the vaccine exist.

We deduce from this that a typical relationship only exists through the typical individuals that compose it.

Occurrence of RELATION-TYPE:
It is an element of a set of links of the same nature. For example: The “BCG” vaccine applied to
the child “MOHAMED”.

Identifier of a RELATION-TYPE:
A relation-type does not have its own identifier. Its identifier is the juxtaposition of the identifiers of the typical

individuals that it links.

Example:

- The vaccination type relationship is identified by the couple (vaccine code, child's name).

- The pair (“BCG”, “Mohamed01”) identifies one and only one occurrence of the vaccination set.

Two occurrences of a given relation-type must be distinguishable.

Concept of collection:

The collection of a relation-type is the list of individual-types concerned by the relation.

Properties of a standard relationship:

A type-relation can be described by its own properties. This is information that can only take
on meaning with the presence of all the typical individuals that make up this typical
relationship.

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
Example:The vaccination date is a property of the vaccination-type relation.
When a type-relation has properties other than the identifier, it is said to carry
information.

Formalism:We use the following graphical formalism:

Example:

Rules for modeling a RELATION-TYPE:

The choice of the standard relation depends on the designer's interest in the links perceived
in the field studied. Each time you add a type-relation to the model, you give it additional
meaning and significance.
Example:Consider the following 2 models: Models A and B are not equivalent. Model B is
semantically richer than Model A. However, in a given context, one could

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satisfied with the reduced representation given by model A in the event that certain actions

do not enter the domain of interest.

Verification rule:
To a combination of occurrences of individual-types composing the collection of a relation-type, there can

be seen at most only one occurrence of this relation-type.

Example :

Normalization rules:

A– each of the properties of a relation-type cannot be verified on a subset of the individual-types

participating in the relation-type.

Example :We only know the date of authorization if we know the driver's license number of the

person and the registration number of the car → ownership well verified.

The date of the driving license is known when we know the license number of the person. This

property is therefore verified on the person subset belonging to the collection {person, car} of the

relation driving → the date of driving property should be removed from the relation-type driving and

added to the individual-type person.

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
 B- an occurrence of the type-relation can only exist linked to an occurrence of each of the
individual-types of its collection, no optional leg.
Example :In the diagram on the left, we want to model the fact that an order is placed either by a

customer or by a company. This CDM is not standardized because an occurrence of the PASSE type

relationship (left side) must necessarily relate to a customer, a company and an order.

Characteristics of a typical relationship:

1.COLLECTION:it is the list of individual-types who participate in this relation-type.

2.DIMENSION:it is the number of standard-individuals participating in the standard-relation. In other words, it is the

number of occurrences of individuals concerned by an occurrence of the relationship.

Example :

Series: BOOK. AUTHOR

Dimension = 2. The relation–type is called 'BINARY'

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
 Collection: NOBODY
Dimension = 2. The relation–type is 'BINARY'. It is also “Reflexive”.

Collection: PRODUCT, STORE, CUSTOMER Dimension

= 3. The type-relation is called 'TERNARY'.

CARDINALITIES:
They are defined for each INDIVIDUAL-RELATION couple. They translate the participation of the

occurrences of an individual-type to the occurrences of a relationship-type. This participation is expressed

by 2 variables:

1. Minimum cardinality:
Minimum number of occurrences of the relation that can exist for an occurrence of the considered

individual.

2. Maximum cardinality:
Maximum number of occurrences of the relation that can exist for an occurrence of the considered

individual.

There are 3 typical values that are generally used:0, 1, N(for many)
- 0 in minimum indicates that an occurrence of individual–type may not participate.

- 1 in minimum indicates that each occurrence of individual-type participates obligatorily

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
 - 1 in maximum indicates that each occurrence of the individual–type participates at most once.

- N in maximum indicates that at least one occurrence of the individual–type can participate

several times.

So the possible cardinalities are:

0, 1 none or only one 1, 1
one and only one 0, n none
or more 1, n at least one or
more

The reality expressed characterizes the present but must also take into account the future. The

cardinalities reflect management rules.

- A MAN is the son of at least and at most one WOMAN.

- A WOMAN may have no children or on the contrary have several (N children).

A given STORE always makes at least 1 delivery (this is a management rule), it can
make several (N).
- A PRODUCT may not be delivered or may be delivered several times.

- A CUSTOMER may not be affected by a delivery or may be delivered several times.

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
4)Integrity constraints:
The management rules express the INTEGRITY CONSTRAINTS of the model. There are different types
of constraints:

To)Syntactic integrity constraints:They relate to a property: shape; list of possible values,

ranges of admissible values.
Example: DATE → DD/MM/YY; CLIENT number → 1 letter (A or B) + 3 digits.
b)Semantic integrity constraints:
- They relate to various properties of the same relation-type or individual-type.

Example: ORDER-DATE < DELIVERY-DATE with order-date and delivery-date belonging to

the same ORDER-type individual.
- They relate to properties of distinct occurrences of individuals/relationships.

Example: an employee cannot have a higher salary than the director of the company. Or the sum of the CA

(turnover) of the products must be equal to that of the CA of the customers.

vs)Cardinalities:They reflect, for each individual-relation couple, the PARTICIPATION of the occurrences

of a typical individual in the occurrences of a typical relationship. The choice of cardinalities must be

made with great care. They must absolutely respect the management rules.

Role of cardinalities:
We will illustrate this role through various examples.
Example :
1. Consider the management rule: A teacher teaches 1 or more subjects.

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
2. Consider the following model:

The cardinalities proposed on the model above do not make it possible to manage multi-customer

orders and to take into account prospects (these are new customers who have not yet placed orders).

In order to solve the problem, here are the new cardinalities proposed.

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Logical Data Model (LDM)

The conceptual description made it possible to represent as faithfully as possible the realities of the

universe to be computerized. But this representation cannot be directly manipulated and accepted by

a computer system, because theMCDis a representation of data in a formalism understood by the

designers and not by the machine. It is therefore necessary to move from the conceptual level to a

second level closer to the capacities of the computer systems. This level, called the logical level,

consists of choosing one of the following three models:

- hierarchical model (80s),

- network model,

- or relational model
Each of these models is based on specific data organization techniques that software will
be able to manage, in this chapter the focus will be on the relational model.

The rules for moving from the MCD to the relational model

These rules are of an algorithmic type and can therefore be implemented by software engineering tools (

PowerDesignerFor example). The translation of the basic concepts of the conceptual model is governed by

the following three rules:

-Any entity becomes a relation.The entity identifier becomes the primary key of the relationship.

The transition from the conceptual model to the logical model at the level of the relationship classes (association) is done

according to the cardinalities of the entity classes participating in the relationship:

1. if one of the entity classes has a low cardinality: the table will have as attributes, the attributes of

the class having a low cardinality, then the relationship attribute(s) and finally the attributes of the

second class preceded by the class name.

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
 2. if the two entity classes have a strong cardinality: the table will have as attributes, the attributes

of the two relationship classes preceded by the names of the respective classes, then the

relationship attribute(s).

Any binary association of type (1-n) or (1-1)is characterized by the existence of a functional dependence

between the identifier of the entity connected by the segment carrying the cardinality 1,1 or 0,1 and

the other entity. In the diagram below we have the following functional dependency: P1-->P1' , A

such an association entails the integration of the identifier of the goal entity of the functional dependency in the

relation associated with the source entity of the functional dependency. The duplicated property becomes a

foreign key in the source relationship and is marked with a #.

A foreign key in a relationship is a property that is primary key in another relationship.

Noticed:in the relation named “Association”, P1 and P1' are suffixed with a # (they are foreign
keys) because they are primary keys respectively in the relations E1 and E2.
The example below illustrates the application of these three rules on the following classic order

management conceptual model:

Relational LDM Logical Data Model:

Customer (CustomerNo, Last name, First name) Order (

OrderNo, OrderDate, CustomerNo#)

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 Product (RefPdt, Designation, Price)

Line (OrderNo#, PdtRef#, Qty)

Special cases
1. Case of cardinality (x,1),(x,1):

Several ways of transformation exist, we retain the following: x can take 0.1 indifferently.

In the relational LDM the identifier ident1 becomes a foreign key in the table associated with the relation (table)

associated with object 2.

It will be the same for the identifier ident2 which will be a foreign key in the relation (table) associated with

object1. Below is the equivalent MLD of the previous MCD:

Object1 (ident1,p11,p1,ident2*)

Object2 (ident2,p21,p22,…,ident1*)

2. Case of the reflexive relationship

We apply the general rules with the only difference that the relation is twice linked to the same object.

0.n
mother

SCOMPANY DHOLD
Company Holds
NOTOSCOMPANY NOTOSCOMPANY
CompanyNo
Name Percentage_of_capital NOTOM NOTOSCOMPANY_MOTHER

Capital VSAPITAL POURCENTAGE_OF_CAPITAL

0.n
sector

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
Example 1:
Since this is a (0,n)-(0,n) relationship, an additional table is created. This table contains as
composite primary key, the key of the "two" related objects. As the same object is linked twice to
the relation, the same name cannot be used twice for the key. In this case it is necessary to use
0.1
husband

PPERSON
Person To be married
NOTOMATRICLE
NoMatricule to be married NOTOMATRICLE_EWIFE
Name NOTOM

First name PRENAME

0.1
marry

roles in the MCD, and to include the role in the name of one of the migrated keys in the MLD.

Example 2:

Since this is a (0,1)-(0,1) relationship, we generally have a choice as to which object will contain
the foreign key. As this relation is linked twice to the same object, it is obvious that we must
duplicate the primary key, while ensuring that the same key name will not be used for the
primary key and the foreign key. In our example, all married men have the foreign key value of
their current wife as their foreign key. For unmarried men and women, the foreign key is
worthless. We could of course use the inverse modeling with a foreign key NO_MATRICULE_MARI,
which indicates for each married woman, the registration number of her husband.

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023
Exercise 1"School Management»

Transform the following MCD, which represents "running a school" into an MLD by following all the rules

of the MCD to MLD transition.

Pupil
NoMatricule
Class
frequent
Name 1.n 1.n Class_Name
School year Cycle
First name
Date of birth
1.n

Matter Teach
Code_Material 0.n
Wording
Year

0.n

Teacher
Code_Prof
Name
first name

Exercise 2:Give the MCD corresponding to the following MLDR, specify the cardinalities and the

identifiers of the entities:

CANDIDATE (candidate no., candidate surname, first name_candidate, date-of-birth)

TEST (test n°, test wording, writing date, test date, coefficient, Examination_Code#) EXAMINATION

(Examination code, examination wording)

TEACHER (n°teacher, surname-teacher, first name teacher)

SKIP (n°candidate#, n°test#, mark)
WRITE (n°teacher#, n°test#) ENTER (Exam code#,
n°candidate#, assessment)

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Chapter-03: Concept of method of analysis and design of an Information System 2022-2023