Conceptual Design

The conceptual design phase focuses on creating a high-level model of the data requirements without concern for implementation details.

Key activities in conceptual design:

• Identifying entities, attributes, and relationships in the problem domain
• Creating entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs)
• Documenting business rules and constraints
• Validating the model with stakeholders

Logical Design

The logical design phase transforms the conceptual model into a database-specific structure such as a relational model.

Key activities in logical design:

• Mapping entities to tables
• Defining primary and foreign keys
• Applying normalization techniques
• Creating relationship structures
• Finalizing attribute data types

Example: Transforming an entity to a table

Entity: STUDENT
Attributes: student_id, first_name, last_name, date_of_birth, email

Table: STUDENT
Columns: student_id (PK), first_name, last_name, date_of_birth, email

Physical Design

The physical design phase adapts the logical model to specific database management system requirements and optimizes for performance.

Key activities in physical design:

• Selecting appropriate data types
• Implementing indexes and constraints
• Planning for database security
• Optimizing for performance
• Considering storage requirements