Diagram for Holiday Travel Vehicles, Term Paper Example

In this scenario, an entity-relationship diagram can be used to describe how Holiday Travel Vehicles functions as a consequence of its business practices. In this model, it is important to understand the relationship between the employees and the customers, because these interactions are what ultimately generates profit for the company. Therefore, the six entities that will be included on the ERD are activities that are conducted by the employee, the customer, and the two in collaboration. These will include the customer, who took initiative, showing the dealer employee the car of their choice, the two negotiating the price of the car, selecting options to customize the car, negotiating trade-in allowance, completing the invoice, and completing the car payment or financing options.

As explained in the scenario prompt, the precise order of these interactions between the dealership employee and the client will be dependent upon whether the two agree on the price of the car and whether there is a trade-in vehicle. If the price of the car is not agreed upon, the cycle presented will repeat until the client and the dealership employee are able to agree on a price. Once this occurs, they will be able to continue their discussion and allow the client to select car options. However, an important situation that is impossible to denote based on the information provided in the scenario is what happens when the client and the dealership employee are unable to agree on a price for the car, which then encourages the client to purchase his or her car elsewhere. Therefore, this is not necessarily an infinite loop until the output is decided, as it is depicted below.

Although the entities included on the ERD below each have a clear meaning, it is important to remember that they represent larger concepts based on the scenario described. For example, while an invoice typically contains the numeric value that the client owes to the dealership for the purchase of the car, in this situation, it “summarizes the purchase, including full customer information, information on the trade-in vehicle (if any), the trade-in allowance, and information on the purchased vehicle” in addition to the “final negotiated price, plus any applicable taxes and license fees”. Therefore, each of these entities represent related concepts. However, they are presented more concisely in the ERD.