Potential problems When identifying the entities, relationships, and attributes for the view, it is not uncommon for it to become apparent that one or more entities, relationships, or attributes have been omitted from the original selection. In this case, return to the previous steps, document the new entities, relationships, or attributes and re-examine any associated relationships. As there are generally many more attributes than entities and relationships, it may be useful to first produce a list of all attributes given in the users’ requirements specification. As an attribute is associated with a particular entity or relationship, remove the attribute from the list. In this way, we ensure that an attribute is associated with only one entity or relationship type and, when the list is empty, that all attributes are associated with some entity or relationship type. We must also be aware of cases where attributes appear to be associated with more than one entity or relationship type as this can indicate the following: