to particular job roles are only partially filled. For example, the attributes associated
with the Manager (mgrStartDate and bonus), Sales Personnel (sales Area and car Allowance), and
Secretary (typing Speed) sub classes have values for those members in these sub classes. In
other words, the attributes associated with the Manager, Sales Personnel, and Secretary sub classes
are empty for those members of staff not in these sub classes.
There are two important reasons for introducing the concepts of super classes and sub classes
into an ER model. Firstly, it avoids describing similar concepts more than once,
thereby saving time for the designer and making the ER diagram more readable. Secondly,
it adds more semantic information to the design in a form that is familiar to many people.
For example, the assertions that ‘Manager IS-A member of staff’ and ‘flat IS-A type of
property’, communicates significant semantic content in a concise form.