After you identify the information you need, review the list and begin to classify the information into distinct groups. Identify the separate entities (such as persons, places, and things) and activities (such as events, transactions, and other occurrences). In general, each table should contain only one kind of entity or activity. The fields in each table identify the attributes of that entity or activity.

Reviewing the list in the previous topic reveals two separate entities (customers and products) and one separate activity (orders). Each of these components has unique attributes. When you reorganize the list according to these categories, you might come up with a new list similar to the following one:

Customers, including customer name, address, city, state, postal code, phone number, credit standing, signature, notes, and so on

Orders, including order date, order number, sales date, amount paid, and so on

Products ordered, including product name, sales price, quantity ordered, and so on