Entity framework: One big model or a set of smaller models?

Question

We been having some discussions on approaches to using the entity framework at work recently. We have a fairly large and complex n-tier web based application, which is due for a major overhaul.

The question is: If we where to starting using the entity framework, would it be better to create one big model, or a set of smaller functional/acivity based models.

I have my own opinions on this, but would be interested to hear what some other people think.

Update (17th November 2008): I have been creating one model, wiping it out and re-creating, etc for small projects at home. Although I haven't tried, I suspect that this approach will be a bit more challenging when there are a large number of entity types involved.

Also, does anyone have any experience of using ef with a large team using TFS or similar?

Answer 1

In my experience with it, I would just make one big model of the database. Otherwise, it might be hard to track what tables changed where. When I make changes to the database, I just delete all the tables in the model and regenerate it.

Of course, I also didn't customize my model by adding "entity" functionality to it (not sure how that works exactly).

So I'm no expert in it, but I usually end up using the LINQ-To-SQL models/objects instead of the Entity Framework - it's worked better for me so far.