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Database Design Checklist
Requirements Gathering
Identify the business processes that the database will support.
Gather data usage and access patterns from stakeholders.
Understand the data retention, archival, and purging needs.
Conceptual Design
Create an Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram to visualize entities and relationships.
Define primary and foreign keys to establish relationships between tables.
Document attributes and data types for each entity.
Logical Design
Normalize the database schema to eliminate data redundancy.
Design tables and define relationships, including many-to-many associations.
Prepare a data dictionary detailing table structures, constraints, and indexes.
Physical Design
Choose the appropriate database management system (DBMS) based on requirements.
Determine the physical storage structure, including partitioning and file groups.
Plan for scalability, indexing strategies, and transaction log sizing.
Security Planning
Define user roles, permissions, and access levels for data security.
Implement authentication and authorization mechanisms.
Plan for data encryption, both at rest and in transit, if sensitive data is involved.
Performance Considerations
Identify performance metrics and benchmarks for the database.
Optimize queries and stored procedures for efficiency.
Design a monitoring and optimization strategy for ongoing performance tuning.
Backup and Recovery
Establish a backup schedule that aligns with data criticality and business continuity plans.
Define recovery objectives, including Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
Test backup and recovery procedures regularly to ensure data integrity.
