Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Featured Sample: Really Bad Design Decisions

Really Bad Design Decisions

This is a case study of a really bad database design . Often, initial design decisions can have a cascading effect, creating multiple, secondary design errors.

One such error, commonly made by novice developers, is to slavishly follow a pre-existing paper form to determine their table design. But paper forms are not created with proper database design in mind. They are designed to make it easy for humans to fill out.

This design can be at odds with established design principles. By blindly following the paper form to determine the database design, the developer can create a system subject to numerous data and relational integrity errors.

Sample contains an explanatory document and two databases: "ReallyBadDatabase.mdb" and "ReallyBadDatabaseReborn.mdb". The former shows the initial design, the second shows an improved design. Sample include both the data model and application.

You can find it here: http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=291

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