Chapter 1. Microsoft SQL Server Database Design Principles

Database design is one of the most important tasks in the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), also referred to as Application Development Life Cycle (ADLC). That's because databases are essential for all businesses, and good design is crucial to any business-critical, high-performance application. Poor database design results in wasted time during the development process and often leads to unusual databases that are unfit for use.

We'll be covering the following topics in this chapter:

• The database design process and considerations
• The table design process, which includes identifying entities and attributes, creating a relationship between entities, and ensuring data integrity
• The basics of data normalization
• The SQL Server database architecture
• The importance of choosing the appropriate data type