Effective Database Design is the Key to Data Integrity
Information technology managers often find it difficult and time consuming to manage websites and applications that have a poor database design structure. Data-driven applications provide the ability to display a wide variety of information based on the corresponding values from the data tables.
Therefore, it is important to ensure the design of the database will meet the application objectives. Failure to do so could lead to a variety of problems like missing items, display errors and incorrect data, for instance.
Since most mistakes can and do occur during the design process, it is imperative to use the services of a professional database solution provider who will ensure that the database is properly designed, normalised and maintained to handle the increasing amounts of application data that will be processed.
Professional database developers will consult with the client to obtain a clear understanding of the application to determine the types of data that will need to be managed and how it will relate to the hierarchy of the table structure. This will be extremely difficult for someone to accomplish without experience in data modelling techniques.
Additionally, database normalisation rules should be followed to minimise mistakes during the design process. Making limited changes to the database once it is live could corrupt the data, so it is important that the database be carefully planned to avoid leaving out important data elements. Small tweaks that do not affect the integrity of the data are fine, but a massive change to the original database design may not be entirely possible without building a new database.
To protect data integrity, the database design needs to ensure that administrators will have the ability to assign the necessary rights and permissions to individual users and any external applications. The size of the database, its scope and the user population are some of the factors which must be considered when designing a business database.
