Checklist: Physical Database Design
This checklist helps make sure that the Physical Database Design is correct and complete.
Relationships
Related Elements
Check Items
All persistent classes or logical entities (if a logical data model was created) that use the database for persistency have been mapped to database structures
Many-to-many relationships have an intersecting table
Primary keys have been defined for each table, unless there is a performance reason not to define a primary key
The storage and retrieval of data has been optimized
  • Tables have been denormalized (where necessary) to improve performance.
  • Where denormalization has been used, all update, insert, and delete scenarios have been considered to ensure the denormalization does not degrade performance for those operations.

Indexes have been defined to optimize access
The impact of index updates has been considered in the other table operations
The distribution of data has been planned
Data and referential integrity constraints have been defined
A plan exists for maintaining validation constraints when the data rules change
Stored procedures and triggers have been defined
The persistence mechanism uses stored procedures and database triggers consistently
A Data Definition Language (DDL) is created that implements the business semantics and rules as well as meets performance requirements