This article is informative. I have found that databases in general tend to be less sexy than the front-end apps...especially with the recent cohort of devs. As an old bastard, I would pass on one thing: Realize that any reasonably used database will likely outlast the applications leveraging it. This is especially true the bigger it gets, and the longer it stays in production. That said, if you are influencing the design of a database, imagine years later what someone looking at it might want to know if having to rip all the data out into some other store. Having migrated many legacy systems, I tend to sleep better when I know the data is well-structured and easy to normalize. In those cases, I really don't care so much about the apps. If I can sort out (haha) the data, I worry less about the new apps I need to design. I have been known to bury documentation into for-purpose tables...that way I know that info won't be lost. Export the schema regularly, version it, check it in somewhere. And, if you can, <i>please</i>, limit the use of anything that can hold a NULL. Not every RDBMS handles NULL the same way. Big old databases live a looooong time.