Ten Common Database Design Mistakes

I recently chanced upon an article written by Louis Davidson titled "Ten Common Database Design Mistakes". The article summarizes the list of critical mistakes that should be avoided while designing a database.

As the author humbly points out in the article, the list also summarizes the mistakes he too did during the early stages of his career. I liked the article as I had to endure the same learning curve as the author.

Here's a summary of the most common mistakes :-

1. Poor design/planning
2. Ignoring normalization
3. Poor naming standards
4. Lack of documentation
5. One table to hold all domain values
6. Using identity/guid columns as your only key
7. Not using SQL facilities to protect data integrity
8. Not using stored procedures to access data
9. Trying to build generic objects
10. Lack of testing

I couldn't have summarized it better !