Poor database design is often attributed to the relative ease by which tables can be created and populated in a relational database. By adhering to certain rules, good design can be structured into almost any database (see section 1.2.1).

SQL was designed to work with sets of data and accesses a data structure known as a table (see section 1.2.2).

Achieving optimal design of a database means that the database contains little or no redundant information in two or more of its tables. This means that good database design calls for little or no replication of data (see section 1.2.3).

Poor database design can result in costly or inefficient processing, coding complexities, complex logical relationships, long application development times, or excessive storage requirements (see section 1.2.4).

Design decisions made in one phase may involve making one or more tradeoffs in another phase (see section 1.2.4).

A database in third normal form (3NF) is where a column is “dependent on the key, the whole key, and nothing but the key” (see section 1.2.4).