Appendix B — Checklist

Use this checklist when designing and implementing a database.

□ Entities

• Have all the important “things” been identified?
• Does each entity have a clear (singular) name?
• Is each entity really needed?

□ Attributes

• Does each entity have a primary key?
• Are the attributes specific enough?
• Does each attribute hold only one value (no lists)?
• Have calculated attributes been checked? (DO store for financial transactions; do not store for changing values such as age)

□ Relationships

• Have all relationships between entities been determined?
• Has the right relationship type been chosen (one-to-many or many-to-many)?
• Have all many-to-many relationships been converted into an associative entity (junction table)?
• Are the foreign keys in the right place?

□ Implementation (in Access, SQLite, MySQL, …)

• Have all tables been created?
• Are the data types correct?
• Have the primary keys been set?
• Have the relationships been created with referential integrity?