Even if modern development tools and processes tend to make it easier to push the database design phase towards the end of the development cycle, it is crucial to not do so. Once the application has been implemented, it's simply too late to fix an inaccurate database design, leaving no other choice but to buy a larger amount of fast, expensive hardware to cope with the problem—if possible.

Designing a database structure is usually the task of a database administrator. However, it's not rare in today's tight-budget world that the software architect takes care to design the database schemas as well. That's why you should be aware of basic concepts such as database normalization, database partitioning, and good indexing.

Continuous database design, sanity checks, and early performance tests in parallel with the development process will minimize future headaches.