Beginning Database Design: From Novice to Professional provides short, easy-to-read explanations of how to get database design right the first time. This book offers numerous examples to help you avoid the many pitfalls that entrap new and not-so-new database designers. Through the help of use cases and class diagrams modeled in the UML, youll learn how to discover and represent the details and scope of the problem in question.

Database design is not an exact science, and solid database design principles and examples help demonstrate the consequences of simplifications and pragmatic decisions. The rationale is to try to keep it simple, but allow room for development as situations change or resources permit. The book also features an introduction for implementing the final design in a relational database.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 17 Ratings

A Very Good Book to Start With - 2009-01-07
Reviewer Rating:
This is a book that surely covers the basics everybody involved in database design needs to know.
A first chapter, named "What Can Go Wrong", somewhat short, is all about the shortcomings that will ensue from a poorly modeled database.
A summary of the development process, from problem statement to design then to implementation follows. Requirements and use cases are addressed right after.
Data Modeling is addressed in the next 6 chapters, with the support of sound and sensibly chosen practical examples. Usual database design topics such as Relationship Cardinalities, Specialization, Generalization, Normalization, Constraints, etc. are well explained in a very practical way. There is not much theory in there.
The Queries chapter is MS Access-oriented and, as such, does not give much insight on SQL constructs, although some are provided as examples. If your project requires serious SQL querying, you'll definitely need additional SQL book(s).
This book is clearly aimed at beginners and mainly intended for small and "simple" database designs, standalone MS Access applications. If you are new to database design, this is a very good book to start with, but if your database project requires more complex design, you'll definitely need to get additional reading digging deeper into Data Modeling and SQL.
The book is accessible, easily understandable and well illustrated. I've noticed no typing errors.
To get the most out of this book, I would recommend putting it into application in a small standalone MS Access database design of your own, and then only moving on to further reading.

Smart lady, smart book - 2009-04-26
Reviewer Rating:
I wanted to learn the fundamentals of modeling data and designing appropriate SQL tables for a moderately complicated online database, and I had been very frustrated with another book on data modeling that I had started off reading. Fortunately, I decided to try this Churcher book instead. It is clearly the work of a very intelligent lady, and I really don't see anything that she could have improved. She writes clearly, gives a range of interesting concrete examples, and then draws out the lessons that these examples suggest in a very illuminating and clever way. I highly recommend this book.

This is the place to start. - 2009-06-08
Reviewer Rating:
I needed to learn about databases. So what do I do? I have Access on my computer and I want to learn how to use it. Sound reasonable, doesn't it? So I go out and buy a couple of books I figure would help me understand Access, right?

Little do I know that to use Access, I have to understand the whole concept of a relational database.

I should have started with Clare Churcher's little book. It is straighforward, to the point, easy to read, and infomative. I like to think of myself as a relatively clever person, but trying to learn how to use a widely available product like MS Access without some preliminaries is like trying to learn how to play baseball by reading the Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia. Ya' gotta get out there and play and have someone show you. As I read Churcher's book, I felt like she was there reading over my shoulder anticipating my questions and answering them as I went along.

I think Churcher is likely a gifted teacher. I'm glad she made the transition from physics to computer science in her career because I believe that I have benefitted from her work in this little book.

I have gone on to other topics and other books in my quest to understand and use RDBMS. For me, this book is clearly the best place to start. And it will hold a place on my bookshelve as a reference when I need a little clarification and explanation in the future.

excellent - 2009-04-20
Reviewer Rating:
This book is an excellent intro to database concepts. I wanted a quick recap of what I learned in college and this book gave it to me. It covers lots of ground and does it with elegance.

too much theory - 2009-09-12
Reviewer Rating:


this book was good in theoretical examples
When designing you need to be exposed with a variety of examples.
I didn't think the scope was wide enough

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