Originally posted by Dan Silva:
Hi,
I've been reading the head first SQL book, and they seem very bent on my using second and third normal form. But, I just had a conversation with my dad (an RPG programmer), and he says that second and third normal forms make life harder for programmers and actually slows down the process. I would like an opinion on this, as to the benefits of second and third normal form and whether or not it's realistic to apply these principles in real life database administrating. Thanks.
He is likely looking at this strictly from a report veiwpoint (or small shop) that provides little overall benefit to a corporation looking to implement a BI solution.
Denormalized data can be used for report tables... but a lot of effort goes into those tables and in a large information processing environment becomes very difficult to create and maintain. When you take in account the effort required to create and load the reporting table it becomes a very short-sighted solution in a business environment where ROI is the bottom line for IT development and sustainment efforts are often underfunded by the business.
[ January 18, 2008: Message edited by: Paul Campbell ]