The process of designing the general structure of the database:

■ Logical Design – Deciding on the database schema. Database design requires that we find a “good” collection of relation schemas.

● Business decision – What attributes should we record in the database?

● Computer Science decision – What relation schemas should we have and

how should the attributes be distributed among the various relation schemas?

Physical Design – Deciding on the physical layout of the database

Design at the application level (views, stored procedures, interfaces) Logical design based on experience and based on sound theory