Examination should include the following steps:
- Review documentation concerning business rules.
- Interview key stakeholders in the client company to identify the database’s purpose and essential functions.
- Develop the conceptual model (i.e., entity-relationship diagram [ERD]) independent of technological or financial concerns.
- Validate the design through customer or client approval.
- Convert the ERD into a data-design model. (This brings the conceptual design down to a more physical level in preparation for the actual writing of the code.)
- Write the code, using SQL or other database programming languages to create the database structure and functionalities.
- Test the code.
- Implement the database.
- Retest the database for functional improvements and stability.