How do you teach database normalization?

Question

What are your steps and guidelines for database normalization? If given a bunch of people with good computer and logic skills, how do you explain to them how to normalize a

Answer 1

I used to teach this stuff to programmers back in the 1980s. Many of them had never even used a database, although they had been programming in COBOL, BASIC or C for ten years or more.

I used to teach database programming first, in some detail before ever getting into database design. And I used to teach conceptual data modeling, using ER, before getting into database design. Then, when teaching table composition, normalization came up fairly naturally. I only taught 1NF, 2NF and 3NF, although if I could go back and do it again I would probably include BCNF.

Moat importantly, don't teach at like it's some sort of religion. Teach what happens when you don't follow the normalization rules, and give them a glimpse of the situations where violating normalization might make sense. Too many beginners are taught this stuff like a violation is some sort of mortal sin. It's not.