How do you create a database for a specific purpose?

As they say the more you sweat in practice the less you bleed in war. Same here the more time you spend in planning the less you struggle after implementation. Meticulous planning on what is required vs good to have or I would say what is available is really important.

At this stage of database development, there is usually a show of ignorance and fight for superiority between developers, users and infrastructure providers. Planning based on user requests must be seen as priority, unfortunately developer comes last (this is what developers find it hard to get). That's the truth!

IMHO, I've found that nearly everyone gets this stage wrong because they don't have the right people in place early enough. With no offense to any of the groups intended, Users, Developers, and large percentage of the Infrastructure Group simply don't have enough knowledge to correctly design a database. If you want to do it right, get a "hybrid" DBA that has a deep understanding of the Relational (or other) Engine being used, a deep understanding of SQL, and a deep understanding of things like "Normalization", etc, etc. Heh... and "MAY need to consider the security, performance, and usability of your database"??? If you're one that uses the word "may" for any of those things, then you're definitely not the one to do the design.

When engaging with clients for the development of a database, the approach can vary. Some clients provide us with a clear use case that outlines their business requirements, while others offer a structured template with predefined table names, columns, and data types. In certain situations, we may find it necessary to schedule a meeting to collaboratively design the database.

Define the database's purpose and requirements, then choose a suitable type (SQL for structured data, NoSQL for unstructured data). Design the schema and set up the database by creating the necessary structures, and populate it with initial data then test queries, optimize performance, and deploy the database

A design of a database is going to depend on usage, how much data to going to come into the database and what is going to be offered to the end user. So if its being used for pre-processing of data for onwards uses, will be different if it used for offering data sources for reporting tools like PowerBi and SSRS

Create an Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) to visually represent the data and their relationships. Identify the main entities (tables) and their attributes (columns). Normalize the database to eliminate redundancy and ensure data integrity.

Consider carefully that SQL <> SQL. If you have a great team of people that knows one of the many relational engines inside and out and you decide that you want your new project to be done using one of the others, your new project is going to be in a world of hurt in all areas.

It would be nice to have an INDEX on a 'date' column to help you with queries performance in the future. Also title, author and category could be indexes too.

Configure the database settings for optimal performance and security. Use SQL or the appropriate database language to create tables, define primary and foreign keys, and establish relationships. Populate the database with initial data if necessary, either manually or by importing from external sources.

This is why you need separate Dev, Test, UAT/Staging systems. No untested code should ever go to the Production system. No code should ever be "Developed in Prod". Period.

Every database should be built for a purpose. Production is where the entire traffic kicks in. As a DBA, I always feel to have a replica of production or preproduction and test everything, be it code deployment or a change in database. Let that db run with the changed config for a month and then decide to make that changes in production. Issues seen in prod and not preprod? Try to simulate the issue with the help of vendor and then take a decision be it a bug patch or a parameter change. Pushing something to prod without proper testing in lower environment is pushing prod to high risk zone

Develop the necessary SQL queries, stored procedures, and reports based on the requirements. Conduct thorough testing to ensure data integrity, performance, and security. Test for common use cases, edge cases, and potential failure scenarios.

Implement regular backup schedules to prevent data loss. Ensure backups are stored securely and tested for restorability. Develop a disaster recovery plan to restore the database in case of catastrophic failure. Regularly test the disaster recovery procedures.