Databases
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    <p>The general way to make this argument up the chain is based on cost. If you do things simply, there will be less code and fewer bugs. The system will be able to be built more quickly, or with more features, and thus will create more ROI. If you can get the money manager on board with that approach, he or she may let you dictate terms to the team. There is the counterargument that extreme over-normalization prevents bad data, but I have found that this is not the case, as the complexity it engenders tends to lead to more errors and more database code in general.</p> <p>The architectural and technical argument here is simple. You have decided to use Ruby on Rails. Therefore you have decided to use the ActiveRecord pattern. The ActiveRecord pattern is driven by having the database tables match the object model. That's the pattern in use here, and in many other places, so the best practices they are trying to apply for extreme data normalization simply do not apply. Buy a copy of <a href="http://martinfowler.com/eaaCatalog/activeRecord.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture</a> and put the little red bookmark at page 160 so they can understand how the pattern works from the architecture perspective. </p> <p>What the DBA types tend to be unaware of is how much work ActiveRecord does for you, from query generation, cascading deletes, optimistic locking, auto populated columns, versioning (with acts_as_versioned), soft deletes (with acts_as_paranoid), etc. There is a strong argument to use well tested, community supported library functions to perform these operations versus custom code that must be maintained by a DBA.</p> <p>The real issue with DBAs is then that they need some work to do. Let them focus on monitoring performance, finding slow queries in the code, creating indexes and doing backups.</p> <p>If you end up losing the political battle for a sane schema, you may want to consider switching to DataMapper. It's the next pattern in PoEAA. The other thing you may be able to get them to do is to create views in the database that correspond to the object model. This way, you could use many of the finding capabilities in the ActiveRecord model based on the views, but have custom insert, update, and delete methods. </p>
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    1. POThe Ruby community values simplicity...what's your argument for simplifying a db schema in a new project?
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