Database Design Debts through Examining Schema Evolution

Causes of the database debt can stem from ill-conceptual, logical, and/or physical database design decisions, violations to key design databases principles, use of anti-patterns etc. In this paper, we explore the problem of relational database design debt and define the problem. We develop a taxonomy, which classifies various types of debts that can relate to conceptual, logical and physical design of a database. We define the concept of Database Design Debt, discuss their origin, causes and preventive mechanisms. We draw on MediaWiki case study and examine its database schema evolution to support our work. The contribution hopes to make database designers and application developers aware of these debts so they can minimize/avoid their consequences on a given system.