Relational Database Design Principles The first and most important step in the development of a database is the process of defining a set of requirements and modeling how those requirements will be met using a relational database. The first part of this chapter is devoted to a quick review of the principles of relational database design, and the remainder of the chapter delves into the details of implementation. A database is a complex structure, and as such, requires a blueprint in the same way that a house requires one before you start pouring the concrete. Your blueprint must include information about what pieces of data you need to store, what kinds of constraints you need to place on each of those pieces, how the pieces relate to each other, and how you are going to arrange those pieces in database tables.