I have seen project teams diving into developing a new application without having a basic diagram in place explaining any aspect of the solution -- including the data model.
Not sure what it takes for simple ER diagrams to become the norm for project documentation. In spite of so many tools being available in this space hardly anyone actually uses them in practice.
Maybe Microsoft has to make it a feature in Excel or PowerPoint for people to use it?
These diagrams need not be exhaustive but should convey the key structure and relations as per context. We can create a dozen small diagrams for the same database if needed to document the requirements and design. Whatever works and does the job of communicating and documenting.
A lot of developers even with multiple years of industry experience seem to start projects with code first -- as if it will be running on their PC.
Not enough systems / design thinking of how the application will run in a DEV environment (typically cloud these days) let alone production -- what the various components of that application are going to be -- and where and in form the data will be persisted.
As someone who starts with the data to try and understand a system, I agree but it feels like we're not the majority. At least in the MS world the rise of code-first has not been well received by me :(
Not sure what it takes for simple ER diagrams to become the norm for project documentation. In spite of so many tools being available in this space hardly anyone actually uses them in practice.
Maybe Microsoft has to make it a feature in Excel or PowerPoint for people to use it?
These diagrams need not be exhaustive but should convey the key structure and relations as per context. We can create a dozen small diagrams for the same database if needed to document the requirements and design. Whatever works and does the job of communicating and documenting.