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I use the Merise method : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merise

I always start by drawing the "MCD" (I'd translate it as "conceptual data model"). It looks like one of the UML diagram : there are entities and relationships between these entities (zero to one, one to many etc). With this model you can design your relational database schema with ease.

It's my experience that if your data model is right you're building on strong foundations.

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Interesting! Are there any online resources that describe the Merise method?

Yes, but only in French I'm afraid.

I don't understand why it never took of (elsewhere than in France) for relational data modeling. It's a really vast and complex method if you want to apply everything, but most devs here use only the part that make database modeling easy.

I should stress that it's purely for relational data, NoSQL didn't exist when they invented Merise and it would have probably been frown upon ;-) So I guess it's not really interesting in most startups environment were NoSQL seems the norm.

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