In my experience, getting the data structures right is 99% of the battle. If you get that right, the code that follows is simple and obvious.

For database applications, this means getting the schema right. To this end, I always start with the underlying table structures, and only start coding once I understand how the various tables are going to interact.

Sadly, too many people think of the database as the annoying hoops we jump through in order to store the results of our code. In my world, the code I write is the minimum required to safely manipulate the database; it’s the data that counts.

Some people seem to think I’m weird for starting with the database (and for using plpgsql), but I think it’s actually a superpower.