Database Design Best Practices: The Schema Outlives Everything | Clickmasters

Foreign keys, uniques, checks, and NOT NULLs — the database as last line of defense against every future bug and 'quick script.'

Soft-delete/effective-dating where audits will ask, archival strategy before tables hit hundreds of millions, and migration discipline from day one.

Skipping the discipline this article describes until an incident, audit, or stalled project forces it — every practice above is cheaper adopted early than retrofitted under pressure.