From Feature to Data Model

An interviewer says:

"A team workspace lets members create projects, assign tasks to other members, and comment on tasks."

It is easy to start by choosing a database.

Tables and indexes are implementation decisions. First answer:

What things does the product contain, what facts belong to each thing, and which of those things can a caller act on independently?

The product data model comes before the storage model.

It contains:

• entities;
• the fields owned by each entity; and
• the relationships between entities.

It does not contain:

• tables;
• indexes;