title: Approaches to building an efficient database
body: <p>I was wondering if I could draw on experienced database designers. I;m not very experienced with building databases and I have a project to complete within set time (couple of months). The requirement is to build it to third normal form.</p>
  
  <p>I was just wondering what the best way to start would be? Should I go ahead and build something that works (trying to be as efficient as possible) as then go back and refactor any parts that can be improved or is there some methodology to follow to ensure certain degrees of normalisation from the start?</p>