SQL database design static analysis

Static analysis of database design and implementation is not a new idea. Many researchers have covered the topic in detail and defined a number of metrics that are well known within the research community. Unfortunately, unlike the use of metrics in code development, the use of these metrics has not been widely adopted within the development community. It seems that a disjunction exists between the research into database design metrics and the actual use of databases in industry. This paper describes new metrics that can be used in industry to ensure that a database's current implementation supports long term scalability, to support easily developed and maintainable code, or to guide developers towards functions or design elements that can be modified to improve scalability of their data systems. In addition, this paper describes the production of a tool designed to extract these metrics from SQL Server and includes feedback from professionals regarding the usefulness of the tool and the measures contained within its output.