Behind every great application is a well-designed database; a front-end user experience can be ruined without crafting the back-end database with the same thorough care from design to deployment. During our business analysis and requirements development process, we consult with stakeholders to explore and document the relationship between the organization’s data.  We use our findings to map out an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), which our developers use to create tables, views, and stored procedures. For existing applications, we use the same process to normalize existing data and restructure outdated or poorly-designed databases. Our database administrators create multiple environments to conduct testing, to demonstrate to stakeholders, and to deploy the live application. Finally, technical writers include database requirements and design specifications in their system documentation and provide the ERD and data dictionary as captured in the design phase.