Guys, for some time now I have been wondering about something and I decided to seek your opinions on it.

Which is the best starting point in software development? Is it from database design to main application or vice versa?

I currently have my approach to software development saved as a draft on my blog... Will publish it soon and give you the link if you want.

Summary = Database Design w/ Client, Sketch of App Design for approval w/C Client, Build Core DLLs (because I believe in an MVC-Style workflow), test Core DLLs functionality with a Console Application to replicate GUI features, then build GUI.

Obviously the post goes more indepth

Interesting. Thanks for your response.I'll be waiting.....

The answer seems obvious to me. Your database will need to be set up correctly before you start the UI. Otherwise, you'll find the need to change both before you're done. Spend enough time to make the database correct, then your UI will be easier and more straightforward.

The datastore itself should be functionally irrelevant. Some of the worst database schemas you'll ever find are those based literally on fields on a form.

Identify the data that must be persistent. Organize access to that data through methods, things like Save and LoadById, LoadAll, etc. Once you have a clear picture of the data you need to store and how you need to access it, then you can work on the actual database.

A well designed, normalized schema with all the rules and referential integrity in place is usually a pain from a developers standpoint. The developer just wants data and three or four joins seems frivolous. The solution is to make set of methods in the application that retrieve and save data in a consistent way that is intuitive for the developer.

The magic behind such methods will usually be a database, but that database provider may change. It may even become a web service or some simple flat files. This is the fundamental design goal object oriented programming. You don't have to know what's going on inside, as long as the interface remains the same.