Database Design – Brainstorming

I am of the mindset that many things can be solved with a database.  When designing a database I push it beyond its standard purposes.  I end up with a complex series of action queries that must be performed with extreme precision which make the relational databases sweat a little.
When I am teaching others database design, they usually have a final product in mind.  This is a great place to start.  However, they jump right into creating tables, queries, forms and reports only to find that it doesn’t work how they wanted and have to go back to change …