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View Full Version : Web Site Redesign Help Please



bubbletrouble
20 Jan 2011, 07:44 PM
I have a question regarding a website application redesign for my
company. Currently we are running an online business and have over
1000 clients currently in our system. Those clients may have one or
more of different products from the services we offer.

Currently, the site is fine. We can add new products and retrieve the
information we need in order to interconnect data and still be
separate product in structure and design.

However, it has been decided that the database structure is too much
inter-wined and getting the data is not right. So, from my
understanding, a good solid fix is to split out the tables from within
one database and put it in separate databases. That way everything is
in its place and any newly added product is easily connected or not
and using whatever shared data that it needs.

What I have discovered based on someone else's decision (I am a
programmer just like this other person's position is) and this other
person who has been employed at the company before me decided that not
only we need to restructure the database but redesign everything.

Fine, we can redesign the interface and change certain components of
the site's way of getting data. That is ok with me, but this is what
this person decided. This person redesigned everything on paper
without my opinions and decided to change everything. The database
structure, name of tables, name of fields, the password structure, the
way the whole application and its various products will interact with
one another.

Is this right? Is this a good way of approaching the problem? My fear
when this is redone from scratch basically, getting the current data
of our existing users moved to the newly restructured, renamed, re-
made system is just insane.

P.S. We are a small company trying to grow from what we currently
invested in and slowly improve based on customer need. Also, we don't
have a software manager but only company owners who don't know
anything about software design but just want a good end result and a
solid customer base.