Denormalize when developing apps (for aggregate display puposes)?

We're currently between the design/build stage of a medium sized OLTP database. The logical & physical designs are currently beautifully normalized.

There will be one main Form & several Reports built for this database. The Oracle Form builders say that I must denormalize (by adding two redundant columns from one table to two other tables) the physical model in order for their Form to display all the user requirements. (The user wants the Form to look and aggregate data exactly like their legacy Paper printout form.)

The QUESTION is: Do I go and do this slight change or do I insist that the Forms developers go back and see (again) if they can re-structure their form? Also, I've developed a medium number of Forms myself, but I'm not sure if Forms will always be able to display, move, (and aggregate move), insert data, rows, blocks the exact way that users require (using triggers, etc.). I mean, is Oracle Forms universal and it just requires major effort sometimes to meet the users' needs? Or should we change the data model?

Would appreciate your help,

Oleg Received on Fri Nov 21 2003 - 18:12:10 CET