Good points. I've run into this problem a lot, and generally handle it in one of 2 ways: 1. Make it easy for semi-technical project managers who are not coders

Good points. I've run into this problem a lot, and generally handle it in one of 2 ways: 1. Make it easy for semi-technical project managers who are not coders to extend the schema. This is the 95% solution for us, and the core of our system. 2. use n-to-n lookup tables or lookup fields that use a second field to determine what you reference. We don't do this a lot, but we do it in a few places where there can be a more or less unbounded set of things that can be referenced. These indeed have problems, so we try to avoid them, especially in high-volume situations. Then again, note that this solution (a) requires using our framework to be effective (b) has RDMS purists seeing red. So maybe you're right. Edit: section redacted.