The current project I inherited mainly revolves around one unnormalized table. There are some attempts at normalization but the necessary constraints weren't put in place.
Example: In the Project table, there is a client name (among other values) and there is also a clients table which just contains client names [no keys anywhere]. The clients table is just used as a pool of values to offer the user when adding a new project. There isn't a primary key on the clients table or a foreign key.
"Design patterns" such as this is common through the current state of the database and in the applications that use it. The tools I have my disposal are SQL Server 2005, SQL Server Management Studio, and Visual Studio 2008. My initial approach has been to manually determine which information needs normalization and running Select INTO queries. Is there a better approach than a case by case or anyway this could be automated?
Edit: Also, I've discovered that a "work order number" isn't an IDENTITY (autonumber, unique) field and they are generated sequentially and are unique to each work order. There are also some gaps in the existing numbering but all are unique. Is the best approach for this writing a store procedure to generate dummy rows before migrating?