No, that's probably not a great way to go about it. Instead have a many-to-many join table between the two other tables. So you'll have a ChangeRequest table and a Contact table. Then you create a ChangeRequestContact table that has they key from each of the other two in it. This table should also have a link to a lookup table ContactType (or something, you name these things for your business). That way you can define how a given contact is associated with the change request. This will allow for you to add more and more contact types without having to redesign the system. I'd do the same thing for the department so that more than one department can be easily associated with a given request in varying roles. It makes for somewhat more complicated coding, but it's a lot more flexible and allows for change without having to re-structure your db and rewrite your code.