Shear test data have been extracted from previous experimental research and compiled into a database that may be the largest ever made. In this paper, the shear database (SDB) was used for evaluating shear design provisions for both reinforced concrete (RC) beams and prestressd concrete (PSC) beams. A discussion on the use of the results of this evaluation related to calibration and strength reduction factor for the shear design provisions was also provided. It was observed that the shear design provisions did not provide good predictions for RC members and gave very poor predictions especially for RC members without shear reinforcement. On the other hand, the limit on shear strength contributed by transverse reinforcement was observed to be lower than necessary. The shear design provisions gave very unconservative results for the large RC members (d>700mm) without shear reinforcement having light amount of longitudinal reinforcement $( ho_w<1.0\%)$. However, for PSC members the shear design provisions gave a good estimation of ultimate shear strength with a reasonable margin of safety. Despite of a large difference of accuracy in prediction of shear strength for RC members and PSC members, the shear design provisions used a same shear strength reduction factor for these members. As a result, the shear design provisions did not provide a uniform factor of safety against shear failure for different types of members.