Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

Take Care of People

Many organizations are undergoing changes. The pandemic of the last year has them rethinking their physical spaces, but also the need to hire in their local area only. Add to this the cloud transformation that seems to be a growing trend in many organizations and industries. Then we have the DevOps changes occurring in technology, affecting developers, testers, and operations staff.

As I’ve learned more about this, listened to stories, and watched presentations, one thing I think starts to stand out for the high performing organizations is their commitment to taking care of people. Not everyone, but most of them giving them education, opportunities, and options.

As we adopt DevOps, or really any substantial change, we may find that our existing staff doesn’t fit the new paradigm, or we need more or less of them. Good companies work with people, they help them, transition and adapt. They reassure them that change doesn’t mean a loss of a job, even if their current role is going away.

I’ve seen big companies do this. Microsoft, American Airlines, and Capital One do this, among others. They create pathways and help staff gain skills and find opportunities. Not everyone wants to continue forward, but they do have the choice to do so.

If your company wants to transform, or you want them to, don’t forget that part of this journey is bringing people along with you. Creating pathways that help both the technology and the staff get to a new place from where they are today.

Steve Jones

March 17, 2021
Summarizing a Script with SQL Prompt

I have never used this feature, but someone was asking for feedback on Prompt, and I noticed this in the menu: Summarize script.

I had guessed that it might look at the code and give me some outline, which is what it does, but I wasn’t sure how it might work. I decided to try it on a few scripts.

I had a demo script for a customer, and I ran it there. I got what I expected, an ordering of various operations.

Useful in some sense. I can see I cleaned up the CREATE with the DROP. However, I could also see that easily if I looked at the script. Depending on length, this might be helpful to remind me or let me see if I’ve dropped all the code I expected.

I picked a longer script from some of the Advent of Code stuff I’ve been slowly working on. In this one, there is some looping, as it’s a looping type of problem (to me). In this case, I see something more complex.

Not a lot of information from the SELECTs, but I do see some looping. The actual code is a bunch of math changes, and I could have used SET, which might have helped here. This let’s me see that the code is more of a procedural construct, which looks like this:

What about other types of code? I looked at a CTE, which wasn’t that helpful. I can’t see the base tables here, which isn’t useful.

However, in AdventureWorks, there is a procedure that shows me a TRY CATCH. In a long set of code, this might help me make sure I’ve actually included the CATCH, among other things.

I’m not sure how useful this feature is, but it’s now in my mind to try a few times and see what I think. What is the outline and structure of my code.

If you have other ideas, I’m sure Redgate would appreciate suggestions. Otherwise, give it a try and let me know if it works.

If you don’t have SQL Prompt, it’s an amazing developer productivity tool, and we now offer it as a subscription, so you can try it for a bit longer than than evaluation without committing.

March 17, 2021
Daily Coping 17 Mar 2021

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to get outside and notice how the weather feels on your face.

While I live on a ranch, there are days that I don’t really go outside. I might work most of the day and then get in the car to go to the gym, but I sometimes forget to step outside.

However, this is Colorado, and we are blessed with amazing weather the vast majority of the time. We have over 300 sunny days a year, and that’s a big part of why I moved here.

Last weekend we had a big snowstorm. While it wasn’t what many could call the best weather, it was nice to go outside, even in some wind, and feel the weather. A cold winter day, snow falling, not miserable, but a refreshing day.

I could feel flakes drop on my cheeks, the wind chilling me where skin wasn’t covered up, but warm inside a coat, ski pants, hat, and gloves. My lungs opened up, I breathed hard while walking around and feeding some hay.

A good day to be alive.

March 17, 2021
Daily Coping 16 Mar 2021

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to take a full breath in and out before you reply to others.

I used to respond quickly, sometimes even talking over others. I don’t know that I did this more with women than men, but I’ve tried to be more aware of this. Everyone deserves respect, but more importantly, I ought to be sure I listen more to others and hear what they are saying.

Recently I got a few messages across Slack while on holiday. I didn’t really check them until I returned, and even then, I interpreted them one way. I got a meeting request later that implied I had committed to something in Slack, which I didn’t think was correct.

It would have been easy to start complaining and get upset. Or just decline the meeting and refuse to do something. Instead, I took a deep breath, let go of annoyances, and responded in a positive manner. The other person wasn’t trying to be difficult, and as part of being more reasonable and understanding, I tried to remember that.

March 16, 2021