Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Developer Pressure

    I’ve been learning about continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) from a number of people at Red Gate Software. As a company, we’ve embraced the concepts, pushing most, if not all, of our software through this process. We are using our Development Manager software internally for more and more of our web projects. Some of our tools, SQL Prompt, include “experimental features” pushed out rapidly to users, with the options for them to turn these features on or off as users desire. We update these tools often, releasing dozens of times a year. There are no shortage of challenges in working at this pace, but we are addressing the issues as best we can.

    One of the big issues that I see in a CD environment is there is a bigger burden placed on developers to ensure the code is of very high quality. In this type of environment, there may be less QA work being done manually, and more automated testing. There is a quicker turnaround when you find issues that developers need to correct. Customers see changes sooner, and more often, and will expect corrections or new features to appear just as quickly. All of this adds up to more pressure on individual developers.

    The question I wanted to ask this week is about how developers feel about this? You could take this question a number of ways, but let us know what you think.

    Is Continuous Deployment good for developers?

    Does this result in higher quality work from developers? Is it more stressful? Does it mean that developers get into a rut and not learn new techniques because they are working faster? Does a developer have less responsibility because automated test and customer feedback will allow them to quickly address issues?

    I think this is a multi-edged sword for developers. It can be a burden or a blessing, but a lot of the way you view it probably depends the individual developer. No matter what the issues, if you use it to improve your skills, as well as your software, I think it’s the best way to build software.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
    Steve Jones Windows Media Video ( 17.5MB) feed

    MP4 iPod Video ( 21.0MB) feed

    MP3 Audio ( 4.2MB) feed

    Feeds are available at iTunes and Mevio

    To submit an article, rant or editorial,
    log in to the Contribution Center

  • Good and Bad Interview Questions

    Why is a manhole cover round? How many cows are in Canada? How would you cure world hunger?

    There’s no shortage of strange interview questions you might be asked in the tech world. If you like these questions, and want to interview, or be interviewed in this way, grab a copy of How Would You Move Mount Fuji and start studying. These are the types of questions that Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and many other tech companies have been asking candidates for years. Since so many technology people read about the practices from these companies, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of you had been asked these types of questions in other interviews.

    Personally I’ve never been asked any of these strange questions, and am not sure how I’d respond. My interviews have often been very technical, but have included a number of “how would you..” or “tell me about a time when..” questions. However ultimately I’d like to think that my soft skills, and my social skills came through positively and that was the reason I often received job offers.

    Many IT managers are starting to feel that these types of questions, and even highly technical questions, aren’t the best way to evaluate a candidate. Hiring costs are up, both in direct costs spent on finding people and the indirect costs of the lost work from current employees interviewing people. There is pressure to hire well, and find people that can be productive. It seems that many managers are starting to look to evaluate candidates in other ways beyond the technical skills. Those skills are important, but not necessarily more important than soft skills.

    That’s been the way I’ve looked at hiring for years. I can often teach someone technical skills, but I can’t teach them to fit in with a group, or be a team player, or even just be someone that won’t annoy the rest of the team. Those social fits are very important if you want your team to function well together, providing support, help, and inspiration to each other.

    Building culture is hard, and while technical skills are important, employees that bond together help push each other to do better work for the team. Employees that dislike each other can bring down overall quality and coordination very quickly. The sooner managers learn that, and learn to respect employees while challenging them, the sooner their departments will start to shine.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
    Steve Jones Windows Media Video ( 19.6MB) feed

    MP4 iPod Video ( 23.3MB) feed

    MP3 Audio ( 4.6MB) feed

    Feeds are available at iTunes and Mevio

    To submit an article, rant or editorial,
    log in to the Contribution Center

  • Sensor Data

    Most of us don’t deal with sensors in our jobs. Or do we? So many devices are in use these days, with a wide variety of inputs that many of us might not realize that applications might be capturing some of this data, which is more akin to sensor data than manually entered data. I would suspect that the meta data might vastly exceed the amount of data entered in text boxes in many of our databases in the future. It might be location, time, action, event, or some other data that we store, manage, and link to data that users choose to submit.

    The Black Hat conference took place recently and one of the sessions talks about the proliferation of cheap sensors that could be used to potentially track individuals without their knowledge. That’s an interesting use of hacking skills, cheap technology, visualizations, and of course, lots of data. While there are plenty of scary privacy implications here, especially for criminal activity, I could see other uses as well.

    Imagine that you work in a retail environment? You might want to know how people move around your store, potentially in order to redesign your store. What about industrial centers? Additional data about parts flowing has resulted in more efficient workflow, but with even more sensors and data, you might find new ways to improve productivity. UPS and FedEx have used technology to vastly increase their efficiency; how many other companies could take advantage of sensor data and find new ways to run their businesses.

    I expect to see more and more data being collected in all sorts of organizations (commercial, government, and others) as more sensors and other hardware become inexpensive. Just as the decline in the cost of computers has enabled almost every organization to take advantage of their capabilities, I expect the new types of sensor data will allow data professionals new opportunities. All the additional data gives us the chance to perform all types of analysis, data mining, and more. It’s a good time to be working in the data field, with new opportunities appearing every day.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
    Steve Jones Windows Media Video ( 16.7MB) feed

    MP4 iPod Video ( 19.5MB) feed

    MP3 Audio ( 4.0MB) feed

    Feeds are available at iTunes and Mevio

    To submit an article, rant or editorial,
    log in to the Contribution Center

  • Labor Day 2013

    It’s a holiday in the US today. It’s Labor Day, and many in the US have a break. With a holiday late last week, this turns into a 5 day weekend for me. That’s unusual for me as I struggle to take time off. I enjoy my job, and it seems that I have no shortage of tasks I can find during the week. I’m trying to do better. Vacation is important, and I’m hoping to fit in more across the next few months.

    Most of us work as labor for some enterprise. Whether it’s an employer or our own business, we work to earn an income, support our families and, hopefully, find some sense of purpose in our efforts.

    Work is hard, and every job is work at some point, but I hope you enjoy your employment more days than you don’t, especially the work in technology. The tools, capabilities and amazing things we can do in the digital world are very exciting.

    I’ve got a blooper real for the podcast that I hope you enjoy today if you’re reading the newsletter. For those of you around the world, I know many of you may be working today, but I hope you have your own holiday at some point during the year that recognizes the efforts you put in.

    Bloopers

    Watch in WMV or MP4 formats.