Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Checking In

    Just checking in for a few days

    It’s been a crazy couple of months for me, with the US tour of SQL in the City and the fallDevConnectionsconference taking me away from the ranch and to a variety of places. Those events had me away from home and delivering 14 talks on a variety of topics with a few more coming next week at SQL in the City – Seattle 2012. I’m just stopping by for a few days at home before I head back out to the Pacific Northwest for a few days.

    My job is not the typical job that DBAs have, and my schedule results in a number of trips all around the US and sometimes to Europe. Despite that travel, my daily chores still need to get complete. I don’t have to manage servers like many of you, but I do have a certain number of processes that need to run every day and require me to prepare things in advance when I’m away. I’m glad for all the automation since I’m not sure how I’d cope otherwise.

    It’s not that much different than my former production DBA routine. There were times when I was in a class, or attending an event, or even working on a large deployment of some application. At those times I’d often be away from my desk, and less available then other times, but I still had to keep an eye on the rest of the systems. Like many of you, I setup automation, crossed my fingers, and hoped that no major issues would crop up while my attention was focused elsewhere.

    Over time I learned to let go a little as a DBA. If something broke, then it had to wait, or a manager had to decide which crisis needed to be handled first. I realized I couldn’t stress myself out about other systems and had to count on them running while I was away. These days I also do the best I can, but I also realize that at times I might have something break while I’m away. I have to trust that someone else will fix it, or I’ll deal with it when I return.

    Next Thursday.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Software Teams

    Teamwork is important

    Today’s editorial was originally published on Dec 10, 2007. It is being re-run today as Steve is at DevConnections.

    I definitely used to not trust developers. At least not with my database code, requiring them to send requests to me and I’d build tables, stored procedures, etc. Over the years as I’ve talked to others and become a little more mature, I’ve started to believe that I can trust them more and let them build objects. I still think I need to review their work, but they can be trusted to get the job done their way.

    Apparently I’m not the only one and this is a good blog entry on software teams and some of the issues with managing developers. In the post Jeremy Miller talks about the need for teams to work together with great communication and not be bound or regulated by external groups that just want things to flow a certain way.

    It’s probably a lot of common sense, but it’s really good advice that you have knowledgeable people within and outside of the development team. You include people in discussions about architecture or implementation, you invite collaboration and you trust your people.

    Trust.

    That’s the big word and despite the fact that many of us say we trust our teammates, too often we just do something outself rather than ask or expect someone else to do it. Or trust that they will.

    We may say it’s because it’s quicker, we don’t have to explain it, we were already working on something similar, or many other reasons. But often it’s that we trust ourselves more than others.

    That’s understandable, but it doesn’t build a strong team for the long term. Working with others, letting them make some mistakes, maybe even take a little longer than you would, will pay off over time as you learn to trust each other, count on each other, build that bond that only a team that has all members working as one unit can achieve.

    And achieve a synergy that produces from work from the team than would come from the sum of each individual’s efforts.

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    The Great Music

    The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.

    Today’s podcast features music by Joe Sibol. If you like it, check out his stuff on iTunes or at www.joesibol.com.

    I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don’t like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you’d like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.

  • Keeping Your Job

    A little work from you can help you ensure you keep your job.

    This editorial was originally published on Nov 26, 2007. It is being republished as Steve is at DevConnections.

    These days it seems that the demand for IT workers is still growing, but there is no shortage of companies still looking to lay people off or get rid of employees that aren’t performing up to some standard.

    I saw an interesting article on how to better ensure IT job security and wanted to comment on a few of the items listed from the DBA perspective. I think that different groups of IT workers have different tendencies, but DBAs often are in a very strange position in a company and they need to ensure that their contributions are recognized as well as their work is valued and understood.

    I remember in the dot-com boom days when “quirky” IT workers were tolerated and even valued. The strange people wearing flip flops and t-shirts could perform wonders with computers and their eccentricities were tolerated. Often when they were just competent at their jobs and no one really understood just how much or little they actually could do with systems.

    The world has changed and expectations for most of our systems are higher than they were a decade ago. Management is more realistic in their view of their business, with most of our employers not expecting to get bought out by some large corporation and retire. Our job is to provide stability and long terms strategic value to our companies.

    As a DBA, you have a varied job. You’re in charge of data, need to technically manage the systems, but also work with business users to ensure their data is properly qualified, the meta data is understood (even if not explicitly written down) and you can help them ensure data quality and recognize the importance of the information that is being stored in databases.

    This means that you need to better fit into the business as well as providing value. You should respect the dress codes and other habits of the rest of the company. You also need to learn to communicate effectively with others. Don’t talk down to someone with technical acronyms and descriptions and make sure that you are trying to solve the business problems, not fit the solution into come cool piece of technology.

    By trying to better fit in, you become an asset to the business as a whole. People should feel comfortable asking for your help and appreciate the work you do.

    And they’re likely to keep you around for the long term.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    The Great Music

    The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.comto get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.

    Today’s podcast features music by Joe Sibol. If you like it, check out his stuff on iTunes or at www.joesibol.com.

    I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don’t like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you’d like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.

  • TTYL

    Please don’t communicate like this in business.

    Today’s editorial was originally released on Nov 20, 2007. It is being republished as Steve is at DevConnections.

    OMG! The DB if FUBAR.

    The sysop added an HDD and did a RAID rebuild OTF. AFAIK, the Vol with the MDFs got wiped for the CRM that runs 24/7.

    I’m ROFLMAO. AWHFY? TTYL.

    Can you imagine someone talking to you like that. I mean actually speaking with “words” like “T-T-Y-L?”

    I saw this article about how most people are speaking English in business today, but with the globalization of many companies, it’s easy to not only mis-communicate, but also offend. And that can be a big problem with not only co-workers, but also customers.

    Whether we standardize on English or some other communication, I hope that we continue to keep the skills of our language alive. The new generation of workers, working in shorthands and their own slang, seem to be losing out on the ability to effectively communicate with others. Too often they want to bang something out on a keyboard rather than talking directly to someone.

    I’m sure I sound like an old man, lamenting the good old days of paper, ink, and phones without voicemail. However it’s not the shorthand or slang that bothers me as much as the lack of the ability to clearly articulate themselves that plagues many people in the IT world. When I started in this business, it was always an issue communicating because things were so highly technical and few people understood how computers worked. The geeks that could truly make a computer sing had trouble communicating with business users.

    I think the same thing is true today with communication, despite the advances in making computer interations simpler, greater familiarity, and a comfort level with technology by many business users. For every step we’ve made in computing becoming more accepted by users in all aspects of society, we’ve gotten worse in our overall communication skills with acronym and shorthand overload. I almost shudder to think of the text-messaging generation entering the workforce.

    Technical jargon is important. It helps us quickly, clearly, and easily communicate with other IT workers with very specific meanings, but it’s not the way that we should communicate with those outside of IT. Even if you are never any type of analyst, designer, architect, it pays to be able to clearly and effectively communicate your ideas, thoughts, and concerns to others.

    Save the shorthand and slang for those times when it’s appropriate and be sure that you can communicate using clear and generally accepted English (or your native language) with everyone else you encounter in your career.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    Everyday Jones

    The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.comto get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.

    The RSS Feed: or now on iTunes!

    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.

    I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don’t like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you’d like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.