Voice of the DBA

Tag: business

  • Managing Risk

    Risk board game
    Are you managing risk appropriately? Or do you suppress contrary opinions?

    Last year I read Team of Rivals, a book about the Lincoln Presidency in the US. It was a very interesting read, partially because of the topic and times, but mostly I was captivated by the diverse cabinet that Lincoln put together. He chose a number of rivals for positions, people that didn’t necessarily get along, and often had very different opinions about how to govern the country. It felt strange at first to think about a leader welcoming in foes and enemies into their governing committee, but Lincoln appeared to make it work, and the variety of thoughts and opinions helped the country get through the Civil War.

    It’s an interesting idea, and this article on the JP Morgan trading losses reminded me of that book. It talks about the need for debate and argument in making decisions. It makes me wonder if too often in technology we make decisions and implement architectures without listening to the dissenting voices. In my experience, the loudest voices, from both technology people and customers, are often the ones that overwhelm discussions.

    Do you welcome dissension in your meetings? I’ve had managers that preferred everyone to be on the same page, or be willing to make a very persuasive argument. The better managers I’ve had encouraged debate, and didn’t allow any one personality to dominate, and usually wouldn’t let the process degenerate into an argument. The better managers also knew that decisions had to be made and debate could not drag on for too long.

    The process makes me wonder if the very outspoken and domineering people working with technology, either as the manager, the client, ro the technologist, cause more problems than they solve. Perhaps if they were more willing to debate and accept the information about risks and issues from the quieter people, we might have more projects completed with fewer issues.

    Steve Jones

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  • Google Research

    Interesting to see someone talking about all the research Google is spending money on, which aren’t directly related to their core business. The piece is a bit of a complaint, and it’s a valid one for shareholders.

    Personally I like what Google is doing. They’re experimenting, they’re trying to see if there are things that might work. Things that might impact their business. Or perhaps, give them a new business to get into.

    I hate that Google is getting so concerned about money in many ways. To me, that’s a sign they are losing their way a bit, focusing more on the money of their business, than the money. I like seeing them doing things other than just making money. To me, once a company gets too caught up in their stock price, and what it is doing, they start to go downhill.

    However they can go too far, and waste too much money. It’s good that people are keeping an eye on them. Reign in things that are wasting too much money, or going on without producing anything, but let them do some research.

  • Going Solo

    This editorial was originally published on Mar 20, 2007. It is being republished as Steve Jones is on vacation. 

    Are you ready to leave the corporate world and become a consultant? It’s a tempting thought and probably one that everyone in corporate America considers at one time or another. Especially those of us in technology who have skills that can easily be used to help some other company.

    Here are 10 reasons not to go into business for yourself, which is an interesting list. It’s from someone who evangelizes the benefits, joys, and methods of escaping the corporate cubicle. If you’re seriously considering becoming a consultant, starting your own business, or going out in any way on your own, I’d recommend her site as a place to learn some things.

    Coming from someone that helped start this site and has worked for it for 3 years this might sound funny. I don’t really like being in business for myself. I know, I’ve been successful, had a good life, let you all know about large parts of it, but the truth is I didn’t love working for myself. If not for Andy and Brian supporting me, I’m not sure I’d have done it.

    Working for yourself, even when you’re successful, isn’t this easy, amazing job. It’s a hassle and it’s hard to worry about the different parts of a business. I’m a writer and a techie. As much as I pay attention to marketing, sales, and other groups, I don’t want to do their jobs. I have an opinion and am happy to express it, but I don’t want to get more involved than that.

    I’m not really advocating one way or the other that you should or shouldn’t start a business or stay in a cubicle. Rather I want to caution you that it’s not as easy as tuning queries. The marketing, accounting, and collections will be as much as the job as the T-SQL.

    Read about other’s experiences, think hard about it, and consider all the parts of the job that you’ll need to do. There’s always more than you think and remember that just as with a new job in corporate America.

    The grass is not always greener.

    If you want to go into consulting, read this book.

  • How Should We Pay People?

    It’s an interesting article on how to pay people from Dan Ariely at Business Week. It’s a look at some of the issues with paying for knowledge work, or work that isn’t well defined. The short version is that you don’t want to specify too tightly what you expect people to do, but then you have to motivate them to work in the best interests of the company.

    I think this is one of the fundamental problems in management today. We still have this mentality from the blue collar factory worker and piecemeal or easily measurable work items being applied by management to knowledge workers. It doesn’t work well, and somehow we think that the hours work in some way relate to the output.

    I blame lawyers. They tend to use this model, since they often bill by the hour. However the end result, the quality of that they produce, which is usually research, isn’t easily quantified in anything other than a win or loss. That often comes down to not only the soundness of the argument or the logic, but the charisma of the lawyer. That’s not even close to the way we do business in many other industries, especially technology.