Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • Agile West–How Do I Get Started with Database DevOps

    This week I had the chance to deliver a talk at Agile West in Las Vegas. I linked some resources on my blog, and feel free to check them out.

    Tl;Dr – Start with deployments

    After the talk, I had an interesting question from someone in the audience. This person had a lot of developers writing code and then sending to a DBA, who executes it in SSMS. This was for SQL Server development, and that’s a common way many companies deploy database changes.

    Even companies that have software developers who embrace DevOps will still tend to work this way.

    This is error prone, inefficient, and it’s not the way to build better software. We know that DevOps produces better software if you adopt it, and we know that you can’t forget the database. That’s integral if you want to be a high or elite performer.

    My advice for many companies is that they start with deployments. If you have some manual process or DBAs involved, often they’re just running a script you produced in some way. What I’d do is start adding Flyway Community  (or Teams/Enterprise) in and putting those scripts into a folder (hopefully in Git) and naming them as appropriate. That’s a small change for DBAs or Ops people deploying code, but it starts to enable a process.

    From here, I can alter this process to use tooling (Azure DevOps, Bamboo, Jenkins, etc.) and continue to put scripts in a location. Then I can work backwards and start getting developers to build better processes for capturing and saving code.

  • T-SQL Tuesday #163 – The Best Career Advice

    We’re a little delayed this month. Both the host and I forgot about this. So far in June, I’ve been in Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Denver, and Cambridge for events. I head back to Orlando this week, and I’m a little out of sorts.

    Maybe one piece of career advice: try to avoid spending 14 of the first 20 days of June away from home.

    We have Gethyn Ellis hosting this month with a great invitation: what’s the best career advice you’ve gotten. I really have two answers, but I have to choose the best one, so I’ll do that.

    Say No First

    I was actually at the Redgate LevelUp 2023 Conference this week and two different speakers mentioned that they keep saying yes to requests. They told the audience that they struggled to say “no”. (a 2019 recap of the event here)

    I don’t know when I learned this, but at some point in my 30+ year career I started to say “No” as a default. I would just say no to requests from co-workers, customer, even my manager. I just wouldn’t initially commit to many things, at least not many things that can’t be finished in a few hours.

    I didn’t say no to everything, but the busier I was, the more I said no. Then I’d let them convince me why it was a good idea, and sometimes I’d change my mind, and sometimes not. However, this helped me in a few ways.

    First, I learned to better manage my workload. I hate not meeting a commitment, and I always try to under-promise and over-deliver. By saying no, I give myself time to think about whether I can sustain something.

    Second, this started to force others to really justify their requests. I’ve had no shortage of things people ask for that are really their dreams and ideas, often not thought through. Many people have learned to ask for something without really thinking about it. Just like many technical people start writing code and compiling it without really thinking through what is needed. By not agreeing right away and letting them make a case for why something is needed, I force them to really justify if something is needed.

    I get some pushback from managers, but learning to stand up and argue a bit is a good skill. Overall, I’ve frustrated some people, but most others learn that they can count on me.

    If I commit.

  • Heading to That Conference

    I’ve been working with Ryan Booz a bit more and as we’ve talked over the last few weeks, he has asked me a few times if I’ve booked travel for That Conference, or if I’ve gotten my presentation ready for That Conference, or when am I going to be at That Conference.

    I have to keep reminding myself it is That Conference 2023 and not that conference, as in some other event.

    He wanted to go to the event and we submitted a few sessions together. We didn’t get those picked, but we did get a few others, and so I’m heading to Wisconsin in July for That Conference. It’s a fun, geeky, family event near a water park. My kids are too old to go, but my wife is coming, and I’m looking forward to visiting a new place.

    This is a quite a mix of sessions, lots of developer talks and a few database ones. I’ve got a talk on Wednesday, but I’m looking forward to seeing a few other sessions during the week along with some hiking and other activities.

    If you’re near Madison, or want to have some fun with your family, this summer, consider heading to That Conference with me.

  • A New Word: Astrophe

    astrophe n the feeling of being stuck on Earth.

    Us geeks are supposed to love space, right? Science Fiction? The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? Star Trek/Star Wars/Lost in Space? The desire to travel throughout the universe?

    I know I wanted to get off this planet at some point. I’m sure I hoped there would be a way to leave the Earth, hopefully as smoothly as they do in Red Thunder. I don’t see that coming anytime soon: no anti-gravity, no teleporters, no space elevators. Just heavy thrust rockets.

    At this point in my life, I’m not interested. Even when we ran the DBA in Space campaign, that wasn’t something I’d have chosen to do.

    I don’t have any astrophe these days.

    From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows