Getting Out from Behind the Curtain - The New DBA

Getting Out From Behind The Curtain - The New DBA
David Levy
AdventuresInSql.com
SQL Saturday #40 South Florida

What three things brought you here?
To show what I thought a DBA should be
Overheard a conversation
A trip to Seattle
What Three Things?

The economy is hurting all of us
Businesses are cutting costs
IT Departments are getting by with less
People are trying harder to avoid DBAs
Servers Under Desks
“NoSQL”
The DBA Role is Changing

Fighting With Developers
Performance Issues
Code Reviews Ignored
What Does the Classic DBA Look Like?

Spends Hours and Hours on Operational Tasks
Tweaking File Sizes
Adjusting Job Schedules
Restores
Daily Server Monitoring

Tired
Overworked
Not Making Progress

Consultant
Mentor
Developer
Project Manager
What Does the New DBA Look Like?

Learn All You Can
Standardize Processes
Build Relationships
Use Tools and Automation
How Does a Classic DBA Become a New DBA?

What Do Developers Expect DBAs to Know?
SQL
Query Tuning
System Architecture
The Basics of Their Development Language
Change Control
Learn All You Can

What Do System Engineers Expect DBAs to Know?
SQL
System Architecture
Change Control
Server Architecture
Server Topology
Techniques for Achieving High Availability and Disaster Recovery
Learn All You Can

What Does Management Expect DBAs to Know?
Everything Everybody Else Expects
How to Answer Succinctly
How Much Everything Costs
How Long Everything Takes
How to Ask the Right Questions
Learn All You Can

What Do DBAs Just Have to Know?
How to Explain things Simply but Accurately
Writing
Project Management
Leadership Techniques
Influence
Process
Prioritization
Learn All You Can

Inside SQL Server Series
Edited by Kalen Delaney
http://www.insidesqlserver.com
Learn All You Can
http://www.insidesqlserver.com

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
By John C. Maxwell
Learn All You Can
http://www.johnmaxwell.com

Free Sources of Knowledge
Microsoft Events
SQL Saturday
Local User Group Meetings
MCM Reading List
Learn All You Can

Learn All You Can
Build Relationships

Drive efficiency in operations
Tasks tend to be less interesting
You do not get credit for them
Avoid Reinventing the wheel all the time
Time consuming
Inconsistent results
Overly focused on the current problem

What to Standardize
Naming Conventions
Server Builds
Operating Systems
Drive Layouts
Software Versions
Coding Standards

How to Standardize
Documentation
Checklists
SQL Scripts
Policy Based Management
Home grown solutions

Clearly define expectations
Publish a Standards Document
Include the Why, not just the What
Include specific examples
Word documents are a great start but get large
Publish to intranet or Wiki to make it searchable

Share knowledge across your team
Allows you to take vacations
Keep from getting “stuck” with a particular group
Stay grounded and on standard

Learn All You Can
Build Relationships

People like to do business with people that they like
People will forgive much more from people they like
People will go out of their way for people that they like
Build Relationships

Be Present - Get Involved Early
Get plugged into the project pipeline
Help with design
Be there to help with complex coding
Code reviews should be a matter of validating that what was discussed is what was built
Build Relationships

Integrate with your development teams
Ask team manager to treat you as part of team
Go to team meetings
Eat lunch with team members
Participate in their team building events
If you come away with friends you are doing something right
Build Relationships

Think before you speak
Consider the audience
Technical Abilities
Your Credibility with them
What they already believe to be true
Know where you are at Emotionally
Build Relationships

Never criticize, educate
Everyone wants to do a good job
Most people believe they are doing a good job
It is your failure as much as theirs
Questions are better than statements
Build Relationships

Be wary of criticizing above & beyond efforts
Someone is proud of the product
They think you should be impressed too
There is usually a very tight timeline
Find positive ways to suggest changes
Build Relationships

Be a cheerleader for your teams
Recognize milestones
It is your success too
Remember how you reached them
Everyone is different
Chances are you will work together again
Build Relationships

Learn All You Can
Build Relationships

ClearTrace - http://www.scalesql.com/cleartrace

Policy Based Management

Enterprise Policy Management Framework
http://epmframework.codeplex.com

TweetDeck

You become part of a team that is stronger than the sum of it’s parts
Productivity goes up
Reliability goes way up
After hours work goes down
Software releases decrease in frequency and take less time
What Does Success Look Like?

You are not a teacher that grades others work. End-users are the ones that give out grades.
Closing Thoughts

Clearly Define Expectations
Stop Reinventing the Wheel
Learn something new every day
Be friends with the people you work with
Use tools to make your life easier
Closing Thoughts

More information available on my blog at http://adventuresinsql.com
Questions?

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Getting Out from Behind the Curtain - The New DBA

by David Levy

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