Two quick additions I would suggest:
1) Regarding security, the DBA needs at least to be a liaison with the
network access folks to determine who gets to see and possibly modify anything
in the databases
2) Regarding Database Design, preferably the DBA group is custodian of the
Data Flow Diagram (DFD) for all the databases and applications even if they do
not use a database. In large companies this is a cross department function.
Knowing all the afferent legs of acquiring data and the efferent legs to other
systems including reports is the only reasonable way I know of to locate all
the transform centers and prevent multiple systems reprocessing your data
(usually slightly differently with attendant hilarity resulting) and to know
where particular bits of information exist in your corporation. Only then can
you optimize access and know which things are reliable sources of truth and
which things are suspect or derivative. I consider all this to be essential to
do a decent job of Database Design of compartments within the whole.
Okay, maybe #2 wasn’t that quick. There is increasingly a great divide between
full function DBAs and Database Operators. Both are needed. The long term value
of full function DBAs in the face of increasing automation at the margins and
deployment to the cloud is enhanced by including the corporate DFD in your
required knowledge base. This also plays into actually being Agile, because
then the DBA team knows where to acquire data from the existing database to
answer the call for new functionality or likewise the sensible place to add
tables and/or columns if a call for new functionality requires additional
information in the Data Flow.
mwf
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Sheehan, Jeremy
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2018 8:47 AM
To: Niall Litchfield
Cc: oracle-l-freelist
Subject: RE: DBA Job Functions
Agreed on the cloud! We’re moving that direction (just like everyone else) and
I can see a good portion of this going away. Another piece that I forgot to
mention is he wanted to know which activities would be considered
project/non-project work. Pretty much everything I considered non-project is
gone when in relation to the cloud.
Thanks for the reply!
From: Niall Litchfield [mailto:niall.litchfield@xxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2018 4:43 AM
To: Sheehan, Jeremy <JEREMY.SHEEHAN@xxxxxxx>
Cc: oracle-l-freelist <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: DBA Job Functions
CAUTION - EXTERNAL EMAIL
That's a pretty good list for the job as it is today. In a cloud world it will
look quite different (half your list disappears) .
On 20 Feb 2018 19:19, "Sheehan, Jeremy" <JEREMY.SHEEHAN@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Guru’s,
My boss is asking me to compile a list of typical job functions for a DBA. I
came up with a brief list, but would like to hear any other recommendations
that you might have. What he said was, “We don’t want to go into great detail,
but not be too vague either. Somewhere between the 10,000ft and 1,000ft view.
Agile Work
Backup/Recovery
Change Deployment
Database Design
Database Install
Documentation
DR Activities (testing/maintenance)
Lifecycles
Performance Tuning/Monitoring
Scripting DB/Host
Solution Design
On-call/Operations
Thanks in advance,
Jeremy
