Re: Why an organization would need an enterprise DB team
- From: Robyn <robyn.sands@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 10:58:16 -0400
I am liking the idea of 2 DBA groups more and more these days. I've
always tried to stay involved with what's going on in development and
share information with developers, and to work with platforms to
design and implement a stable system, but it's getting harder and
harder to stay on top of both sides. Add to that, some of the best
DBA's for supporting developers aren't always the best at designing an
architecture to support the full life cycle of the system and vice
versa, and there may be good reason to have DBA's that are focused in
one area or the other. We've got some DBA's that are really good at
implementing a fast solution that addresses a business need, and they
somehow manage to trash the overall architecture in the process or
implement a solution that takes an enormous amount of care and
feeding.
I've had this idea lately of the database as a platform - probably
heard this phase some where else, but I don't recall where. Databases
should be managed similarly to the way the OS is managed; consistent
installs, patches, files systems and schemas. The components should
be interchangeable - moving a database from one server to another
should be seamless. Development DBA's could work with the developers
to determine the best design, but it would have to fit the database
platform architecture before it was promoted to production. SLA's and
Sox are pushing us in this direction whether we like it or not.
And on the other side, understanding the business needs, the data and
the latest development techniques is a critical skill set and working
with the developers to visualize and implement the best solution is
easier to do when you're not locked into a production support mindset.
The biggest drawback is making sure that we don't just move the wall
that development work gets thrown over - if the development DBA tosses
their changes to the production DBA without any real collaboration,
the situation essentially stays the same with an extra layer of red
tape in the middle. In theory, the two types of DBA's should be
working together throughout the process, but in theory, the developers
and DBA's should have been working together as well.
fwiw ... Robyn
On 3/18/07, Robert Freeman <robertgfreeman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Just to chime in a bit since this is somewhat related to a presentation I'm
doing at Collaborate...
I agree with Dennis, we have to get closer to where the work is! We old
DBA/DA types need to keep up. Data modeling really has not kept up with
Object modeling well, and now with evolutionary development methods like
Agile out there, we really are going to have to get caught up or we are
going to find we will be left behind. I don't think that companies are going
to be content to slow down application development so the database
designer/architect/developer can "Get it right" up front anymore and we have
to find a better way to work.
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