RE: Software vendor using additional schemas for testing!
- From: "Robson, Peter" <pgro@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 10:20:47 +0100
Management will not understand technical arguements in favour of one strate=
gy or another.
You have to hit them with the issue of data quality, and integrity. The sys=
tem you describe seems to put these factors into question. Bring it down to=
money - a simplistic approach most management do understand. Consider the =
cost to the organisation of the database going pear-shaped. That's your bas=
e line. Then try and quantify the successive costs of each step towards you=
r perceived best system, with the financial costs of not doing that. Place =
a qualitative assessment of the vulnerablitiy of your present system to col=
lapse (a % figure has impact). Ultimately, you have to make a cost-assessme=
nt of doing / not doing something.=20
Whatever else, management will be very aware that if they ignore your advic=
e, and things go wrong, there will be a written document from yourself havi=
ng warned of the situation, which would leave them very exposed. That can c=
oncentrate minds.
Ho Hum - it all seems incredibly elementary, but its not the first time I h=
ave encountered this sort of ostrich-like attitude to database...
peter
edinburgh
> ------------------
> Original message, formatting fixed
> -------------------
>=20
> OK guys, need some help and ammunition here, so a bit of background
> first. I'm in my 3rd week in a new job where they are have a=20
> 3rd party
> financials app sitting on 8.1.7 on win2k. Software vendor=20
> is coming in
> today to make some changes.
>=20
> They've never had any in-house DBA skills and have relied=20
> solely on 3rd
> parties. No Oracle support contract (I'm working on getting this
> changed!). No DBA contract with 3rd party, only chargeable,=20
> ad-hoc work.
>=20
> So, they've talked about getting the data in the test/dev databases
> refreshed, far as I can see they only have one database. =20
> Turns out they
> have one database with three separate schemas. To refresh data, 3rd
> party has done export/import between the schemas. I've tried=20
> explaining
> that this is not ideal and that=3D20
> really they need a separate test system, but they don't understand.
> Absolutely no database knowledge in here, and it would seem that even
> the software vendor is lacking in this department. (Just to=20
> demonstrate,
> 3 redo log groups, 1 member per group size 1M, all sat in=20
> same location,
> 2 copies of controlfile, in same location - get the drift??)
>=20
> The work the software vendor is coming in to do is create 6=20
> new schemas
> as a way of providing 6 different=3D20
> 'staging areas' where copies of the live data can be kept at different
> points in time to help through year end. Once year end is=20
> completed they
> think they can use these 'staging areas' for testing enhancements.
>=20
> I can't look on Metalink, as no CSI number. I'm about to look at OTN
> and go RTFM's, which I only got today.
>=20
> What I would like, and quickly is some strong arguments as to why it
> should not be done this way and alternatives to suggest. I've already
> mentioned creating a dedicated test database. I've so far managed to
> hold off on the software vendor beginning work, but I now need to
> justify this to my manager and to the software vendor.=3D20
>=20
> TIA
>=20
> Lisa.
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>=20
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