Oracle-L: RE: Cary's book

From: Orr, Steve <sorr_at_rightnow.com>
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 2003 13:19:24 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.005D1FEE.20031003131924@fatcity.com>

You can obfuscate things with meaningless ratios (BCHR) but there's nothing quite like the cold hard truth of user focused response time analysis to get at the "business" end of the information services stick. Walk softly...

Confessions of a former damager... I started my career life as a damager and my career has since upwardly progressed to geekdom. I had a natural technical knack for things which I successfully ignored as a foolish youth thinking that damagement was where it was at. Eventually I heard an inner voice and "I came to myself" and changed careers as I got more in harmony with the way I'm made.

Anyway, one conclusion I came to was that since "power corrupts" and management has power, the most corrupt situations can usually be traced "up" to damagement. With power comes greater accountability, however, the damager types can be quite effective at covering things up or blaming the innocent so be "wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove" when it comes to pointing the finger in the direction of the upward ranks. To eliminate the dark corruption there's nothing quite so disinfecting as bright a light.

I think the world needs to be turned upside down a bit and a proper performance analysis will do just that. I've observed that often the worker bees have a better, more practical grasp of what the business is than do the "business managers" to whom they report. Having managers review employee performance is backwards. If the worker bees were allowed to evaluate each other AND their management the truth would really come out. Isn't getting the truth out what's it's all supposed to be about?

When we address things like performance we should talk about getting more for less, making effective use of our computing resources, and improving the bottom line. That's what management is able to hear but they'll phase out if you start talking about nanoseconds and algorithms. Nevertheless, quantifiable numbers are important so give it to them in pictures and graphs. If they question the numbers or your methods you can have the detail with you but don't make it the main part of your presentation, it belongs in the addendum. I point to the detail and invite them to review it for themselves if they have any doubts they want to discuss. To date no damagers have risen to that challenge. They don't really want to know the nitty gritty analysis details they just need to have confidence that you do. Express a sincere desire to improve the business and get them to feel like what they are hearing from you is nothing less than the un-sugar-coated gospel truth.

I repeat...
You can obfuscate things with ratios (BCHR) but there's nothing quite so powerful as the cold hard truth of user focused response time analysis for getting at the "business" end of the information services stick. Walk softly and get ready to swing that big stick with all that you have.

Steve Orr

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 9:50 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Mladen, this is not directed specifically at you, but you have raised something in my mind that often just irritates the heck out of me.

I often hear the term Damagement, damagers, etc... and I understand it, and have had more than a few occasions where a damager has killed me.... Management is far from perfect, and I've met a number of managers who deserve to be kicked in the back side and sent out on the street.

Yet, I often also wonder how much of this is OUR OWN FAULT. How many IT guys have I met that are way to passive, more than content to sit in there cubes and blame management, when the fault, at least in part, lies squarely with them. More than I can count. Lack of communication, lack of passion for ones own work, lack of vision, contentment in not understanding the big picture, the "I'm not paid to do this" syndrome or the "It's not my job" POV all in my eyes lead to as much failure as management. The guys who will not get their lazy behinds out of their chairs and go TALK to someone (other than the really good looking blonde down the isle) deserve to have their head chopped off as much as the manager they can't stand.

I've met so many who will sit in meetings and let managers say STUPID things, never correct, never interject and so the cycle of stupidity is perpetuated. Sure, there may be cultures that foster this type of behavior, but I see it in cultures that are quite open too.

Bottom line is that we have to refuse to be silent. We must go out and take a stand, and take some risk. We must LEARN about more than how Oracle works, we must learn how the business works. Those who do this are the successful ones, and my observation is that I rarely hear them cussing management. This is usually because, they either change the world around them, or they move on to a place where they can be effective.

My opinion, YMMV,

Robert

-----Original Message-----
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Sent: 10/3/2003 10:14 AM

I enjoy immensely reading Cary's book, but I have some questions that I want to ask publicly. Recently, I made a comment about Chris Lawson's book being a "Dale Carnegie book for a DBA" and now I see that Cary is also advising feeding the hungry business users ("buy him a sandwich").

It is true that many problems are consequences of inadequate communication, general lack of business knowledge in the "computer geek culture" and even disdain for it, but, in my opinion, many problems are also a consequence of incompetent managers ("damagers"), office politics, and hard times. Hard times present problems because people do not want to pay for a competent DBA but frequently hire a shaman or a witch doctor who "improves" on the system based on snake oil type techniques. If I cannot get more money then some bozo after a performance tuning course (example from Chris Lawson's book), why bother reading and investing into myself? A cynical geekish attitude and the "old boys" network will do just as well. Characteristics of the "performance analyst", as described in the book, are the ones of the field general (has the overview of the whole problem, motivates, manages the problem) but performance analysts frequently work for the drill sergeants who mostly care how are they dressed (you guessed it, I hate neckties) and did they show up early enough.

Now, after having indulged into lengthy preamble, let's ask the questions:

This book is meant for performance analysts. Do you plan on writing one for management, as well? If performance analysts are held back by the damagement,they cannot perform any of the good work you described in your book. You have been both a DBA and a VP, so you have the credibility in both roles.
Do you foresee a change for the role of a performance analyst in an organization to be more of a technical manager and less of a computer geek?
What will happen to the "traditional DBA"? Are we an endangered species? Should I be wary of the poachers?

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Author: Mladen Gogala
INET: mladen_at_wangtrading.com

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Author: Freeman Robert - IL
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Author: Orr, Steve
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