Re: OT - Advice for the Oracle Newbie

On 18/09/05, Mark Bole <makbo_at_pacbell.net> wrote:
> Corollary: under the right circumstances, one manager can do more harm
> than all the end-user, system engineers, and developers combined.

Very true. Especially managers who refuse to see that you can't build a secure and highly performing system on shaky foundations. Spending lots of money won't guarantee you a secure, high performance system but cutting the specification to save money will guarantee you bad performance and problems.

> Perhaps the
> hardest part of the newbie DBA's job is learning to recognize and avoid
> those circumstances.
>

Often the hardest part is dodging the blame for other people's bad decisions. When you're starting out (or even when you've got quite a few years under your belt) it can be very hard to challenge people more senior than yourself in the organisation but who have less knowledge than yourself about the products on their bad decisions. Unfortunately you have to.

This is where the collection of documentation, web links and books I mentioned in my earlier mail can come in useful. If you can produce a well documented written arguement against the bad decision then sometimes you can get the decision changed to something more likely to work, or at least know that your backside is covered when it all comes crashing down, hopefully not so badly that it takes the company with it.

Stephen

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