Top 10 things a DBA should know

I'm interviewing people for a dba position for a small development company. Me and the headhunters and the candidates cannot seem to get together. I know that the title "dba" is used very broadly so it's hard to find a consensus, but I'm asking anyway: what are the top 10 things a "dba" should know?

I'm afraid to post my own list right now. Let me just state one thing that I *thought* was a reasonable entry: knowledge of first, second, and third normal form for database design. Here's another: understanding of the difference between optimistic and pessimistic locking.

Are these *not* things a "dba" should know? If not, then who on a project should know about such things?

I await answers, suggestions, etc.

Joshua Stern
JRStern_at_gte.net Received on Fri May 15 1998 - 00:00:00 CDT