Re: How many DBA's?

Thanks for the input. I guess I should clarify more. Our organization is in a growth stage - especially with respect to information. This is the reason why we are attempting to consolidate DBA skills. Neither of our production systems are what you would call "stable" they are constantly adding new modules, incorporating new linkages and trying to meet new users requirements. In fact these systems were designed so that they would initially meet the core requirements and the rest of the requirements (which were vaguely identified in the initial analysis) would be added later.

Currently everything except the 4 smaller databases (which are new data initiatives) are managed by me and in addition to this I am responsible for application development about 2-3 days a week. I am now being requested to be DBA for other these groups who are establishing their own data initiatives. As things are going I am spending 30-50% (and growing) of my time in meetings and everything else is getting neglected. The only solution I can think of is to hire DBA's to work with me under my direction.

In the short term there will be little distinction between production and development dba's because most of the systems are in a growth phase. In the scenario where I am more a Data Manager, advising clients and overseeing our organizations data managment. I will have very little time to do actual dba work. So, I will have to have junior dba's. They will be junior and will have to be trained. The big question is how many? and I guess since Daniel mentioned it how I divide the work to prevent internal combustion. A large part of the work for the next 1-3 years will be development and the projects will not have DBA skills, they will rely on this new data group.

I guess one of the biggest problems is that this won't just be database administration, there will be significant involvement with projects and strategic direction of the organization and these things take time because of the politics involved.

Any suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated. Jane Received on Thu Feb 21 2002 - 19:24:49 CST