venting my spleen

An application project is getting under way that, to me, has the smell of disaster written all over it. Please tell me my lack of dba experience is causing me unnecessary worry.

Project is built around a purchased package. Said package will remain anonymous at this point, but I will say it is not SAP. As it turns out, the package requires tablespaces with specific names. And I am told that it requires certain tables to be placed in specified tablespaces. This looks like a tuning disaster waiting to happen.

My first thought is that the only SQL the app could be issuing that would require a specific TS name would be a CREATE TABLE statement. Why would an app need to be creating tables? And what would be the justification for not using the default TS for the application's own userid?

When the project was first started, we (DBA) were told to make a SYSDBA userid available to the development team. This gave me heartburn in and of itself. Then last week, while working with them on a non-DB performance problem, it came to light that they were concerned about gettng time on the server because they didn't even know they could connect with SQL*Plus from a client machine!!!

I'm sure some of you have seen this kind of thing before. Do I have cause for concern? If so, what problems can I anticipate, and what can I do to minimize them?

TIA.

--
Ed Stevens
(Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of my employer.)