Re: Deadly sins againts database performance/scalability

"Galen Boyer" <galenboyer_at_hotpop.com> wrote in message news:ur7z4g4lh.fsf_at_standardandpoors.com...
> On Tue, 16 Dec 2003, paul_at_not.a.chance.ie wrote:
> >
> >
> > Mark.Powell_at_eds.com says...
> >
> >
> >> Then it is up to the developers who should know the data
> >> better than the DBA to make the right choices.
> >
> >
> > Are you suggesting that a DBA shouldn't have a notion about
> > what data is in his databases, and not know why it is there and
> > for what purpose it is being used?
> >
> > OK, maybe you didn't say "not have a notion" but you definitely
> > said "should know the data better than the DBA".
> >
> >
> > I disagree - a DBA should know more than application
> > programmers about what's in the DB's he manages and why - how
> > else can he make recommendations about how "things" could be
> > done far better on a far far higher level than, perhaps, the
> > programmers see the data? "Things" meaning "System
> > organisation", "optimisation", &c. &c.
>
> I'm not sure how a dba is supposed to do this. If the DBA is
> also the data architect, then, maybe. But then, the DBA will
> spend all his time exploring the business instead of architecting
> the database. I think it is a team effort. The DBA should be
> able to depend on a data architect to give him the needed
> information so he can make the decisions his application's
> datastore needs.
>
> The developers are going to be the experts at what the sqlcode is
> doing and the DBA should be able to depend on them so he can help
> them right more performant code and also stay away from bad code.

writing code that peforms acceptably means knowing things like (assume OLTP for the moment)

How many transactions/day do we do?
When do we do them?
What is a transaction anyway?
How many customers do we have? And products. How many order items would an order have on average - and what sort of range of values might items/order take.
What batch processes are run against this data set. How long do they have to run.
as well as how to write SQL\PL/SQL\JAVA\ASP

now you might call this design and have it as a separate role but my hunch is that DBAs tend to know these sorts of things far more than developers. Of course if you actually *sell* your product then you pretty much have no way of answering these questions, and then folk worry about software quality of 3rd party apps.

> I guess, nobody should think of themselves as the "sole" source
> of info.

I agree entirely.

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK