Re: Becoming ORACLE DBA

On Sat, 2 Jul 2005 10:35:21 -0600, "Mark A" <nobody_at_nowhere.com> wrote:

>There is one aspect of working as a DBA that has not been mentioned and is
>often more important. That is as a database designer. The physical database
>design has a huge impact on the success of a project and the ability to come
>up with a flexible, but well-performing database design is one of the most
>important aspects of a DBA. This requires a knowledge of the business,
>application development, and the ability to work well with development
>teams. Poor database designs are the number one reason that application
>development projects fail.

I don't know what your background is, but my experience is that developers usually do all the design. That usually results in a database without referential integrity, and not even adhering to 1NF, let alone to 3NF. Obviously, there is nothing a DBA can do about that. However, when the database performs poorly, invariably exactly those developers start blaming the DBA.
When the DBA can make clear, it is not a database problem, but an application problem, the developers usually come up with all kind of silly assertions about their product, like 'enforcing integrity in the application server is much more efficient' and usually flatly refuse to repair the flaws and errors demonstrated.

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Sybrand Bakker, Senior Oracle DBA