Re: Data Management and Database Management

"Laconic2" <laconic2_at_comcast.net> wrote in message news:<_v6dncqyofyvBNTcRVn-pg_at_comcast.com>...
> What's the difference, if any, between managing a database and managing the
> data contained in a database.
>
> In terms of people's roles and responsibilities, what are the advantages of
> having the same person responsible for managing the database and the data in
> it? What are the disadvantages?

I'm not quite sure what you are meaning by these terms. To me, "managing a database" sounds like what I think of as the technical DBA role - backups, system tuning, applying DBMS upgrades and patches, etc. Stuff I don't want to have to know how to do in other words.

My interest is in designing the database, including all the constraints required to preserve the integrity of the data, and the security of it (roles and privileges), application tuning etc. Is that data management, or database management, or a bit of both (or neither)?

Then there is looking after the correctness of the data: ensuring that the department table contains only data that corresponds to actual departments in the organisation, etc. This is the responsibility of someone "in the business" - it doesn't require any knowledge of how DBMSs work. Is that data management?

I guess based on my interpretation above, once the database has been implemented and bedded in (and assuming no changes are ever required!), my job (the middle one) is over, and that leaves the other 2 very distinct and important roles:
- The DBA: managing the DBMS
- The "data manager": looking after the correctness and completeness of the data. Received on Fri Sep 17 2004 - 14:39:22 CEST