Re: Oracle DBA team management

See in line. Also, all of these issues have the same answer as any I.S. question, "It depends."

"Ess Wiego" <swiego_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:936daf3f.0409021040.3a93bfeb_at_posting.google.com...
> I have been looking high and low for information on DBA "best
> practices" from a management perspective. I am young (20s) with a
> rich IT experience but only five years experience in database and app
> server administration, at only two shops. Both shops were
> "shoot-from-the-hip" shops with smart people who knew what they were
> doing but no documentation or structure. A month ago I was hired to
> lead and grow a team of DBAs at a growing company that also has
> treated the DBA role haphazardly. (To wit: no backups; developers had
> total control of production; no standards re: managing accounts,
> ensuring security, simulating recovery, etc.; no separation of
> responsibilities or clear idea of what DBAs are responsible for what.)
>
> I've addressed most of the technical issues (we have backups!) but now
> I have to grow the team as well as structure it. I've found very
> little information online about what practices work well. Should we
> have a separation of duties between application and system DBAs?

Often a good idea, often a bad idea. Depends on the size of the shop and security requirements.

  What
> are good on-call schedules to try?

Any schedule that

1. Leaves you out <g>, and
2. Doesn't encourage staff turnonver
3. Ask the staff what they would like.

  What sorts of topics should be
> covered regularly at DBA team meetings?

Whatever is important to the company's business that week/month/quarter. Note the emphasis on COMPANY BUSINESS.- not necessarily technical issues. Company business drives the technical issues. Never forget that.

  How to manage application
> server and database server responsibilities within the same team?

Up to you. Depends on the people, their skills, and what skills are needed and how much on-the-job staff development you want to do. Or flip a coin.

> What are good interview strategies?

My opinion, which many will disagree with, which is fine, as this is really as much an art as a science...
Present real situations and ask what the person would do. If they respond with "I would monitor this and that..." it is a good indication that they have little hands-on experience, and just learned from the OCP book. You want answers that say I would DO this and that. Ask questions that you know they would not know the answer to. See if they try to BS an answer or tell you where they would go to find the answer. A good DBA knows _where_ to find answers. Present a problem that you solved and see if they can solve it. My personal preference is NOT to ask syntax questions. All it tells you is they know the syntax- it doesn't tell you that they know how to use it. I would walk out of a job interview if someone wanted to test my knowledge of syntax. Look for someone who likes to solve problems, and can be creative.

  What kind of "DBA standards" do
> other shops follow?

What's a standard?

  How should developers and DBAs interact? And so
> on!
>

If they're not throwing coffee mugs (or chairs) at each other, you've done a good job. Received on Thu Sep 02 2004 - 14:26:55 CDT