JustRightOfCenter (8/31/2015)
@Jeff Moden, I am a "developer" (21 years experience, 20.5 years SQL experience). No excuses here. I say if you are currently in this kind of situation then find a new employer. Of course, that is only if you actually know your stuff, which it sounds like you do because otherwise you probably wouldn't realize that the situation you describe is unacceptable. 😉
Good to make the acquaintance of a fellow "old salt". Welcome aboard.
To be sure, it's not my employer that has a problem. We've been practicing the notion of "DevOps" long before the term was invented. We just call it "Team Work". I'm a DBA that sits right in the middle of the Web Developers so that we can bounce ideas off each other at the drop of a hat... any hat. Good bunch o' Joes I'm working with.
The current batch of horrors is coming through on a 3rd party app. The other things I mentioned were either for previous companies that I worked at (and now you know why some of the are in the "previous" category) or some companies that I'm helping out as a "consultant". I will admit that when I got to this current company, they were just getting over the idea of "code first" from a 3 or 4 year development. 10 minute timeouts multiple times during the day were the rule rather than the exception when I first got here. The relatively "new group" of folks really get it and, together, we've not only repaired a wealth of sins but have prevented committing the same sins. If I had to say, this is probably the best group of Developers (including the Dev Manager. the Enterprise Architect, the VP of Infrastructure, the CIO, every one on their teams, and the PMs in all that) that I've ever worked with and it's not just a honeymoon, either. We've been working together for nearly 4 years now.
The really great part is that we're able to churn out a whole bunch because it's a very rare occasion when any new code breaks even in QA or UAT never mind Production.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.