I'm currently on the dev end of a bad little duel between the dba and dev sides of the house. Acquisitions and the like have forced some of it, pride and bad methodology others. Where I'm at now used to be a cowboy shop. QA was barely sneezed on as you passed the salad bar by for the meat of production. They'd do four rolls in a day if they had to, to get it right. Problem was our users/UAT is now used to only working off production to check production changes. Argh. Needless to say along the way they royally shot themselves in the foot, to CEO level of notice.

Mind you, I came in after the fact. Now they've got full change controls in place and I'm trying, from the underbelly, to convince the rest of this dog to wag its tail. They're incredibly frustrated at not being able to run amok. Now, I'll admit, not being able to pull up sysprocesses when something I'm optimizing isn't making sense (alright, Mr. Proc, just what ARE you doing?) or doing a trace can get frustrating, but it's proper build methodology.

I *know* this from both sides, and am constantly defending the people who have chained me to the table... and that's what it feels like. Imagine someone who's never worked the other side of the data house. It's miserable for them. All a DBA can do is commiserate, explain, teach... and remember not to leave the keys out.