Jeff Moden (9/24/2011)
To put my own slant on what she said, I believe that a lot of excellent DBA's have simply tired of the fight with stupid people (as in people who don't know better but won't listen, either). A DBA has to respect everyone's budgets for both money and time no matter how ridiculous such budgets may seem. I believe that most DBA's worth their salt all have fought and, maybe, still fight for doing things the "right way" such as using stored procedures instead of T-SQL embedded in supposely "managed code".
That's one nice thing about been a consultant. When the budgets are stupidly low or the client is doing exactly the opposite of what's advised I can walk away and tell them to call me when they get realistic (and I've done that once)
We need a book of real stories where poor planning, shortcuts, and omissions taken to meet some bloody schedule or budget contrived during a conversation on the golf course or in an elevator have caused major catastrophes or serious "Black Eyes" in the eyes of customers. We need them to understand the differences between front-end code and what databases are really all about. We need to scare the hell out of them with the truth that they apparently can't see now.
I promised Tony an article on just that (based on my time with the "Client from Hell"). Just have to find the time to write it.
I doubt it'll change anything though. The people that most need to read it won't or won't believe that it applies to them.
One thing I noticed at the Client from Hell was that the IT manager stuck to her snap-decisions and poor processes even when references and books and industry authorities had been quoted and provided that explained (with reasons) that her chosen path was a poor one.
I got so sick of her 'time estimations' at one point that I loaned her my copy of "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art" (which, come to think of it, I never got back). I saw her reading it a couple of times. She didn't change.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability