• Barkingdog (8/28/2012)


    In addition to our Microsoft Sql Server farm, I’m responsible for the Admin of our SharePoint and TFS farms, writing SSIS packages, query tuning, converting old COM+ objects to COM object. It’s crazy. The company is talking about getting a junior DBA to help me out, but first I want to see if anyone has thoughts on how to deal efficiently with this situation.

    *blink*

    My word. Sharepoint alone can be a multi-man job. That's... a lot. I've been there though in small shops.

    First thing to implement is a big old sign that you can flip down when you're in code-trance trying to get something important done. "Send an email if it's not on fire, I'm busy." That will help (only help) with the constant interruptions.

    Second, I'd recommend you get the boss to farm out the COM conversions. It's a lot of tedious work but can be reasonably contracted. A 3 month contract at a reasonable rate will probably get that off your plate entirely.

    Next, I'd definately block out a section of time daily (even if it has to move around) for about 2 hours a day so you can get work done in spite of the million meeting managers. You're too spread across the company for them to know the impact of the others, so you'll have to handle that yourself.

    Finally, and to visually drive home a point, every task you've got 'due' stick on a notepad. Get yourself a wall or whiteboard and 'prioritize' these items as necessary. When you're not sure, drag your boss over and have him review the list with you and ask him where it falls. You're too busy to try to deal with the political wrangling, let him do it. You might possibly be the six million dollar man but you just can't be in two places at once.

    That's a rough position. You'll have to move slowly. The DBA is the least of your worries, honestly. Sharepoint isn't easily transmitted except through painful experience which will eat a lot of your time. COM conversion isn't even in a DBA's purview, usually. TFS will depend on how much is actually involved for you, but that should be pretty light as an admin. SSIS is something you can hand off to a real Junior, but query optimization usually takes time to learn the ins and outs to do well, which is more training time you'll have to take. You probably really need another II on staff just to handle the majority of the database requests so you can concentrate on, and clear off, the extraneous workload.


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