We seem to live in a society of yet more and more tests, more and more certification. If my sons want to drive my RV with a car attached they have to take six driving tests now. Does it make a difference?

The best DBA's are those that not only understand their own jobs but the context in which they do their work, so would such certification be of high value? Are the Microsoft products really that good? Look more at TFS and it's facilities for managing schema changes and you will see facilities that specifically accommodate bad development practices.

Certificates can breed arrogance and are no guarantee.

I rarely find I work with people with more than the most basic of qualifications although I always work on the biggest projects around. One senior consultant has a CSE in metalworking and that is all, but he has worked for a top US Investment Bank in a critical position.

In many disciplines, such as being an Architect in building design you must be chartered or else your employer is legally liable. This is never applied in IT.

Decisions are rarely made by those with the necessary depth of understanding to correctly evaluate the relative importance of the information they have.

If a DBA does not know the syntax he (or she) will very quickly get caught out.

That said there are still a lot of cowboys in our business, and I am qualified to state this - I have the hat and the boots!

EurIng Jane Dunn CEng, CITP, MSc IT (Dist), BEng Hons, MBCS.