My experience isn't one you want to use.. GRIN

As a consultant, I worked on teams that were typically pretty small, no more than 5-10 people. Not once did we have a DBA involved. These were SQL Server projects. We were involved in development work.

We also did work for an engineering firm that used Filenet. They had Oracle DBAs, but we did not provide that experience at all. Our team was typically 1-2 people.

I also worked for two development firms. In one of them we had 6 developers, all of whom did their own DBA work, but it was with a DBase style database. The other was a SQL Server database, with one Cobol developer, three VB developers, and one QA member. Again, no DBA, but one developer "owned' that responsibility. He was clearly qualified to play that role.

In my current role development is not done internally. We purchase software. We have no official DBAs, but one who "supports" Oracle, and then I support approximately 40 separate SQL Server production database instances. There is a slightly smaller count of test systems. My role is an Analyst, though, so technically speaking, we have no real DBA.

I have to think that either I have had a lot of bad luck in positions, or hopefully, I have been able to play multiple roles well enough that the choice has been made to save the money. Either way, I truly hope my experience is unusual, but I fear it is not.