I agree. I think I'm a much better DBA due to my development background (COBOL/MVS (ahhh!) and .NET) than I otherwise would be if I had just got out of school and started working as a junior DBA moving code changes in and out of production and managing jobs, etc.. I've also worked help desk and network administration (where I was recruited out of) that I believe has helped to inform my system perspective immeasurably.

I don't generally see developers as the problem. Maybe the Entity Framework... sorry Lerman... 🙂 I think most of the responsibility can usually be laid at management's feet when they won't invest in training and development. This is part art and science as well as a practice and some things are best learned the hard(er) way then solely out of a book. Besides talent, the best DBA's I know also have a lot of experience. Management should aggressively foster that talent and offer opportunities that expose them to different aspects of the system whenever possible. I think spending time on both sides of the fence can help you better identify decision points where you or someone else may be coupling the data too tightly to the application and where the best trade-offs are.