Great article!

I agree with the previous poster - understanding the context becomes more and more important as one progresses. There are so many ways to approach and solve a problem, and all of them can be valid and appropriate. It comes down to lots of trade-offs in the design and coding. Without context, it's hard to determine where the emphasis should be.

Also, in my experience, a DBA is most valuable because of the rationale (:wow approach to storing, organizing, retrieving and protecting a business's data. So, as time goes by, I have found myself being included in many more business meetings just to provide input and advice... definitely changing the nature of the job to more "soft" skills.

Thanks for a good article that helps to illuminate the path that some of us have "accidentally" travelled.

Ron C.