Great article!
One thing I spend a lot of time doing is connectivity; ADO, OLE DB, ODBC, connection strings etc. Being an issue with scripting and programming, is might be a intermediate task - to use your steps. There are several performance and security issues to consider in connectivity, and often the programmers and the administrator turn to the DBA's for help.
The three steps I think is a good guidance.
/Niels Grove-Rasmussen