I the application admins take over that responsibility, what the heck do they need DBA's for? :w00t:

We've had similar requests and have asked what it is they are looking for. Mostly they wanted the ability to create an ad hoc backup before running a batch process. So we created a way for them to do that by creating a batch program that would allow them to do this. Secondary to ad hoc backups they really wanted more attention from the DBA.

I don't know how many DBA's you have on your team/department, but maybe they are looking for someone to be more accessible/available. The long and short of it is, I would not grant them the ability to complete backups/restores or other admin functions for fear that something would accidentally get drop, deleted, maladjusted, or otherwise corrupted in the Database or the Server.