Comments on: Bottlenecks and Bank Balances

By: Jonathan Gardner

Jonathan Gardner — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:13:26 +0000

Your post hits the nail on the head once again. I wanted to affirm two key things I took away from your article.

1. Obtain performance metrics. Tangible data is king. I agree that your business manager’s might not know what page life expectancy is but when push comes to shove and you are in a board room with managers that claim it is your fault that their application is running slowly, you will thank your lucky stars that you have numbers to help prop up your case. I am forever dealing with people claiming things are ‘slow’ and I am doing nothing about it. I sometimes enjoy this conversation. I look at their bosses and say, ‘…actually here is the performance data which I have recorded and used SQL Server Analysis Services to help me process and here is what the real problem is…’. I of course always thank Brent for his link on how to analyze perfmon results in the cloud. 10 times out of 10 when all they have is ‘it’s slow’ and you have actual numbers, preferable with pretty colors and graphs, you will win.

2. Let someone else fight the political fight about what takes priority. Don’t get in the middle of it or you will end up with no hair eating bacon flavored ice cream and turn into a giant ball of stress. That is what your boss and your boss’ boss get paid for. Make them work for their money while you do what you love, being a dba of course.

Brent, Thanks again! Great post.

By: Stephen Dyckes

Stephen Dyckes — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:42:23 +0000

I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep a tangible record of the improvements! And then to toot your own horn (not many other people will toot your horn for you). Great article as usual, you hit the nail on the head.

By: David Stein

David Stein — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:29:53 +0000

“All DBAs are consultants.” So True.

By: Stray__Cat

Stray__Cat — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:56:37 +0000

I see hope Brent. )
This topic is more a bsuiness topic than not. I keep thinking that IT is business and it’s driven by the same business metrics that drive the rest of the company.
Younger developers/DBAs/Whatever should understand this as the first lesson the first day at work.

As usual, excellent!