When I was a production DBA, I tended to view my job as trying to provide a stable service. My goal was to be like the telephone, water, or electrical companies: provide a service is always on, dependable, and "just works."

I think for people that work on production systems, that should be your goal. People ought to get the same level of reliability they get from the electrical outlet or water faucet. How you do that is up to you, but you should at least get to that level of service.

As an entire group, however, I think IT can do more. I think that IT should be viewed as a strategic part of the company, and the collective brainpower of the employees ought to be turned loose to build systems and solutions that create value for the company. Most IT people love to solve problems, so turn them loose on solving problems, and reap the benefits.

It's certainly not that simple, but I do think IT ought to be viewed as something other than a commodity, which is what is talked about in this article along with a few ways you can get IT to be more. There are some good suggestions there, and I'd add that allowing people to work on projects that interest them. That has worked for Atlassian and my own company, Red Gate, with down tools week.

This isn't as simple as just giving employees free reign. People that work in technology sometimes get enamored with the technology itself. That's not necessarily bad in small doses, but it is important that people working in technology see themselves as getting things done for the business, and not just working with some cool new technology. Good leadership and management is essential to keep from getting lost playing with something.

You might think about making the case at your job to get a little free time to work on some pet project that will help the company out. Write it up and you just might find the chance to "play" with something while you are at work.

Steve Jones

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