Assumptions

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Assumptions

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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July 8, 2010 at 10:15 pm

#141858

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Assumptions

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Mike Cunningham Old Hand Points: 398 More actions · Answer 1

good morning.... assumptions... well, I still find the biggest has to be that the users in work (and out, including neighbours, friends etc) seem to think that all we want to do as IT professionals is talk about computers and tell them how to fix them, and spend many an evening working for free for them.... don't get me wrong, I like giving advice where it's followed and proves successful, but the midnight phone calls complaining about not understanding the advice drive me mad!!! lol

P Jones SSChampion Points: 12361 More actions · Answer 2

1. That users know how to use basic windows and the applications they have e.g. how to maximise a window!

2. That we understand every TLA and buzzword around - too many civil servants talk and write in three letter acronyms and IT people talk in buzzwords.

My favourite was a pompous military man at a meeting who had various items identified as a JIPOD.

Afterwards it turned out that it was a "Jolly important piece of data" 😀

Tobar SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4876 More actions · Answer 3

That because "we did it that way last time", means we did it correct.

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Livin' down on the cube farm. Left, left, then a right.

bwillsie-842793 Ten Centuries Points: 1359 More actions · Answer 4

#1 worst assumption I keep having to overcome:

That what we knew yesterday still applies to or answers today's problems.

Phil Factor SSC-Insane Points: 20244 More actions · Answer 5

from the MCITP exam 70-443 training kit:

'Nuclear Explosions and Meteors are two examples of disasters that you simply will not plan for unless you are in a government agency or an emergency response organisation. Other types of rare and unusual explosions fit into the category of items that are not normally planned for.

Phew. That's one less job for me then.

Best wishes,
Phil Factor

Ian T SSCommitted Points: 1669 More actions · Answer 6

The assumptions I most frequently run into are that DBAs are a "catch all" for any database issue, no matter how remote.

If the word database is used in the description of an issue, then it is a DBA issue. If the name of the company that released a DBMS is used in the description of an issue, then it is a DBA issue, even though that company builds/sells other software.

I also run into the assumption that the DBAs know everything about every application and the way each application uses a database.

When I support a new (to me) database, I have to let go of my assumptions that best practices have been used. Sometimes, valid reasons (political, financial) cause the DBAs to overlook best practices.

WayneS SSC Guru Points: 95460 More actions · Answer 7

Someone wrote a complicated view once. It was used in a stored procedure, but since it didn't have all the columns the proc needed, joined back to the tables that the view was based on to get the necessary additional data. Performance was bad, and when they took the logic of the view and put it directly into the proc where they could get the additional columns, performance was now better. So, boss decreed that views are "bad" and are not to be used. (This happened all before I started working there.)

Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes

If you can't explain to another person how the code that you're copying from the internet works, then DON'T USE IT on a production system! After all, you will be the one supporting it!

Links:
For better assistance in answering your questions
Performance Problems
Common date/time routines
Understanding and Using APPLY Part 1 & Part 2

Shawn Melton SSC-Insane Points: 24685 More actions · Answer 8

Premo number 1-O:

It must be the database!

Shawn Melton
Twitter: @wsmelton
Blog: wsmelton.github.com
Github: wsmelton

cathy.baker Hall of Fame Points: 3412 More actions · Answer 9

The one size fits all backup strategy. Backup strategy driving the recovery instead of recovery needs determining the backup strategy.

TravisDBA SSCoach Points: 15780 More actions · Answer 10

The number one assumption that I have to overcome and explain almost everyday to CIOs,Managers, developers, project managers, help desk, business analysts and end users is:

"When you get an error in what ever it is you are doing don't just assume that it must be a database issue". Sometimes it can be, but many times it is not. I can't begin to tell you how many useless wild goose chases this has caused me at all hours of the day and night simply because people automatically jumped to this assumption right off the bat...:)

"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"

Victor Schmitt SSC Journeyman Points: 93 More actions · Answer 11

The only rule is there are Exceptions...In fact everything is an exception.

When you think you understand the business rules to develop a system, the rules change.

Never A$$ume the rules won't change.

Nevyn SSChampion Points: 14210 More actions · Answer 12

Mike Cunningham (7/9/2010)
good morning.... assumptions... well, I still find the biggest has to be that the users in work (and out, including neighbours, friends etc) seem to think that all we want to do as IT professionals is talk about computers and tell them how to fix them, and spend many an evening working for free for them.... don't get me wrong, I like giving advice where it's followed and proves successful, but the midnight phone calls complaining about not understanding the advice drive me mad!!! lol

You don't think lawyers/doctors/auto mechanics/etc.... encounter the same issue with their speciality? I assure you they do.

Ian T SSCommitted Points: 1669 More actions · Answer 13

Paraphrased conversation between a hotel gift shop attendant and me, when I was attending the PASS conference in Denver:

Them: Are you in town for vacation?

Me: I am in town for the PASS conference.

Them: What is that?

Me: The Professional Association for SQL Server conference.

Them: (puzzled look)

Me: It's a conference for people who work with databases.

Them: So what do you do?

Me: (I responded with a somewhat lengthy description, because I tried to take out most of the technical words and descriptions used in the industry)

Them: (pause) So you work with computers?

Me: Er, ... yes.

Them: Maybe you can help me with this. I am having a problem with my home network ...

jay-h SSCoach Points: 18816 More actions · Answer 14

Assumptions get a bad rap, even though though they must regularly be re-evaluated.

Life would be impossible without thousands of assumptions me make each day. We assume the bridge we are about to cross has not collapsed overnight, that we will not be struck by lightning on our trip to work, that the majority of people we encounter speak the local language, that the government is still functioning pretty much as it did yesterday....

Evolution provided the mechanism of assumptions based on experience (not just to humans but to many animals including the critter in the picture). We can waste incredible amounts of time checking everything constantly from first principles. The problem is not assumptions as such, but the lazy over-reliance on them that is the problem. I can assume that the majority of users can open and understand the email I sent them, but I still have to be prepared for the ones that don't. I can assume that my database will be running tomorrow, and that my backup tapes will be available and readable, but a plan B is necessary as well.

The correct advice is not "never assume", but what will you do if your assumptions occasionally are wrong.

...

-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --