March 9, 2015 at 9:15 am
GoofyGuy (3/9/2015)
Any suggestions for suitable descriptive words for types of database?
'Web service'.
Abstracting out the database layer from the application offers a number of advantages -- not the least of which is not having to deal with cranky DBAs.
😉
The problem is that the developers typically create the web services. What's best is abstracting using stored procedures, with or without web service calls.
Many IT ships do the complete opposite of database abstraction, which is "code first" application development, where the tables are auto-generated. This leads to stove pipe database design, which is not only logically inconsistent across the organization but also poorly designed in terms of performance and data integrity.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
March 9, 2015 at 9:27 am
Eric M Russell (3/9/2015)
GoofyGuy (3/9/2015)
Any suggestions for suitable descriptive words for types of database?
'Web service'.
Abstracting out the database layer from the application offers a number of advantages -- not the least of which is not having to deal with cranky DBAs.
😉
The problem is that the developers typically create the web services. What's best is abstracting using stored procedures, with or without web service calls.
Many IT ships do the complete opposite of database abstraction, which is "code first" application development, where the tables are auto-generated. This leads to stove pipe database design, which is not only logically inconsistent across the organization but also poorly designed in terms of performance and data integrity.
Your post proves my point: DBAs are cranky. (Just kidding.)
I think it's an unfortunate shop in which 'only DBAs' or 'only developers' design and deploy web services. In our shop, the DBAs and developers work together to design, test, and implement web services, based on functional specs provided by business analysts. Key to the process is designing for reusability of the service across a range of web applications, so that 'stove-piping' is avoided. The DBA will usually write a sproc to emit the data; the developer wraps a web service around it. The DBA and developer are jointly responsible for testing the service.
March 9, 2015 at 9:47 am
DBA's arn't born cranky; it's an acquired attitude. It does seem to me that unqualified developers (at least in terms of database design) get the first crack at a new project, and the database expert is called in afterward to mop up the mess. It's hard to feel like one is making a difference in that type of envrironment. Personally, I'd love to move into a greenfield opportunity, even if it meant walking away from a position I've invested years in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenfield_project
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
March 9, 2015 at 10:00 am
Eric M Russell (3/9/2015)
DBA's arn't born cranky; it's an acquired attitude. It does seem to me that unqualified developers (at least in terms of database design) get the first crack at a new project, and the database expert is called in afterward to mop up the mess. It's hard to feel like one is making a difference in that type of envrironment. Personally, I'd love to move into a greenfield opportunity, even if it meant walking away from a position I've invested years in.
Some shops do in fact have an internal 'culture' which allows developers to run rampant, at the high cost of poorly-designed databases and the emotional happiness of DBAs; and I know it's terribly difficult to change that culture, unless one is positioned at or near the top of the organisation. Your desire for 'greener fields/pastures' is certainly an understandable one.
If it helps assuage your grief at all, it does seem there is a growing movement in the development community which (belatedly) recognises 'it's all about the data'; perhaps an outcome of this will be a recognition that it's also about the stewards of the data.
March 9, 2015 at 10:17 am
GoofyGuy (3/9/2015)
Eric M Russell (3/9/2015)
DBA's arn't born cranky; it's an acquired attitude. It does seem to me that unqualified developers (at least in terms of database design) get the first crack at a new project, and the database expert is called in afterward to mop up the mess. It's hard to feel like one is making a difference in that type of envrironment. Personally, I'd love to move into a greenfield opportunity, even if it meant walking away from a position I've invested years in.Some shops do in fact have an internal 'culture' which allows developers to run rampant, at the high cost of poorly-designed databases and the emotional happiness of DBAs; and I know it's terribly difficult to change that culture, unless one is positioned at or near the top of the organisation. Your desire for 'greener fields/pastures' is certainly an understandable one.
If it helps assuage your grief at all, it does seem there is a growing movement in the development community which (belatedly) recognises 'it's all about the data'; perhaps an outcome of this will be a recognition that it's also about the stewards of the data.
Some teams naturally understand this (or is it experience?) so recognise that there isn't a one-to-one mapping from the UI, through web services and stored procedures, to the table. Also, the systems where the developers are in control of the database are usually when no one has considered that the database may end up with many systems as clients.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
March 9, 2015 at 10:25 am
... systems where the developers are in control of the database are usually when no one has considered that the database may end up with many systems as clients.
Oh, my, yes indeed. When I took charge of the development group at my current employer, there seemed to be an Access database for every conceivable (and inconceivable) thing; variations on the same database were common as well, as if the developer couldn't be arsed to analyse how to best modify the existing one.
The DBAs joined with me to clear out all the underbrush, and we've restored some degree of sanity along the way.
March 9, 2015 at 10:32 am
GoofyGuy (3/9/2015)
...and we've restored some degree of sanity along the way.
Except your own 😛
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
March 9, 2015 at 10:33 am
Gary Varga (3/9/2015)
GoofyGuy (3/9/2015)
...and we've restored some degree of sanity along the way.Except your own 😛
Gaz, I've made it a point of honour never to proclaim my own sanity!
😉
March 9, 2015 at 10:40 am
Eric M Russell (3/9/2015)
...Personally, I'd love to move into a greenfield opportunity, even if it meant walking away from a position I've invested years in.
That's what I'm doing right now, though I didn't know of that label. I was handed a preliminary schema that they shopped to various "consultants", one said it couldn't be done, another said that he could do it with zero code. Neither were hired.
I spent 2-3 months studying the preliminary schema, building/refining it in SQL 2014, interviewing people to clarify points, and a month and a half doing Access development and I have a pretty darn good alpha demo right now.
I can think of only a couple of Greenfield projects that I've had previously. I'm really loving this, I haven't gotten to do design and development like this in ages.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
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