March 5, 2016 at 1:52 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Saving Time Through Automation
March 5, 2016 at 4:45 pm
Boy, what a great editorial. It speaks to something I firmly believe in - automating the tasks that are boring, tedious or error-prone. Automating repetitive tasks frees up a great deal of time in a day. Then we can sit back and monitor the results and deal with any problems that are found. We all know that we have plenty of work to do in an average day, sometimes a lot more work than we have hours. Any time we can free up time, that time is available to deal with whatever unknowns come up. Sometimes my morning greets me with a surprise performance problem, a problem with a task someone ran or some other new question. Having the time to deal with it is priceless.
I don't know about the chart of time spent versus time gained because I haven't done the math on it. There's certainly a payoff of time invested in automation versus time saved, but it doesn't count the time saved because the error-prone task is automated and you don't have to re-work anything. It also doesn't count the intangible of having more time freed up during the day.
Then there's the points Steve made about making work less tedious and removing stress. Those are also priceless.
Again, great editorial, Steve.
March 7, 2016 at 1:32 am
100% agree with the article. I also believe that this includes testing (with an eye to the issues discussed http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/138608/[/url] of course).
Well written scripts (including appropriate comments) documents the task as well. Storing the automation scripts ensures a history of the process is maintained. Storing the automation scripts and output in some form can provide enough data for auditing purposes as well.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
March 7, 2016 at 2:17 am
Whole heartedly agree with this.
An old boss of mine called it "working hard to be lazy" - not quite right but I knew what he meant.
I get an email from each of the servers I look after showing any failed jobs, amount of disk space etc every morning. Any new servers I get, I just run the script to create the appropriate database, objects and jobs and check for the emails on a daily basis.
-------------------------------Posting Data Etiquette - Jeff Moden [/url]Smart way to ask a question
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March 7, 2016 at 6:14 am
You've never run out of work?
I reguarly automate, and on average, I run out of work every 18 months in my career. It's the only way I've ever found to get a raise in software engineering, is to run out of work and change companies.
Ted Seeber
I find your secrets in your data.
http://www.informaitonr.us
March 7, 2016 at 6:40 am
seebert42 (3/7/2016)
You've never run out of work?...
Never. Only budget.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
March 7, 2016 at 6:59 am
Gary Varga (3/7/2016)
seebert42 (3/7/2016)
You've never run out of work?...Never. Only budget.
Agreed. Never. There's always something to automate or improve.
March 7, 2016 at 7:07 am
Running out of budget is running out of work. It means you'll be kicked out like yesterday's trash.
It might happen quickly. It might happen slowly by simply not being given any new assignments and having your network access and hours slowly reduced so that you can't automate other areas that need automating.
But it is running out of work.
Ted Seeber
I find your secrets in your data.
http://www.informaitonr.us
March 7, 2016 at 8:07 am
seebert42 (3/7/2016)
Running out of budget is running out of work. It means you'll be kicked out like yesterday's trash.It might happen quickly. It might happen slowly by simply not being given any new assignments and having your network access and hours slowly reduced so that you can't automate other areas that need automating.
But it is running out of work.
I understand that it has the same outcome (especially as I am a freelancer) but depending on ones point of view they are or are not the same.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
March 7, 2016 at 8:29 am
I agree with this and have been thinking of things I can automate in my current job. What does surprise me though is how little things are automated already. In this case and situation it isn't always due to the developer or DBA not being aware of automating simple tasks, there are sometimes other factors involved.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
March 7, 2016 at 10:03 am
The big win with automating installs is not time savings. That's gravy. The big win is repeatability/testability meaning fewer mistakes.
March 7, 2016 at 10:28 am
cdesmarais 49673 (3/7/2016)
The big win with automating installs is not time savings. That's gravy. The big win is repeatability/testability meaning fewer mistakes.
There's a lot of truth here.
March 7, 2016 at 10:28 am
cdesmarais 49673 (3/7/2016)
The big win with automating installs is not time savings. That's gravy. The big win is repeatability/testability meaning fewer mistakes.
Absolutely. Which in turn saves a hidden time cost.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
March 7, 2016 at 11:04 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (3/7/2016)
cdesmarais 49673 (3/7/2016)
The big win with automating installs is not time savings. That's gravy. The big win is repeatability/testability meaning fewer mistakes.There's a lot of truth here.
Definitely. It speaks to the automation and avoiding rework point of my post on Saturday. This reminds me of a previous editorial you wrote along the same lines, but with a different slant to it. I'm not complaining - it's a very important lesson and is always worth reading.
March 7, 2016 at 11:12 am
The cartoon chart is irrelevant in cases where I want to be prepared to solve crises in seconds; it may take me hours or days to create scripts, say, to automate determining the dates and locations of the last full, differential, and transaction log backups and generating the proper sequence of statements to restore it.
Not identifying patterns and automating processes will keep you stuck at the kindergarden level of efficiency as a DBA or developer.
The most common activity I do hundreds of times per day is copy, cut, and paste. I've mapped those to my mouse wheel clicks of left, center, and right.
Hierarchical scripts and Checklists (treepad or theguide), Key macros (quickmacros), templates, dashboard-like scripts, code generation, grep search and replace tools (regex buddy), sql code guard, sql complete, and other methods should all be used to make you more effective and efficient.
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