Professional Development for the SQL Server Technologist

This series of posts is dedicated to enhancing your soft skills.  For many technologists, the day-to-day grind of work tends to keep us focused on the SQL Server part of work and causes us to overlook the Professional.  While we, as technologists, spend the majority of our time honing hard, technology skills, but it’s important to remember that we are first and foremost employed to add value to the business processes of the organizations we work for.  In this series I will cover a wide variety of topics, including soft skills like management, teamwork, communications, time management, and negotiations, as well as semi-soft skills like budgeting, project planning, project estimation, and so forth.  And let’s face it, people who are good at the soft skills while also having strong technical skills often see better career growth and more opportunities than those of us who are purely technical.

To begin, I provide some homespun wisdom about effectiveness and efficiency in our jobs. These words are, of course, loaded with meaning and have produced multitudes of academic papers and big-name, New York Time best selling books.  Everyone wants to be more effective and more efficient in their job.  While I might bring up some of the more imaginative ideas and innovative concepts at other times in the series, I want to be direct with you today.  Just as the simplest concept for financial well-being (“Spend less money than you earn!”) is sometimes the hardest to implement, so too the simplest concept for effectiveness and efficiency can be hard to make a workplace rule.

The first and most elementary rule of efficiency is to spend the majority of your time working on projects that are your forte.  Management studies have shown that people aren’t just 50% or 80% more productive when working on what they’re best at, they’re actually 300%+ productive compared to activities where their skill is merely “satisfactory”.   Here’s an example, if you’re really good at crunching code, do not spend lots of time attending and running meetings.  Delegate that to another member of your time or find someone on your team who does enjoy that sort of thing.  If you’re exceptionally good at performance tuning or designing databases into relational integrity works of art, do not spend all of your time writing requirements.  You’re simply ruining your sweet spot for productivity.

Of course, many of us are on the prowl for a promotion or better job, which often require us to spend more time working on activities that are outside of our forte.  I’ll address how to get back to your strong points when your job asks more of you in a future post.

Now, there’s a similar easy and elementary rule for achieving high degrees of effectiveness.  The primary point to remember in being effective in your job is to focus your activities, at any given time, to only two or three things on which your performance will be judged.  This might sounds simple and easy, but I’m constantly surprised how many people find it almost impossible to say “No” when more work comes their way (and this also applies to their personal life at the PTA, with the kids’ activities, with the church or volunteer organization, and so forth). 

It’s very simple.  If you cannot focus on successfully closing out a small set of activities, you’ll fail once you reach the point of being overwhelmed.  Think of a juggler who seems quite competent juggling three balls.  But when they try to juggle five balls, they’re lucky that they can keep one of them from falling to the ground.  Plus, anyone watching is thinking “That person can’t juggle at all!” because they never saw the juggler successfully keeping three balls in the air.  So, learn how much you can handle and then, when asked to do more, respond with “I’d love to take on this new project, but what of my existing projects has to be put on hold?”  Taking on too many projects has the additional very detrimental effect of upsetting your work/life balance too, because most of us try to complete more projects by spending less time recuperating or with the family.

As with efficiency, we’ll come back in the future to specific techniques you can use to stay on task and limit the number of active projects you’re responsible for, even when management is asking you to take on more than you should.

In the meanwhile, think of other soft skill questions you might have and I’ll address them in future posts.

In my previous life I was a production DBA which meant my primary responsibility was recovery. I also took my job role to be that of a general SQL Server expert. I stayed general because no one person can possible be an expert in every facet under the SQL Umbrella. A few years ago I had my team start to specialize in different areas, so that we would have some deeper expertise in something like SSRS, but our primary responsibility remained with being able to recover. We were never asked to take part in database design, we were never asked to take part in anything, really. We were just told to fix things when they broke. That meant we needed to know a little bit about a lot of different things.

This morning I was reading up on row versioning (what? like you weren’t doing the same?) over at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345124.aspx and I came across this statement:

“The database administrator for a system is responsible for evaluating the impact on the system and applications of either of the row versioning–based transaction isolation schemes. The developer is responsible for understanding how to exploit the new isolation-level behaviors to build better applications.”

Wait a minute there…the developer is responsible for something? Do they know this? Has anybody told them yet?

So, let’s back up for a second here. Go and read a recent article by Brian Moran titled “Is There a Shortage of SQL Server Experts”. The title suggests one thing, “experts”, but then shifts to talk about a shortage of DBAs, and I’m not sure he meant to use that label but maybe he did.

Well, what about the developers? Shouldn’t they be experts as well?

My experience has been that the DBA is expected to be the expert in the shop, and that they need to play the Superhero role and come in at the 11th hour to explain everything in depth in terms that everyone (even managers) can understand. That ain’t easy. Worse still is when a developer spends eight months building something that doesn’t scale beyond the 100 rows they “tested” against and when you tell them they need to rethink their design you are met with something like “stop blaming my code, it isn’t the code!” (dude, yes it is, now sit down and shut up, I’m the expert here.)

So, who does what in your shop? Do your developers know that they should have an understanding of what row versioning is, and how it can be applied to build better applications? Or are you expected to know such concepts and to teach it to developers as well?

There are always a lot of new things to learn with SQL Server, but who in your shop is taking the time to stay on top of everything?

Many of you have some awareness regarding the 24 Hours of PASS events that I have helped to promote previously. When I was asked to help arrange for the upcoming event I targeted the list of current Summit speakers. This made logical sense to me since we want to make it a Summit preview. So I went ahead and sent out invitations to about 70 people, had roughly half of those respond, and then another percentage of those people managed to get me their abstract, bio, and headshots by the deadline.

In short, the end result is that I had about 28 or so people with all their stuff ready to go. I had to choose four of those to be alternates. That decision was mine and mine alone (more on that later).

About two days after I had made the final schedule I was notified that I neglected to include a subset of Summit speakers. See, the Microsoft speakers are chosen after the Community speakers. That means I never invited them to take part in the upcoming 24 Hours of PASS event. And since they are as much a part of the Summit as anyone else, it seemed fair to include them. But the schedule was already set, so how could I get them involved? It didn’t seem fair to push four Community speakers aside in order to make up for my oversight. Two wrongs don’t make a right, right?

As luck would have it, we had already decided to switch up the schedule for the event. Instead of 24 straight hours we split the sessions into two days of 12 hours each which meant we had room to insert extra sessions. We decided to insert sessions at the end of each day so as to not disrupt the current schedule in any way. This way we can give a true preview of the Summit, we just needed 28 hours to get it all done!

We will get the registration open soon enough and will notify everyone when you can sign up for these extra sessions.

Now…about that session selection process…I want to change things entirely for next time. I am kicking around some ideas, but whatever we do will involve the Community in some way. Right now I am thinking we should have the Community pick the sessions and speakers they most want to hear. Not sure how to make it all happen, but the idea of a “24 Hours of PASS: Community Choice” sounds real good. Maybe we could do it American Idol style and have rounds of voting until we get down to 24 finalists…

Lastly, this is my 500th blog post. That’s a whole lot of writing without really saying anything. Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone that ever felt motivated to leave a comment.

Hopefully that got your attention!

I’ve blogged previously about the SQL Bits conference in York on September 30th – October 2nd.

http://www.iainkick.com/archive/2010/07/vote-now-sql-bits-%e2%80%93-the-7-wonders-of-sql/

Voting for sessions is now closed and it’s time to decide if you are going to go.

One of the advantages of working for a sponsor is that we can offer a discount for attendees. The Thursday and Friday sessions require payment to attend and Quest are able to offer a 20% discount – just use the code QST20 when you register. The Saturday is free for everyone.

A lot of people I talk to struggle to convince their bosses of the value of the time off and cost required to attend these events. I firmly believe the standard of speakers (including Kevin Kline – SQL Server MVP from Quest, Brent Ozar -MCM SQL Server from SQLSkills and Buck Woody – Program Manager from Microsoft) and content at SQLBits is second to none in the UK for SQL Server and attendance will enhance your ability to do your job. The added bonus is York is a lovely place to visit, so I highly recommend the event for all SQL Server professionals.

What are the character traits of outstanding SQL Server Database Administrators (DBA) ?

You know what I’m talking about. There are DBA’s out there that go way above and beyond merely getting the job done. Managing huge workloads with ease and delivering them with class. But how do they do it?

I’m certain you have seen and experienced first hand what I’m talking about and yet it can be difficult to quantify what exactly it is that makes these individuals such outstanding professionals. Personally I do not consider there to be a magic formula but rather an assortment of desirable qualities and traits that are commonly present in outstanding DBA’s.

“What character traits and qualities do you think make an outstanding DBA?”

In no particular order, here are some of the traits that I have been able to identify and consider as desirable qualities of outstanding DBA’s.

1. Excellent Attention to Detail

"Ninja-like focus"

A DBA is regularly expected to perform complex administrative tasks incorporating multiple steps. Even with the assistance of a Play-By-Play or other detailed documentation, the outstanding DBA needs to be on the ball at all times and leave nothing to chance.

Working with mission critical production systems means you need to expect the unexpected. Check, double check and triple check implementations. The outstanding DBA knows through experience what to watch out for when administering a SQL Server environment but on no occasion will anything be left to chance. They have mastered the DBA Survival Skill of Thinking Defensively.

2. A Natural Problem Solver

Problems or rather delivering solutions to problems is the outstanding DBA’s bread and butter. They have a passion for problem solving and relish the opportunity to take on any challenge that comes their way.

Within an organisation it is quite common for the DBA to be consulted on problems that may not initially be within their domain of responsibility because their problem solving talents can be leveraged in a variety of parallel business disciplines.

Problem solving is fun for these people. The more difficult and challenging the problem, the more determined they are to solve it.

Enjoy solving puzzles? Check out this SQL Server Crossword.

3. Assertive

Being a DBA means you need to be able to communicate your views confidently, clearly, calmly and concisely, oftentimes under high pressure circumstances.

Your opinions will almost certainly be challenged, which is a good thing because it means your peers are thinking about the issue at hand. A DBA who successfully asserts themself is both polite and firm, without being an ass. See The Politics of SQL Server Performance.

"Don't be this guy!"

4. Tactful

The outstanding DBA is a master tactician, understanding that decisions will be required that at times result in a conflict of interest. The production DBA for example can often be viewed as a path of resistance to a development team and must walk the fine line of ensuring security & availability, whilst at the same time not hampering delivery.

Understanding the business and more specifically their role within it enables the DBA to maintain an objective outlook and operate more effectively within their organisation.

5. Manage Relationships

The outstanding DBA is a corporate chameleon with a talent for communicating effectively with all levels of the business. In order to operate successfully within larger organisations the DBA must forge and manage relationships across the business.

Corporate politics aside, good communication skills and character are the key.

6. A Good Decision Maker

Able to quickly weigh up the pros and cons of a situation, whilst keeping the big picture in mind, enables the outstanding DBA to make good decisions. It’s all to easy for a data professional to become bogged down in the detail but it’s important to always consider the bigger picture of all tasks undertaken.

Developing and demonstrating an understanding of the business not only assists in making good decisions but also highlight the value of the outstanding DBA to the business and it’s decision makers.

7. Humble

Far from being arrogant, the outstanding DBA has an in depth knowledge and understanding of SQL Server but is humble in it’s application. They teach rather than preach.

As a knowledge expert the outstanding DBA is keen to share their knowledge with all who wish to learn. Often very active in the SQL community, posting on forums, blogging and Tweeting, these data professionals make for excellent mentors.

Conversely the outstanding DBA is always looking to learn, understanding that no one data professional knows all there is to know about SQL Server. See Jump Start Your SQL Server Learning Today to find out more.

"Everybody Be Cool"

8. Calm Under Pressure

When it’s all kicking off and panic ensues, the outstanding DBA keeps a cool head and takes it all in their stride. You will often find this quality in Production DBA’s that work with highly available OLTP platforms daily. Pressure just goes with the territory.

9. Business Minded

Those that can demonstrate an understanding of the business, apply big picture thinking and prioritisation to their activities will deliver more value to their company. Business decision makers notice this skill, ensuring that the outstanding DBA is considered as a knowledge expert and is consulted on all business decisions that affect the environment they administer. This in turn empowers the DBA further to deliver even more value thereby continuing the cycle.

10. Approachable

Got a problem with SQL Server? The outstanding DBA is “the” SQL Server go-to-guy within their organisation. No matter what else they have going on they will make time for you and are always available to provide guidance, support and assistance.

Whether or not it is possible to master or to implement all of these traits is debatable but what is clear is that they are both common and present amongst outstanding DBA’s. What character traits and qualities do you think make an outstanding DBA? Share your thoughts and comments below.

Other Professional Development Posts

• Top 10 Junior DBA Interview Tips
• With Great Advice Comes Great Responsibility
• Blog your way to becoming a better DBA
• How to Provide Great Feedback

This has nothing to do with turtles. Just in case you didn’t figure it out, I wanted to make that clear. However, I am really excited to announce that I’m joining Quest Software as a Database Expert. My official job title is still up in the air, but let’s talk a little bit about what I’m going to be doing.

I’m going to stay involved in the community. That’s a big one right there. I’m still going to be on the Board of Directors for PASS. I’m still going to run my local user group (until we have elections and I’m voted off the island). I’m still going to speak at SQL Saturdays and the like. I’m still going to blog about all the crazy messed up things that I do with data. (Have I mentioned that I really like data?)

I’m going to keep solving problems. One of the things that I enjoyed the most about the last two years at Cass Information Systems is that I wasn’t just a DBA. I worked with a great team of developers to solve a variety of problems. Some days I sat in on meetings with them to just give advice based on prior experience. Some days I would be tuning T-SQL. Some days I would be working to help design the optimal solution to a problem using a combination of C# and T-SQL. Solving problems is something that I love. I never want to stop doing it. In fact, I made things change because of the problems that I would be able to solve; these are problems that have been running through my head for a long time.

I love code. I really mean it – I love writing code. There’s nothing like opening up an editor and whipping up some code to solve a problem. I wanted to download a bunch of PDFs, I figured out how. This new position means that I’ll have the opportunity to combine the things that I love – community, problem solving, code, and data – to do some really cool things.

I should stop bolding the first sentence of every paragraph, shouldn’t I?

Let’s make this a bit freaky for you: I’m not going to be working exclusively with SQL Server. In fact, I’m not even going to be working exclusively with RDBMSes.

Did you guess it yet? That’s right: I’m going to be working with cloud databases and NoSQL.

Since you’re reading this right now, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been writing a lot about MongoDB, other NoSQL databases, as well as PostgreSQL lately. I’m exploring the world around me and writing about what I’m finding out. This is an amazing time to be looking at different ways to store data. I’m incredibly excited by all of this new technology. People notice that.

You too can have fabulous prizes. A lot of people have said it before. Hell, I’m going to be saying it this Saturday in Nashville: show your passion. People notice it. Even if that passion leads you away from the fold, follow it. When you write and speak with passion, people will take notice. When you share what you’ve learned with passion, people will take notice.

I didn’t respond to an ad on craigslist. I’d like to think that this opportunity came about because of the time I spend with you, the community, the time I spend blogging, and the time I spend presenting. These are all things that I love doing and now I’m going to be paid to do them. I’m not sure it gets any better than this….

Today marks the start of my second week on the job with a new company in almost 11 years.  I severely underestimated what that means: new connection methods, new software, new communication tools, new naming conventions, processes, and workplace methodologies.  Heck, I have yet to even get exposed to new personnel/HR policies – I was just talking about the SQL Server side of things!

This is where experience works against you. You must unlearn much of what youve learned. I spent the better part of the previous week trying to work out all the idiosyncracies of the new environment and digging into my first project (of all things an SSIS solution!). Talk about learning on the job.  This is a project they’ve been trying to get going for a long time and they toss it to the new guy with limited SSIS experience!  It’s good knowing that I have extremely experienced friends and colleagues I can turn to though.  When I run into an SSIS issue that I can’t wrap my head around and I’ve exhausted all other means I contact Andy Leonard (though I try not to do so too often!) 

This goes back to what I stress about getting involved and stepping outside your comfort zone(s).  In doing so you build these relationships and learn a great deal along the way.  You become a resource to others as you build contingent resources along the way.  This is not a concious or a planned process – you don’t wake up each morning and tell yourself you’re going to line up x number of contacts for when things fall apart though.  It’s a natural by-product of engaging those with similar interests and build meaningful relationships.  It’s what separates those that succeed and lead from those that simply “do”.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to get back to my N00Bishness – but I’m only allowing myself to go by that title for a limited time.       

SQLSaturday is coming to Nashville this weekend, Saturday August 21st at 8:00am in the Student Services building of Nashville State Community College.

A Short Keynote And Great Intro Session

The day will begin with a short welcoming keynote, and by short I mean no more than 15 minutes. It’ll be just long enough to give you the logistical information you’ll need to make the most of the day.

Following the keynote, SQLRockstar, Thomas LaRock (blog, twitter), will give a presentation based on his book DBA Survivor: Become a Rock Star DBA in the cafeteria. For those who are somewhat new to the role of DBA, it’ll be a great way to start the day.

If that’s not you’re cup-o-tea, the other main sessions start at 8:30am as well.

Over 30 Great Sessions

SQLSaturday #51 is not this kind of conference

We had over 110 session abstracts submitted for SQLSaturday #51 and it was tremendously difficult to pare it down to a manageable number. We only have time and space for 30 sessions. If we’d only gotten a session on how to flex the whole space-time continuum thing using SQL Server 2008 R2 perhaps we could have accommodated more. Maybe next time.

In the 30 sessions we were able to provide, we have a good mix of SQL Server MVPs, authors, industry experts, and local professionals who are willing to share their experiences and their knowledge at the conference. The schedule is available on the SQLSaturday #51 site.

Quest Lunch Session & Stump The Experts

As if 30 sessions weren’t enough to saturate your brain with SQL Server know-how and best practices, we have two more fun yet informative sessions. During lunch, Quest’s SQL Server Expert and Nashville’s own Kevin Kline (blog, twitter) will share with us some things he’s learned over the course of his career.

At the end of the day while we’re raffling off some fantastic door prizes, we’ll play a game we’re calling Stump The Experts. A panel of well-known industry experts have agreed to submit themselves to your questions for a time of fun and humor. Can you stump an expert? Bring your questions and find out.

Don’t Delay, Register Today

This totally free event is sure to be fun, informative, and entertaining. But space is limited and there are only a few seats left. So head on over to the registration page and sign up today. If it’s full, you’ll be added to a waiting list and notified if space becomes available.

Just about one year ago PASS launched a brand new concept in training: 24 consecutive one hour presentations done live by remote presenters around the globe. I still remember the PASS board meeting when Rick Heiges (blog | twitter) suggested the format. Some were skeptical but overall we mostly said “Do you think that can work?”

Yes he did. I wish I could say I shared his vision, but at the time I didn’t. I came to understand it soon enough and before I knew it I decided to help promote the event by attending all 24 sessions. By the time the event was over and I had the opportunity to closely interact (virtually) with the Community for 24 straight hours I also had a better understanding of the type of training that resonates with our Community the best: fundamentals.

Some will tell you that PASS has had a reputation for being a leader in providing technical content, and we still are. I’d put our members up against anyone else, any day of the week and twice on Sunday when it comes to delivering presentations chock full of technical content. So why is it that Buck Woody can fill the house with SQL MVPs at PASS when he talks about SSMS? It’s not just that he is a great speaker, but it is also that we just *know* that he is going to show us something we haven’t seen before, something basic, something fundamental, and something that we can put into our toolbox right away. We can all take deep dives into the technical details, but what good are those details if you don’t have solid enough fundamentals to apply the techniques that you learn?

And that’s what I used as a main guiding point for this lineup that I helped put together. I wanted to find a schedule that had great speakers that were willing to share their knowledge in ways that you can apply immediately. I also was lucky enough to have three sessions in the Professional Development track, one for how to manage a team, one for helping land your next job, and another to help you develop better presentations. As much as I enjoy the technical advantages to being a PASS member, I truly believe that as a professional association we need to do more to help our members be better professionals. Having technical acumen is only part of what you need to be successful in your role as a database professional.

But of course we have technical presentations as well. Check out the sessions for our BI track, as well as our DBA and our development tracks. Take a look at the names and tell me where else can you get training from such a group for free? (Nowhere, that’s where.)

Here it goes again!

You can register for the event by going here. See you there!