Who Thinks Like Database Professionals?

Nice post Andy, and congrats Grandpa!

It is a fine line. At what point do you become a DBA? And in different shops the function of a DBA is a different role, making it even more complicated to define.

For me I draw the line at the moment you no longer think about your needs, but the needs of everyone using the system. Once you start to realize that the changes you make can affect others, that is when you have crossed the line into the DBA dominion.

Having been both a programmer for 30 years, a database developer for 25, and a DBA for about 10 years, I can say you are completely correct about each kind of role approaching designs differently. My current role is a production DBA, and I lean towards the Vulcan philosophy that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. I don't steadfastly refuse to give developers sysadmin rights on the production server because I'm an autocrat. I refuse them because there are over a thousand users depending on the server to stay functional. The programmer can just learn how to write code that doesn't need god-like powers to run. I know from experience doing what they do that it can be done, it isn't hard, and it actually makes you write better code. Now, if I could just get the programmers of the world to realize that 99.99% uptime still means the server is down for a little less than 3 hours a year. Unfortunately, robust, graceful response to server failure just isn't high on the list of design goals for developers. Come to think of it, that right there is a big difference between programmers and DBA's.

I kicked you article ..

http://www.dotnetkicks.com/other/Who_Thinks_Like_Database_Professionals

I don't think it's as simple as you may think. As a DBA I've no idea what makes me a DBA ( I'd say I was a production DBA ) When I first encountered RDBMS ( it wasn't sql server ) I was part of a development team, it just seemed I understood it all quicker and  better than the others so in fairly quick time I became "the DBA", things were probably more simple then, SQL 2008 is a massive subject area compared to SQL 6.0. I enjoy what I do 100%+ and I think perhaps you need to be very passionate about what you do ( I'm told I'm very passionate about my role ). I don't think you can be a DBA unless you really enjoy it - or you need to help cure insomniacs by describing what you do for a living!

I'm not a DBA, but if it is anything like being a developer I would say you become one once you can identify what you don't know about your trade.  

I'm still relatively young in the development world, at only 4 years of real work experience, but I can say I have only REALLY been a developer for the past two years or so.  And what made me a developer was that I finally had enough of a grasp on the concepts of software development that I could look at the vast array of skills that it requires, and identify the items that I lacked.  Which then allowed me to start filling in the holes and identifying new places to improve.  

Before that day I just solved the problem in front of me, oblivious to the overall dynamic of what it really took to do my job successfully.  

Again, I'm not a DBA, just a guy who solves whatever SQL problem happens to be in front of me.  But I would venture a guess that it probably works in much the same way.

The major difference between thinking and being is the ability to see the forrest for what it is and all you do not know about it  instead of just a few trees that you think you know everything about !

Does it matter if you think you are a DBA or not? Just think about getting things working and working well, the line of business(s) that uses the data and can they access it when they need it, what can I (you) do the make it better, faster, strong, etc.

Yes my title is DBA is that really a good tile? But every DBA does things differently depending on the company your are working for. I do administration, analysis, custom reports with SSRS and network analysis too. So do this make me an official DBA? I don't know or care. But I do care about doing a good job, being helpful to other and look at ways to make things better.

It funny the more I learn about being a DBA the more I realize that I don't know enough.

Just my 2 cents worth.

I always thought the disctinction was who had the performance problem shoved upon them :)

>> I learned I'm a database developer, which is a different animal from an application developer and from a DBA.

DBA tends to be defined as anyone who does the backups and restores.  For anything web (intra or inter)net, the KiddieKoders, aka application developers, in java or php or... think like the COBOL programmers of the 1970's:  all the data be mine, even if it's just a lump of clay.  Being a database developer, if only in one's mind, means worrying about the data structure in all that means.  

The problem is that hiring authorities overwhelmingly only know application developer (coder) and DBA (backup, restore, grants).  So, relational databases still end up being VSAM images (whatever the platform); such a waste of money on databases.