In today’s world where data reigns supreme, the role of DBAs extends far beyond just maintaining databases. DBAs play a crucial role in overseeing the entire lifecycle of data within organizations, from its inception to disposal. Nevertheless, a frequent criticism of many DBAs is that they can be difficult to interact with. The truth of the matter is that DBAs can be curmudgeons possessing technical knowledge but limited people skills.
Most database programmers have their favorite DBA story. You know, those famous anecdotes that begin with “I have a problem...” and end with “...and then he told me to stop bothering him and read the manual.” DBAs simply do not have a “warm and fuzzy” image. This probably has more to do with the nature and scope of the job than anything else. The DBMS spans the enterprise, effectively placing the DBA on call for the applications of the entire organization.
The fact that DBAs often must sit down and work things through on their own can contribute to this poor reputation. Many database problems require periods of quiet reflection and analysis to fix. So, most DBAs do not generally like to be disturbed. But even though many problems will require private thought, there are many other issues that require a whole team to resolve. And due to the DBA’s knowledge and experience, their quiet time is usually less than quiet. Indeed, constant interruptions to answer questions and solve problems is a daily fact of life.
Even given all the stress and distractions encountered by DBAs, they should not be anti-social. And management should encourage DBAs to constantly be working to acquire better social skills. Part of DBA training should be in communication skills and interpersonal behavior.
This is increasingly important as DBAs become more integrated into development teams with DevOps initiatives. Not only do DBAs need to work more closely with business stakeholders to understand their data needs and translate those needs into effective database solutions, DevOps and continuous delivery require DBAs to expand and embrace more application development practices and procedures. This requires a broader set of skills than ever before, including communication, project management, and business analysis.
In many cases, DBAs are taking on more of a leadership role within their organizations, helping to drive digital transformation initiatives and using data to inform strategic decision-making. Data is at the heart of every initiative, be it infusing AI into the organization, building new applications on premises and in the cloud, and assuring the performance and vitality of existing applications and databases.
With such a broad, multifaceted role, DBAs will interact with many different types of people—technicians, businessmen, executives, customers, and so on. This is not a role for a curmudgeon!
You do not want your DBAs to be so caught up in the minutiae of the inner workings of the DBMS that they never develop the skills required to relate appropriately with their co-workers and customers. Sometimes bad management decisions exacerbate the anti-social behavior of DBAs. A manager who rises from being DBA to being a manager might not know how to deal with curmudgeons. Worse yet, he might agree with the behavior. DBA management must help to grow the DBA staff in the desired direction through encouragement, opportunity, and incentives. Even more importantly, the DBA manager must lead by example.
If your DBAs are curmudgeons, here are some ideas to help turn them around into model corporate citizens:
- Purchase automated DBA tools to streamline database administration by offloading some of the more tedious day-to-day tasks to software. Doing so can do a world of good for the mindset of a busy DBA.
- Provide a well-funded training budget because a well-trained DBA is a happier DBA. But this approach should not be focused solely on your DBAs, the application development staff needs to be trained, too. Many DBA nightmares are focused on tuning poorly coded applications, so a better-trained programmer will reduce the stress on your DBA staff, as well as reduce costs.
- Make interpersonal skills part of the DBA’s quarterly objectives. Better behavior can be encouraged in some DBAs by making it worthwhile for them to “play well with others.”
- Another possibility is to solicit input from seasoned application developers for the performance appraisals of your DBA staff. When someone knows that the people they serve will have input into their annual report it is amazing how quickly a spirit of cooperation can blossom.
The bottom line is that DBAs cannot afford to be curmudgeons. In this day and age of inter-connected systems and complex technology, interpersonal relationships and teamwork are required for DBAs to succeed.