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Do You Twitter?
Follow me on Twitter if so – I’ve been trying to keep up a stream on SQL Server 2008 as we work through some test upgrade installs and such, plus a more casual look at SSWUG and keeping things running on the site. 🙂 http://www.twitter.com/swynk
Working with Other Departments
I’ve had several people write in about the fact that, without those departments, IT wouldn’t likely have a job in the first place. Without a sales group, not much need for the design and management of sales databases… or a company for that matter. Given that, why the walls between IT and "them?" I think it comes down to the encounters IT has with these groups and the unrealistic expectations IT is held accountable for. Still, it’s like the guys sweeping the floors or stocking the shelves in the supermarket. Back when I worked in retail, my boss said that the customers were NEVER in the way. They were the reason you HAD the job in the first place. Indeed, this is true.
Mike writes: "I would like to represent the side of the departmental IT guy. I think we all need to take a hard look at our own companies and discover why we have technical staff working in the departments. Often the people putting systems together have a combination of business and technical knowledge that make them the best choice for designing and supporting complicated systems especially when they involve reporting systems that change often or have numerous ad-hoc requests. I work in the telecommunications industry and while we may have some talented people in IT, they do not have the business knowledge to understand some of the requests we receive.
It is frustrating to me to see the barriers IT puts up to protect the domain of their Oracle and SQL Server platforms. When the business needs a reporting system and it can’t afford the charge-backs or does not have time to jump through the hoops IT is demanding then it proliferates the development of strategic systems on MS Access which we all know is a bad choice. There is nothing sacred about SQL Server. It is just another tool in the organization, like Access, that people use to solve everyday business problems.
I like the model where IT operate more like a grocery-mart "working for the business" to provide what the business might need. Whether it is an end to end solution or whether it simply provides a SQL Server database that is "co-managed" and "co-designed." Once deployed, IT may only have responsibility for patches and backups or it could manage the whole application. Who knows, maybe IT even performs some training for folks in the departments. The key is to reduce the barriers to provide what is needed as quickly as possible so the business can succeed while still maintaining proper standards.
P.S. In the future applications will not be written but will be configured. As this happens the responsibility for database design will likely move closer to the business groups. The sooner we learn to cooperate with each other the better off we will all be."
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