As I was running around doing my SQL Server “thang” – I stumbled on this post on the SQL Server Technet blog site that really had me thinking. The blog post, Are you encouraging data professionals to move from doing repairs to being innovators?, was from November, and about sending your DBAs and other data-folk to the PASS event with a slightly different mission.
But I think the message is deeper than that and worth thinking through. A lot of us go into the new year with goals, objectives, even just flat out expectations for what we’ll be doing. I wonder how many have taken the time though to update job responsibilities to include data innovation?
To me, this quickly becoming a key differentiator between data-folk. By that, I mean it’s something that cements your worth in the organization, it assures your future, and it makes the organization healthier, better positioned to really use data bits that are flowing through the organization. And as people that know data, know structures, are responsible for how it’s stored, accessed, queried, reported on, we’re in a unique position to make it better.
I think we’re in a place where we can leverage a bigger picture view of available information and start to draw inferences and relationships between perhaps otherwise unrelated data bits. We have that over-reaching knowledge of the huge array of information being stored, and how it’s being stored.
Now, just so we’re really clear, I’m not suggesting that we go digging around in the databases to discover things. However, the value-add you can bring to the situation is pretty clear. When a database design is worked through, we’re in an excellent position to talk about related items, other projects, other data bits that are helpful to the project at hand. This can be hugely valueable to the organization.
What’s more, as people that are working to keep on top of data management techniques, tools and requirements, we’re also in a position to talk about reporting tool leverage, query tools, approaches to *using* information that bring added value to the organization.
In short, we are, collectively, by far, best positioned to provide data innovation for the organization(s) we support.
As you work with systems and solutions and help with application development, combine that with staying on top of tools and techniques you learn about on the whole. Look for those things that provide leverage. New ways to use the information.
Everyone wins.