RE: [AM] [dm-discuss] ZZZ Farewell Fellow Agilists

It might be worth mentioning a fairly widely publicised, comparatively
recent change to data structures, just to illustrate the kind of thing that
DBAs have to take into account when they change a column.

Remember Y2K?

It is a fairly extreme example - we had to find and change a load of
columns, and then test everything. And have people standing by in case
anything got missed. 

But any change to a database has to be checked to see what else uses it -
other apps, interfaces, user reporting tools (Business Objects, Excel,
Access...) And if the DBA misses one, the project that asked for the change
probably won't get users phoning them up and screaming down the phone...
Which is one reason why they don't like changing columns 'on the fly'.

Brief introduction (since this is my first post). I am a data architect,
been doing that for about 12 years now, mostly corporate/enterprise
architecture - which also involves being part of project teams and providing
either full data models or starter logical models so the developers can get
on and develop. Before I did this, I was a COBOL analyst/programmer. I have
been involved in four data warehouse projects - two built, one abandoned
when the company was sold, one may still be going on as it was for the
company that sold my then employers. I joined this list to find out more
about Agile methods, and see where Enterprise Architecture fits in (I think
I know, and when I am sure, I will post my ideas).

Regards,

Dagna
 
Dagna Gaythorpe
Data Architect
International IT
> tttt COLT TELECOM GROUP PLC
> Beaufort House, 15 St Botolph Street,
> London EC3A 7QN
t   (+ 44) 020 7 390 7896
f   (+ 44) 020 7 947 1176
e [email protected]



-----Original Message-----
From: Graham [mailto:[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> ] 
Sent: 31 January 2004 12:51
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AM] [dm-discuss] ZZZ Farewell Fellow Agilists


<snip>

I think what is needed is strong advice on practical procedures and
technologies to help DBAs make a change (any change) *quicker*. One has to
consider

impact analysis
test data migration
live data migration
revision and regression testing of all the code that depends on the part of
the databse that has changed



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