Invitation from Pat Wright

In the database world, we have to make some very tough choices. This T-SQL Tuesday asks the question.

“How do you weigh the risk vs the reward of your database design decisions”

Recently I wrote an article about “Stop putting everything in the DB”. I’ve also discussed this topic at a few events recently. As a production DBA and Manager of a DBA team, I would be asked on a day-to-day basis,

“Should we add this column to the table?”

“What index should we use here and whats the best column sequence?”

“Should we put this in a new DB or use an existing one and then expand that database”

In production incidents, we have to decide within seconds whether we should terminate a process. This can have major impacts for the company, financially, on customer experience, system stability, and, of course, employee morale, since that one action may have implications of you working all weekend to fix a split-second decision that was made. Everyday a production DBA has to make decisions that could have very long-standing implications in the organization.

I would love to hear about your thought process, experience, or a lesson learned from a decision that has impacted you for a long time. Perhaps you have cracked this code and have a formula you use, or you still regret a decision you made years ago as you work to clean up the system. I look forward to reviewing the posts and learning from you.