The DB Developers work closely with the Production DBA’s to collaborate on architecture and design decisions. The DB Developers specialise is T-SQL code and query tuning but have a good general understanding of SQL Server technology features, such as Replication for example. The Production DBA’s can provide additional “expert” knowledge in areas such as replication, performance tuning (not the same as query tuning) and in depth knowledge of the database engine internals overall.

It is the norm for Production DBA’s and DB Devs to work alongside one another regularly on projects and it is this synergy of expertise that we have found to produce the best results.

As is often the case there is much crossover in terms of knowledge between the Prod DBA and DB Dev but the two roles are indeed functionally different from one another, at least in our shop. It is this difference that permits the “expertise” of each role to focus in slightly different directions, resulting in superior quality deliverables when the roles collaborate on projects.

I hear so much talk about the division of duties between devs and dbas and it drives me nuts. At the end of the day we are all just the IT department to our end users. They really do not care who had the good idea or floated the bad code. We are all on the same team.

If dbas and devs can work together as an integrated development team everyone does better. Those that cannot move beyond ego and finger pointing deserve the environments they love to complain about.

i believe you are right. and i like my databases blue.

Joseph – great point! i forgot about crappy vendor code…did i say that out loud? Anyway, yeah, everyone is stuck with that part. And if devs are pulled in many directions, as well as DBAs, then what can be done to reduce the fear that there are not enough SQL Server experts?