Reed Me : consulting

Awww, aren’t they just so cute?!

reedme — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:19:53 GMT

Look at all of them fixin’ to jump in the pool! Heh.

Not to minimize the difficulty that they’re embarking on, what with a 20% pass rate and all, but it’s great to see more people diving into the deep end of the SQL Server pool. Let’s hope as many Certified Masters as possible emerge from the other end of this rotation!

We had 17 victims, er attendees show up bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on the most challenging training available on the SQL Platform.
The Master Blog : Gentlemen (and Ladies) START YOUR ENGINES!!!

Good luck, folks. Study hard!!

I need a new dart board. Would the MOF circle work?

reedme — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:13:47 GMT

I’m spending some time this weekend dusting off skills that I haven’t used for a while. After staring @ this MOF circle for waaay too long, I suddenly got the urge to jump on the bike, ride home and play darts with the kids. Heh. I’m sure you’ll see the connection.

Although a MOF dartboard might not sound like as much fun as the RUP game board (allegedly Rational Unified Process™) that we played on @ the startup after we got acquired by the large, stone-like Fortune 100™ company, but throwing darts is definitely more satisfying than moving game pieces around a board.

The Problem with Software Architects

reedme — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:14:48 GMT

What’s the problem with software architects? Besides the fact that they think everything can be described in PowerPoint and Visio? With maybe a couple hundred pages of Word documents? Heh. It is problematic that “they” think things can be reduced to simple lists... or covered in one book.

I’m not saying there isn’t good information in there! My favorite title’s of the 97 are “Database as a Fortress” and “Control the data, not just the code”. But I have my own bias as a database architect. (Can you tell?)

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know - The Book

They’re all labeled as “unedited” submissions for the book, but I’m going to make time to read them all this weekend.

Right after I get all the achievements in Left4Dead!

Back when I was an enterprise architect...

reedme — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:16:00 GMT

JP Morgenthal put together a brief care-and-feeding guide for managers of enterprise architects for CIO magazine. Back when I was an enterprise architect (or pretending to be one as a consultant), these are all things my management knew. Knew as in: I wish they did more than just be aware that I wanted them to behave this way. They could’ve done more than listen when I explained them (many times). Heh.

Establish clear goals and expectations before day one.
Introduce the EA to the key players at a single meeting, no later than day two.
Run blocker for your EA.
Don't expect your EA to drive the business.
Your EA is not just the über-tech-geek.

Almost always had trouble with #1 and #4, and sometimes with #2 and #5. It’s odd, but #3 reminds me of a funny Trace Adkins song, but it’s an important one that some managers don’t understand. Or maybe I’m just too opinionated, insensitive, arrogant or difficult for my own good. I’m mostly Irish after all. Heh.

Read the full article: Understanding Your Enterprise Architect: A Guide for Managers

Maybe JP will put together a good list of things that an EA is actually supposed to do so that the current crop that I’ve had recent contact with might actually do them?

I’ve had data days like that...

reedme — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:22:21 GMT

Brian Walker has a good pair of articles on Thou Shalt Nots™:

I had the chance to examine three business databases in five weeks and I'm still staggered by what I found. These are SQL Server databases serving as critical business foundations for companies generating millions of dollars in revenue per year. Every day, hundreds of employees are counting on these databases to deliver accuracy, stability and performance. Personally, I would not trust these databases to store a simple catalog of the 2,600 songs on my iPod. SQL Server database design disasters: What not to do (Part 1)

If any part of his article makes no sense to you, please do NOT participate in data modeling activities. Really. For the good of the children. Just don’t.

If he’s describing YOUR database project, I just want to say: “You’re doing it wrong!”

Do not assume that a typical DBA is a database developer. They are not the same thing. Their work may overlap somewhat, but they need different skills. SQL Server database design disasters: How it all starts (Part 2)

If your database developers are ALSO your production DBAs: “You’re doing it wrong!”

[Thanks, Brian. You’ve helped me added at least two new questions to my list of things to ask future employers before I take a new job…]

FOTR, if anybody writes new, untested SQL queries against a production database to gather reporting data for management, or you don’t have a change management process for production, including a runbook describing normal operating and HA/DR procedures, etc, then: “You’re doing it wrong!”

Props to Steve Jones and the crew @ http://www.sqlservercentral.com/ for linking up Brian’s great articles, or it might’ve been even longer before I noticed them.

For a humorous analogy about “doing it wrong” that you could use this XKCD comic to create an “HR incident” or “career limiting move.” You’re on your own if you run afoul of the analogy police.

Can you tell a great architect from a bad one?

reedme — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:24:38 GMT

Since I'm going to be sitting as a panel member on an MCA review board soon, I'd like to think I can, but apparently some researchers are having trouble...

Highly capable designers have an incentive to choose somewhat more difficult designs to better prove their talent, while less-capable designers have an incentive to choose highly difficult designs to obfuscate their lack of talent, Prof. Siemsen concludes.
Software Designers Strut Their Talent At Cost Of Profit, Says Study

This doesn't even get into the real reasons (Second System Syndrome™, Perfect System Syndrome™, Repeat Business Syndrome™, etc)... It seems to lay the blame at the feet of career concerns, but I'm not entirely sure that's the whole picture, especially when consultants get involved.

Irreducible complexity does exist, but if it seems Too Complicated™, it probably is, and you're probably Doing It Wrong™.

Great architects do The Right Thing™ for their companies or clients: a design that's as simple as possible, and no simpler.

Consultants: You'll never run out of repeat business from satisfied customers if you leave them with something that does what they need AND that they can maintain themselves. I always used to announce during project kick-off meetings, "I am leaving in X days/months/weeks. One of my goals is that you be able to absorb and maintain the deliverables that I'm leaving behind, so if it doesn't compute while we're working together, ASK me to explain it and WRITE down the answers so that you can retain the knowledge for your company."

Nominate your SQL Server wins for the 2008 TDWI Best Practices Awards!

reedme — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:11:10 GMT

Vote early and often for your favorite implementations on your favorite platform! (Hint: your favorite platform is SQL Server.)

Have you completed a data warehouse or business intelligence implementation that you think other organizations could learn from? Would you like some recognition for your accomplishment? Are you a vendor with successful customers who deserve recognition?
2008 TDWI Best Practices Awards

Although I'm working up a proposal for my own SQL Server 2008-oriented contest, I would *love* to SQL Server sweep all of these categories!

Enterprise Data Warehousing
Customer Intelligence
Dashboards and Scorecards
Enterprise BI
Operational BI
Data Governance
Master Data Management
BI/DW on a Limited Budget
Predictive or Text Analytics
Radical Business Intelligence
Government and Non-Profit

I worked on many, many engagements with customers and partners over the last year or so [before I left the field for the product team] who (I think) should be solid winners in many of these categories. You know who you are!

Fun with software bugs in GPS units.

reedme — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:51:42 GMT

I'm sure it didn't tell him to stop and leave the car there, but...

A computer consultant driving a rental car drove onto train tracks Wednesday using the instructions his GPS unit gave him.
Man using GPS drives in front of train (Yahoo! News)

Sometimes it's fun to see where you'll end up following inexplicable directions from a GPS unit. But if the computer tells you to stop on the railroad tracks, you've obviously done something to offend SkyNet. Start keeping an eye out for Terminators because your days are numbered...

We did this last Spring just for giggles driving from Redmond to Houston after Ranger camp; we were pretty sure that the GPS was very confused when it told us to turn off the paved road, but morbid curiosity kept us following the Garmin Streetpilot's directions to Yellowstone National Park... until the unpaved road disappeared into the Snake River in the middle of a private ranch, at which point we decided that we should probably get out the old-fashioned dead-tree map instead.

Here’s a picture of where the GPS took us in Wyoming. In the GPS’ defense, the wife was driving. (You can see my aircard antenna stuck to the windshield while I was updating Streets & Trips' maps to see if its directions would continue to agree with the Garmin's. They did.) There were a lot more cattle out of frame on either side of the van…

We still laugh about it from time to time when the GPS misbehaves. The five-way (or more) intersections that are common in Redmond give the navigation system in the Sequoia fits occasionally.

Drive friendly!

The geekiest instant message that I've sent (in a while)...

reedme — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:38:20 GMT

As I'm getting ready to roll off the current engagement, I've been having conversations with the next vic-, er, person in line to "Assume the Position"® who was lamenting the lack of Rules of Engagement. Statement of purpose. Or even general direction.

When the conversation reached the point of ambiguity that the role doesn't even have a proper mission statement, I shared my personal guiding philosophy about being given executive direction:

David Reed says: MissionStatement = MissionStatement == null ? WriteOwnMissionStatement() : UseMissionStatementGiven();

It also helps to take that output back past the client for further validation, but of course, I have a higher chaos tolerance than many... Odd how it doesn't seem as funny now as it did with less sleep. Guess you had to be there.