Database Professional – Developer, Administrator or in between?
About a month ago a developer colleague and I were discussing the database professional role and he started to list the requirements he felt were appropriate for a senior .NET developer regarding database knowledge, which include 3NF, write stored procedures, views, UDF’s, etc. As a result I authored an internal paper and distributed it. Today Stephen Wynkoop from SSWUG has an editorial about the same thing here. So I thought I’d share some of my thoughts.
How does the Senior Database Professional add value? If the database is becoming the data platform then is it even required for a DBPro in new development? For new development we don’t consult our IT Admin Pro’s, however we do consult SharePoint and BizTalk Pro’s, all of which are platforms. The difference lies again in those expectation of a senior developer to have a certain knowledge level regarding databases, where we don’t expect the same knowledge of other platforms like SharePoint, BizTalk, etc.
So these become the options for the DB professional:
- Database reviews/Upgrades (Performance/Best Practices Analysis and Tuning)
- Database Specialized Functionality (i.e., Replication, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping, etc)
- 80/20 rule, the database requirements exceed the developer expertise to the point it would be more efficient to talk with the DBPro
- Business Intelligence
- Expand to include development and/or other IT Admin skills
Admittedly the first 3 can be extensive work, however the question becomes is it a full time job by itself, what happens when you are finished with the database review or specialized functionality and move into the maintaining phase? Hopefully you have other databases to review. 
On the flip side, in my experience many senior level people desire and enjoy doing project based new development. Add that to the fact that Microsoft has a SKU for Database Development as a “first class citizen” via Visual Studio for Database Professionals and in the MSF and where are we?