A Database Koan

Here is a perfect example of a Zen koan; once I worked as a database administrator

INTERRUPT... The first decision the database administration function ever took was to say how many words was 'database' one or 'data base' two; it was decided that since DBA was three letters, and Administrator was obviously one - then 'database' must be two! Simple, eh?

As DBA (!) I was charged with checking the viability of-the data base usage that was put forward by various projects. On one of the projects I examined what was proposed and pointed out that one of the enquiry screens would take six hours to receive a response and would stop everyone else using the system. 'That's O.K.' was the response, ' no one would ever use that screen anyway!'

This led to the ultimate systems koan :- 'does system performance matter if no one uses the system'.

Which in turn leads you to believe that all systems are OK. unless used by users; which leads you to the fact that 'to be successful' you must not allow any users onto the software.

This is quite an important point, so let me say this a little louder;

SYSTEMS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM, USER'S ARE!