It’s a look at what it takes to achieve mastery in an area, be it sport, career, music or anything else. It references Aikido a lot, which is what drew me to it, but it’s not about martial arts.

It’s often asked why some people achieve such heights in certain areas. Often it’s written off as ‘talent’, the implication been those who don’t achieve such heights don’t because they don’t have the talent, and hence it’s not their fault. Talent may have some part to play, but the core of mastering any area is commitment, hard work and a lot of time. There’s no instant key to success.

George lists five keys to mastering a subject

1. Instruction;
2. Practice;
3. Surrender;
4. Intentionality;
5. The Edge – Push the envelop.

The main point that he makes over and over is that success doesn’t come overnight. To master a subject requires a lot of time, not all of it fun. Without that time, dedication and commitment, there will not, there can not be results.

The book’s well worth the read, even if it’s just for a different perspective.

All in all, it didn’t seem hard, but that’s hard to judge from a beta exam. I do think there was perhaps too high a focus on XML. About 10% of the questions I had were on that, but that may have been the luck of the draw.

I did the beta of the MCITP (Database Admin) about a month ago. It was a tough exam. No case studies like the 2005 exams had, but many of the questions felt like mini-case studies themselves. I had one question that was a screen and a half long. That was just the question. The answer list was over a screen log as well. All I’m going to say about that one is that you really, really need to know backup strategies to write it.

Next up, the MCTS (Database Admin). If I do that and if I pass the two betas (will only find out when the exams are officilly released) then there’ll only be one left to do, the ITP for DB Dev.

I just got a mail from Microsoft. I have been awarded MVP for SQL Server. I am quite ecstatic and very surprised. I knew I had been nominated, but I did not expect to actually be awarded it.

Just wow.

While there is a lot more to it, I came away from it with 2 realisations:

1. To get better at something, it must be difficult.
2. The longer you work on something, the easier it gets.

Just something to think about over the weekend.

In no particular order, some of the things that I think make an exceptional DBA are

Learning.

We all know that IT is a fast changing industry. There’s no doubt that one has to keep learning just to keep up. An exceptional DBA should be constantly learning, always looking for new challenges, new and better ways of doing things. They should also seek to broaden their knowledge. Specialisation is great, but having at least a basic understanding of development practices, architectural principles or system administration can be extremely useful.

Passion

Database administration’s a demanding job. Long hours. Odd hours. Unexpected crises (aside – can you have an expected crisis?). Arrogant developers. Pushy project managers. So on and so on.
Some people take the DBA role because they were forced into it. Some take it because it pays well (in some countries, anyway). Some take it because they love it.

Proactive

The best DBAs are, perhaps counter-intuitively, the ones that have the least to do. They fix problems before they become noticeable. They have monitoring routines in place that pick up potential issues before they become crises. It a disaster does strike, they can resolve things quickly, because they know what they are doing. Possibly they’ve practised disaster-recovery scenarios before the disaster hits.

Attention to detail

When working on data that could be worth millions of Rands, it doesn’t pay to be careless. Double-checking of work, careful testing, use of checklists.

Involved

From offering training and assistance to developers to attending early project meetings, the best DBAs don’t just concern themselves with the systems that they are responsible for, but they get involved. This may also be involvement in the wider community, from forums to user groups.
Those are just a few of my thoughts. I’m interested in seeing if anyone disagrees, or thinks that I’ve missed something (or missed the point entirely)

I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I was expecting and I scored well above what I thought I would – 891. Very surprising, seeing as I don’t do much in the way of administration.

Next on the exam plans, either C# or Sharepoint. I haven’t decided yet.

Now, when are the SQL 2008 exams going to be available…..

I found it easier than the other database developer exam, but still, it wasn’t easy. If you don’t know your stuff, you are going to struggle.

Personally, I’m not very fond of the case study based exam format. When I tried to read through the case study before answering questions I almost ran out of time. Now I go straight to the questions and skim through for the appropriate info for each question.

Next up, the upgrade exam from MCDBA to the new DB Admin.