A community of more than 1,600,000 database professionals and growing

The Voice of the DBA

Less QA?

This editorial was originally published on Jul 31, 2013. It is being re-run as Steve is out of the office.

Throughout most of my career, people have complained that software is never tested enough, not tested well, and certainly not enough time is allocated in project plans. I'd also argue that all too often we don't have people building software with experience in how to perform extensive testing. Most developers only have a rudimentary knowledge of software testing and that part of their skill set doesn't receive constant training. However I've found plenty of QA people that were in the same situation. Some educate themselves and learn how to test better, but many go through the motions. They don't take pride in their role as a software tester.

There have been lots of advances in automated testing and TDD methodologies over the years, which means that developers have been taking more of the responsibility, and effort, for testing code. It's hard to know if this has resulted in higher quality code, lower quality, or a mix. Overall I think that the latter is likely. Code quality is all over the board, probably based more on the skill and talent of the individual developer than on any process.

That's good for the companies that have hired strong developers, but not so great for our industry as a whole. We still produce lots of software that takes too long to develope, costs too much, and often has too many bugs. Overall we are sloppy and inconsistent in how we build software. Some of that is the nature of our business, one with such a low bar of entry that anyone can give software development a try.

I don't know how we improve the quality of software, though I do think continuing to educate and train people on what works well is a good start. However I also think that we still need QA groups. We need people that will use software in ways that automated tests won't. People that will press buttons, enter values, and push software in ways that developers would never consider using it. Most of all, we need QA and testing to be treated as a valuable part of our industry. We need QA people that view testing as a valid career path, not a stepping stone for junior developers that look to move on as soon as possible.

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

How to track every change to your SQL Server database

See who’s changing your database, alongside affected objects, date, time, and reason for the change with SQL Source Control. Get a full change history in your source control system. Learn more.

Could you help with some research?

The Foundry team at Redgate want to hear about your experience with SQL Server asset management. Fill in this short survey to help out, and also to enter their prize draw for a $100 Amazon gift card. Complete survey.

Featured Contents

How Long Before Your Database Runs Out of Space?

John F. Tamburo from SQLServerCentral.com

Almost all SQL Server databases grow in size over time. Capacity planning is an important activity for the DBA. You need to know how long before you run out of space long before you actually do. Here are some helpful tips and tricks. More »

Displaying Backup or Restore Progress

Additional Articles from Database Journal

Have you ever started a database backup or a restore process that runs a long time then wanted to know when it will complete? Knowing when a database backup or restore operation will complete provides you valuable information, especially when you need to perform follow-on tasks that are waiting for the backup or restore process to complete. More »

Backup and restore of a SQL Clone

Additional Articles from Redgate

SQL Server sees the cloned database as a user database, meaning that you can treat it as one, including backup and restore - Steve Jones explains. More »

From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - Simple Security Report

Kenneth Fisher from SQLServerCentral Blogs

Quite a while ago I created a couple of little security scripts to help me out with permissions research. Over... More »

From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - How Can I Get Accepted to Speak at the PASS Summit?

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral Blogs

There has been some discussion and concern over the changes to the speaker selection process for the PASS Summit. I’ve... More »

Question of the Day

Today's Question (by Stanley Kapfunde):

In SQL Server, the page is an ____ block of contiguous disk space. (choose the size)

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

We keep track of your score to give you bragging rights against your peers.
This question is worth 1 point in this category: pages.

We'd love to give you credit for your own question and answer.
To submit a QOTD, simply log in to the Contribution Center.

Pro SQL Server Relational Database Design and Implementation

Learn effective and scalable database design techniques in a SQL Server 2016 and higher environment. This book is revised to cover in-memory online transaction processing, temporal data storage, row-level security, durability enhancements, and other design-related features that are new or changed in SQL Server 2016. Get your copy today from Amazon.

Yesterday's Question of the Day

Yesterday's Question (by Steve Jones):

I want to determine the amount of time spent executing and rendering an SSRS report. Where do I look in the my ReportServer database to find this information?

Answer: The ExecutionLog view

Explanation:

The ExecutionLog view contains the details of each report execution, including rendering and processing times.

Ref: ExecutionLog2 view - click here

» Discuss this question and answer on the forums

Database Pros Who Need Your Help

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.

SQL Server 2016 : SQL Server 2016 - Administration

Translating Queries - Hi, I know this is a crazy question, and I haven't been able to find the answer yet, but is it...

Identity in a table used previous number - Hi all, I have something that does not make sense to me. If anyone can give me clues that will be...

Unable to run the restore command in Node2 from Node1 part of Alwayson DB addition - declare @databasename nvarchar(max) declare @sqlbackup nvarchar(max) declare @sqlrestore nvarchar(max) declare @PrimaryAG nvarchar(max) declare @SecondaryAG nvarchar(max) declare @backupPath nvarchar(max) declare @linkedserverName sysname select @sqlrestore = N'RESTORE DATABASE ' + QUOTENAME(@databasename) + ' FROM...

SQL Server 2016 : SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL

How to use 'between' in CASE statement? - Hi Friends, I am trying to wirte a filter condition in WHERE clause like CASE WHEN GETDATE() = 'first of this month' THEN 'DATE...

SSMS 2016 13.0.1601.5 Update Not Complete - Ok. Every time I open my SSMS 2016, the update is returning the following. Obviously I ran the update and...

SQL Server 2014 : Administration - SQL Server 2014

What can cause a failure in SQL Server, when a prior admin's account is deleted? - We had a prior DBA that had his AD account showing up as the owner on a multitude of SQL...

Stopping Service in Cluster - Stopped SQL service from Configuration manager in a cluster, is the failover supposed to happen? Will stopping SQL Server resource or...

Availability Group Listener - We have Always On with 3 nodes on that first 2 nodes are SQL Server cluster and 3rd node is...

SQL Server 2012 : SQL 2012 - General

Single Node MSSQL 2012 cluster to Always on - We need to migrate one of our MSSQL instances in Production . The outgoing replication is to Informatica and is very...

TEMPDB log growing HUGE - Running SQL 2012 SP3 CU6 AlwaysOn.... we had an issue two nights ago with the tempdb log filling the log disk....

SQL Server 2012 : SQL Server 2012 - T-SQL

Insert new row into a table, but move the old row to an archive table. Trigger or SSIS? Table partitioning? - Hello, Basically the the subject line says it all. I have been tasked with populating an empty table, but any subsequent...

SQL Server 2008 : SQL Server 2008 - General

Cannot create a row of size 8208 which is greater than the allowable maximum row size of 8060. - Hello. We have a very large table in one of our MSCRM deployments that has 566 columns with a variety...

SQL Server 2008 : T-SQL (SS2K8)

Insert data into a table without disabling the constraints (pk and fk) - Hi I am working with a t-sql code in SQL Server 2008 and would like to know if it is possible...

SQL Server 2008 : SQL Server 2008 High Availability

Setup of High avilability DB Mirroring + Log shipping - Hi In Local IDC High availability Database mirroring already configured since 5 years back with manual failover with no witness server....

Reporting Services : Reporting Services

Blank page generated between two tablix in SSRS - I have two tables in my report. First tablix, should be shown on first page Second tablix, should be shown on second...

Programming : General

Dealing with programmers - Hi Community, Dealing with programmers turns to be a difficult challenge, when they ignore his duties, because they do not have...

Data Warehousing : Integration Services

Copy data from flat file with multiple headers - Hi, I am trying to copy data from a flat file (CSV) which has multiple headers between the row values to...

SQL Server 2005 : Administering

script out database users for the selected database - Hi All, This might be old question but i am not able to find answer for this. Actually i am looking...

SQL Server 2005 : SQL Server 2005 General Discussion

Error converting data type DBTYPE_DBTIMESTAMP to datetime. - Hi, I am running an SQL statement that connect ORACLE database to retrieve data. I tried to run my SQL in sql...

SQL Server 7,2000 : T-SQL

Inserting TAB into string - Hi all, This is for SQL 2000. I am trying to add a tab character to a string using char(9) but...

This email has been sent to newsletter@newslettercollector.com. To be removed from this list, please click here.
If you have any problems leaving the list, please contact the webmaster@sqlservercentral.com.

This newsletter was sent to you because you signed up at SQLServerCentral.com.
Feel free to forward this to any colleagues that you think might be interested.
If you have received this email from a colleague, you can register to receive it here.