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It has been a while since I’ve last posted.  Was waiting for inspiration I guess.  I’ll be a bit more regular in writing in the future, just hit a dry spell for a bit.

I received inspiration this morning in the form of a question on asktom.  Nothing like a good rant to get going again… I really fear for our "profession" sometimes.  I’m not even really sure some days it is a profession - because if it were a profession - that would imply, well, qualifications. 

Ok, so here it is - the question du jour:

i need your help on how to write applications for mobile banking usin sql, pl/sql or any other product availabe, i am a applications developer and a junior DBA just starting and it is one of the targets i heve to meet in my job,the deadline is getting closer.
your help will be appreciated.
thank u tom for given me an oppurtunity to ask this question.
will be expecting ur reply

Ok, here we are - I want an education on how to write applications for mobile banking.  Now, "mobile banking"  isn’t really something you want someone to cut their teeth on is it?  I mean - I really really want my bank to use developers that already sort of know how to build a transaction processing system.  Also, what sort of financial institution would use a single "junior DBA and part time application developer" as their development team?

"The deadline is getting closer" - and they do not know how to develop a database application.  That is something they should have possibly considered before accepting the job.

The IM speak of "ur" and "u" were just the icing on the cake.

Cary Millsap just wrote about something similar.  An application interface in the UK that offered him the first 2,000 qualifying bus trips he could take from one airport to another.  What were they thinking as they "designed" this - what were the developers thinking when they said "yeah, we’ll make this user interface to find a bus easy - we’ll be super efficient and terminate the search after 2,000 hits".  2,000 hits.  Seems like anything more than 10 would be overkill.

Another recent thread on asktom got under my skin as well.  A reader wrote in part:

My problem is that I have critical servers (24×7 with a 99.999% SLA)

I suggested, perhaps, that implementing some HA features would be useful in helping them get to 99.999% (a hard task indeed).  They write back:

I think that my customer don’t have budget to HA.

The only thing I can think to say back to that is

So, stop saying "I have to have 5 9’s" if you are going to say "don’t have budget" - they are oxymoronic.

I really don’t think that people understand what they are signing up for some days.  "teach me mobile banking - I have a deadline".  "Give me 5 9’s, without any money".  Five nines takes a lot of up front design work, a lot of infrastructure, a lot of effort - it doesn’t just "happen"

I am not generally in favor of "certification", but I seriously think we have a real problem here.  If just anyone is allowed to put themselves up as a developer - everyone will.  Regardless of ability, training, whatever.  Doctors and Lawyers and many other professionals have to meet some basic minimums in that area - perhaps the people that write the stuff that manages our money, our health, our airplanes, heck - virtually every aspect of our lives in many cases - should have to do the same. 

Updated: I think this link is somewhat relevant…  Long but relevant…