Saturday, June 18, 2011

People Are Your Most Important Asset? - I Don't Think So

Our People Are Our Most Important Asset!

Donald Taylor posits here that people are an organization's most important asset.

Personally, I'd hesitate to work for a company that had that attitude.

On this blog, an organization's most important asset is data.

Although I wouldn't argue that a person is, "Something valuable that an entity benefits from, or has use of, in generating income", the complete definition of asset from businessdictionary.com is:
  1. Something valuable that an entity owns, benefits from, or has use of, in generating income.
  2. Accounting: Something that an entity has acquired or purchased, and that has money value (its cost, book value, market value, or residual value).
That doesn't sound right. Maybe we should dig a little deeper. Maybe people are tangible assets:
...anything that has long-term physical existence or is acquired for use in the operations of the business and not for sale to customers. 
A tad Orwellian, perhaps, but not too bad. Continuing:
...can be destroyed by fire, hurricane, or other disasters or accidents.
Gruesome, but true.
...can be used as collateral to raise loans, and can be more readily sold to raise cash in emergencies.
Stop right there.

How about intangible assets? Let's check that definition:
...the long-term resources of an entity, but have no physical existence.
Nope.

Sorry, I'm just not buying the idea that people are assets. So what are they?

I think a person is a resource:
An economic or productive factor required to accomplish an activity, or as means to undertake an enterprise and achieve desired outcome.
Now that's a person!

Let's wrap this discussion up with a couple of metaphors:
  1. Data is the fuel for the engine (the resource) that produces information.
  2. Data are the ingredients for the chef (the resource) to produce a meal (information).
Do you have any better examples? Do you agree or (more importantly) disagree?

PS: Some people don't like the term "Human Resources", but I always thought it meant resources for humans, not resources that are human.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Just A Big Ol' Spreadsheet

I've been thinking about my last post, and it occurred to me that some users probably think a database is nothing more than a big, interactive spreadsheet. Result sets are returned as rows and columns, and maybe their reports have graphs, just like in Excel. Heck, maybe they're actually using Excel as a front-end, so of course the database looks like a spreadsheet.

I know when I'm asked, "So what is a database, anyway?" I use a spreadsheet to explain it.

Maybe I have to come up with a better metaphor.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Meme Monday: Dumb SQL Questions

Once again, it's Meme Monday. Thomas LaRock's (Blog | Twitter) meme this month is dumb SQL questions.

First, let me express an opinion. I agree with the ideas that there are no dumb questions, or the only dumb question is one that isn't asked. But I think there are lazy questions, questions that could be answered with a little digging (or a quick Google search), but it's just easier to ask the DBA. I don't like lazy questions, and I try not to ask them.

Now, on to this month's meme. I don't really have a dumb question, more of a dumb attitude. It seems that a lot of end-users and developers think that creating a database takes about as much time and effort as creating a spreadsheet. They need it tomorrow, and don't understand when we start asking about schemas, tables, constraints, etc.

I suppose the DBA team needs to do a better job at education, but sometimes it seems like a lost cause.