Measurements have value. Measure something over time and we have a baseline. Monitor that measurement and we can see problems before they become obvious. Experiment with minor changes, and we can compare to the baseline to tell if we have improved or hurt our performance. Collect enough measurements and trends will emerge, exposing a layer of information we didn't have access to before.

There is never time for training, or to make sure the servers have the right background image, or to make a monitoring script to send emails when certain schema changes occur in the database, or to improve the feedback loop on quarterly goals, or to change that dreadful change management form to streamline the process. Unfortunately the deep, dark secret is that in 6 months we're going to be saying the same thing, "There isn't time now, we'll do it later".

This is the first article in a three part series on major gaps that we continue to put off until we have "time", a magical s...

This week was my first week trying the stand-up desk concept. While I had read of many people converting their office, I'm going to be reporting directly from the trenches, after spending a week in a cubicle with a stand-up desk and a list of architectu…

Now that all my server are SQL Server 2008 I use SSMS with SSMS Toolpack and Toad. I don't really use Query Analyzer anymore. The other day I found out that you can hide objects you don't want to see in SSMS by using filters.

Let's first look at some code. Create a new database named test, create a new schema named Denis and then add 3 tables to the dbo schema and 3 tables to the Denis schema. Just run the code below