How do you teach your team database administration standards?

First step would be to develop a Skill matrix for the team to understand what they are already aware and confident about and what are the improvement areas. It is important to discuss what team is following to resolve their daily issues or implementation of any new solution in daily stand-up calls. This gives an opportunity to everyone in the team to contribute their views on how a task can be achieved and whether the path that we choose is as per standards or not. Maintaining proper documentation and updating them on regular basis and conducting trainings for the team whether internally or externally also helps them in understanding the standards to be followed. An internal wiki of standards always helps the new joiners jump start.

This is a crucial aspect of maintaining a well-functioning database environment. Define Database Administration Standards/ Training and Onboarding, Regular Workshops and Seminars, Documentation and Knowledge Sharing, Hands-On Experience, Peer Reviews and Code Walkthroughs, Regular Audits and Compliance Checks, Stay Informed and Adapt, Mentorship, Continuous Learning, Communication and Collaboration, Rewards and Recognition to their good work. One can help the team to understand, adopt, and adhere to these database administration standards effectively, ensuring a stable and well-managed database environment.

The important thing is to include everyone, to find out the level that your colleagues are at, get them to ask questions, as well as mention what is expected. Importantly, the key to administration, to look at what can be automated that way you can build in the requirements of the Business so that basically you have the rules that you have to stick to.

The resume of each team member when gathering the team should provide a good baseline of the experience each team member has with the different processes involving databases as incident management, project-focused work... You can leverage tools as Microsoft Forms with a set of question to understand how comfortable their are working on each aspect. To then schedule mentoring and or shadowing calls within members to ensure cross-skilling and upskilling within your team.

A critical analysis can be applied, where you look out for what's lacking and advice on the training needs but most importantly as a lead, they will need to follow my guide, then I can start assigning task which will go from simple to complex and ensure compliance while correcting them where necessary

The standards and policies should always, always, always include the "why". This is covered in "you should also explain the rationale". Basically if someone complains "why do we have to do this?" then you have a reason. Maybe they don't like the reason, or don't agree with it, but they can better judge their culture fit in the org when they know why. (E.g. if there's a process that 10 people have to spend 1hr each doing, to save 1 executive 2 hours, an employee might say "nope, that's not the kind of company I want to work for.")

1. I personally recommend to start with the database fundamentals, so we can get to understand the basics of them 2. Following that, select well-regarded textbooks that delve into database principles and hands-on DBA techniques 3. Create a personal lab environment for hands-on experience, allowing you to practice and apply these skills effectively

Although defining a standardised process, comprehensive policies and best practices for database administration takes centre stage, it is also the process adherence which is equally important. We often following the RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) matrix for defining the policies with a clear communication and expectation from the teams across.

Develop Documentation: Create comprehensive guidelines covering all aspects of database administration, including security, backup, recovery, and performance tuning. Standardize Procedures: Ensure that all team members follow the same procedures to maintain consistency. This includes naming conventions, coding standards, and workflow processes. Compliance: Ensure that your standards and policies comply with industry regulations and best practices.

Document Standards: Create comprehensive documentation covering database design, security, backup procedures, and performance tuning. Use Templates: Provide standard templates for common tasks like database creation, maintenance scripts, and incident response.

Delivering training effectively involves offering real-world experiences, incorporating practical scenarios, and using storytelling techniques to enhance the learning process. This approach makes training more impactful. Including real-time data and practical use cases to illustrate real-world implementations.

Coaching and mentoring teammates should be one of the important levers of Organisation's growth. Identifying the skill gap and offering a targeted training program would help individuals. Irrespective of the mode of delivery, conducting coaching sessions with adequate hands-on guidance and support is extremely important. Implementing a process around regular assessments to gauge individual and team progress would help monitor the end-to-end process

Training Programs: Organize regular training sessions covering different aspects of database administration. Use a mix of in-person workshops, online courses, and webinars. Mentorship: Pair less experienced team members with veterans to provide hands-on learning opportunities and guidance. Use AI Tools: Leverage AI-powered learning platforms to provide personalized training paths and resources.

Organize Workshops: Host regular workshops on key topics such as SQL optimization, indexing strategies, and security best practices. Use Real-World Scenarios: Incorporate case studies and real-life examples to make training more practical and relatable. Leverage Online Resources: Utilize online courses, webinars, and tutorials to supplement in-house training.

consistent naming standards for objects , code patterns, enough code doc etc. promote maintainability for project and company.

Use a crystal clear approach in measuring the Team/Individual progress and use key indicators to measure adherence to standards. This approach ensures that the team remains aligned with the established standards, identifies opportunities for growth, and adapts to the evolving demands of the dynamic field of database administration.

1.Create a network of two or more people with similar goal 2.Prepare a clean roadmap including achievable small milestones 3.Acknowledge your achievements at each milestone with a well-deserved reward 4.Periodically conduct self-evaluations and reflective assessments 5.Journal the important skills on each milestones 6.Highlight the areas where you require further learning knowledge 7.Dedicate consistent time for continuous self-improvement and skill enhancement

Regular Assessments: Conduct periodic evaluations to measure progress and identify areas needing improvement. Feedback Mechanism: Implement a system for receiving and addressing feedback from team members to continuously improve the training program. Performance Metrics: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as uptime, incident response times, and adherence to standards to gauge effectiveness.

Set KPIs: Define key performance indicators to measure improvements in database performance, downtime, and security incidents. Regular Reviews: Conduct regular one-on-one and team meetings to review progress and provide feedback. Automated Monitoring: Implement monitoring tools to continuously track database health and performance metrics.

Establish a feedback mechanism within the team. Encouraging team members to provide insights based on their experiences and also solicit feedback from stakeholders who interact with the databases to gain diverse perspectives. To foster collaboration within the team during the review process, encourage team members to share insights and suggest improvements based on their expertise. By consistently reviewing and updating your standards and policies, you ensure that your database administration practices remain effective, secure, and aligned with the evolving needs of your organisation. This iterative process contributes to the overall resilience and efficiency of your database management practices.

1. Always be open to feedbacks that help to improve the standards and keep them updated 2. Perform online surveys with specific questions about the transparency and efficiency of policies 3. Pick similar entities of your organization and compare the policies, how effective are they.

Regular Reviews: Schedule periodic reviews of your standards and policies to ensure they remain relevant and effective. Incorporate Feedback: Use feedback from your team and the latest industry developments to update your policies. Documentation Updates: Ensure all updates are documented and communicated to the team promptly.

Stay Updated: Keep abreast of the latest trends and updates in database technologies and best practices. Feedback Loop: Encourage team members to provide feedback on existing standards and suggest improvements. Periodic Audits: Conduct regular audits to ensure compliance with established standards and identify areas for improvement.

Upgrading the skills of the people who work with and under you is very important. Documentation documentation and more documentation. When your team documents and shares it with the rest of the team, others can also learn. Encourage your team to step into the unknown. Learn new technologies. Get your team to do things out of their comfort zone. Back your team. Everyone makes mistakes. As a manager, it is our job to take the blame for the mistakes your team makes. But when they do a great job, give them the Kudos.

Creating space within your team's workload for continuous learning and feeding that new learning into updated standards is a sure way to improve morale, standards and operational efficiency. This is not optional in my opinion.

Encourage Learning: Foster an environment where continuous learning is valued and encouraged. Provide access to resources such as books, online courses, and professional conferences. Recognition: Acknowledge and reward team members who demonstrate exceptional skills or improvement. Innovation: Encourage team members to contribute ideas for improving database administration practices.

Encourage Certifications: Support team members in pursuing relevant certifications such as Oracle DBA, Microsoft SQL Server, or AWS Database certifications. Knowledge Sharing: Foster a collaborative environment where team members share insights, tips, and best practices. Innovation Time: Allocate time for team members to experiment with new tools, techniques, and technologies.

Documentation is an important aspect of maintaining standard processes and procedures to be followed. Right from the standard deployment document and adhering to the defined policies while making any changes to the existing system goes a long way and keeps everyone on the same page. From time to time, all documents should be reviewed by the team and updated if required. Even a service account naming convention is important as a standard to be put in place.

As a leaders someone knows the importance of having and following standards, but there are people who don’t understand that because of past experience. Important thing here to help them understand the importance of it. Rationale always goes miles ahead then “follow this” attitude. Help team understand that following standards bring predictability in the overall delivery of the project.

Documentation of the best practices followed in the organization serves as the best teacher for the learner. Additionally, documentation of every job related to maintenance will facilitate understanding of the system's administration task for every reader. In my opinion, comprehensive documentation is sufficient to educate administrators amidst their daily learning endeavors.

Maintain consistency one example is there are always new changes and improvements with databases ensure the current database standards are in line with the new changes and improvements. Ensure documentation is being updated and reflecting the database standard changes. Arrange learning sessions whenever possible, in my personal experience I have learned a lot from arranging KT sessions and lunch and learns.

One aspect to consider for larger companies is the merging or use of separate teams and/or company take overs so there are a diversification of standards that may not marry but should eventually align. Standards or best practice in my opinion should first be driven by vendor documentation best practice, then refined for the company standards. Also we should not necessarily think in terms of database standards we should have IT standards first as an example Server name for production start with P and also database names for production start with P, there is some synergy between different technical teams.