Database Development
- Database Design / Migration
- Database Development
- Database Administration / Troubleshooting
- Data Management / Analysis / Scrubbing
- Reporting / Business Intelligence
I've been working with relational databases since 1989.
Started with DB2, later did some Oracle and Sybase.
But my primary and preferred database is SQL Server, and have worked with all versions up through 2008 R2.
Design work for databases can range from fairly simple all the way up to extremely complex.
Database designers will throw around terms like OLTP, ODS, Warehouse, RDS, DDS, OLAP, Data Mart, Staging, etc, with each type differing from the others in different ways.
Perhaps you have a product that needs to grow and add more functionality, or one you wish to port to SQL Server, or to a more recent version of SQL Server (e.g. from 2000 to 2008).
Actual development of database designs takes knowledge of many different areas:
Logical vs Physical design; Use of ORM or Entity Frameworks; Security; High-availability; Performance & Scalability; to name most of the major disciplines involved.
Taking that database forward and putting it into production, it now has to be administered.
And it is not unknown for problems to appear over time.
The database itself is only part of the job.
The rest is the data itself.
It is rare to not have multiple software systems that overlap in functionality.
This can occur because due to new systems being implemented, acquisitions, and mergers.
Master Data Management (MDM) is the development of management systems designed to "normalize" data across systems.
This also includes data analysis and scrubbing to ensure that the data is meaningful, accurate, and complete.
Last but not least is Reporting and Business Intelligence.
Generation and delivery of reports is the bread-and-butter of IT, but it is never a popular job.
Business Intelligence is often a very involved process with literally thousands of details that must be tracked down leading all the way back to the original data gathering.