Re: RBO to CBO

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 22:57:31 -0800
Message-ID: <41db8ea9$1_3@127.0.0.1>

Niall Litchfield wrote:

> DA Morgan wrote:
>

>>Niall Litchfield wrote:

>
> <snip>
>

>>>>I had a customer this year still running apps with Oracle 7 and a
>>>>version of forms with a number so small I can't repeat it. Caused

>
> them
>

>>>>nothing but misery when they were forced by Sarbanes-Oxley to audit
>>>>system usage. What would have taken less than two minutes with

>
> Oracle 9i
>

>>>>cost them many tens of thousands of dollars.
>>>
>>>
>>>I'm not sure I get this. Sarbanes-Oxley requirements only take 2

>
> minutes per
>

>>>database with 9i? In addition what was the cost of
>>>
>>>move from 7-8.0.6-8.1.5-8.1.7-.9.0.1-9.2-10.1 ? in unit testing,

>
> client or
>

>>>server changes etc.
>>>
>>>Then add in the costs of the forms moves and rewrites.
>>>
>>>I do like systems to be current, but I'm sure that upgrading every

>
> 18 months
>

>>>is too costly.
>>
>>One DBA takes one day to upgrade a system. And most of that time is

>
> the
>

>>computer churning away while the DBA surfs the web. But to be

>
> generous 7
>

>>days of which DBAs time costs many tens of thousands of dollars? And

>
> if
>

>>you find that guy I want his job.
>>
>>And yes testing is required. But still the worst case scenario is a
>>financial break-even every time I've costed it out.

>
>
> The example you mentioned was for sarbanes-oxley compliance which
> suggests to me that we are talking ERP or billing systems. Certainly
> something that is crucial to the operation of the business. *I* would
> expect the business critical processes to be documented, tested and
> certified for each such move. For the forms moves the testing and
> documentation *ought* to be even more onerous.
>
> Add up the opportunity cost of DBA,end-users,testing
> managers,documentation writers,developer for the total period of each
> upgrade and I can easily believe that you are in multi-tens of
> thousands costs.
>
> of course most IT managers and many CFOs don't actually have much
> micro-economics so the correct calculation rarely gets done.
> Niall Litchfield
> Oracle DBA
> http://www.niall.litchfield.dial.pipex.com
>

You are correct in all of your assumptions. But of course not just ERP and billing. Also inventory, shipping-receiving, and many other systems through which items of value are tracked.

As I said ... it may be a break-even. But generally testers are either a fully funded department or end-users temporarily reassigned. They get the same salary no matter what they do. So yes it costs more than the simple salary of the DBA. But not as much as you might imagine.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)

Received on Wed Jan 05 2005 - 00:57:31 CST