Revenue and profits are essential for any business because it shows what you achieve at the end. The higher you achieve, the better you are doing may be the common man’s perception but business owners know well that to be happy with the results you have to ensure that it comes at the least cost. How efficient a company can depend on how much more it can achieve or produce with minimal resources or inputs and this is precisely what productivity is.
There is a close relation between efficiency and productivity because unless the business processes are efficient, it will not lead to improved productivity. It is only when you are highly productive that the net gains from the revenue are higher because you enjoy the better value of your earnings. The returns are higher only when you are more productive and this a good measure of organizational performance. Productivity also helps companies to assess how they are progressing.
Productivity Equates with Smarter Working
Business competition is growing so intense that unless you stay productive, you will not be able to survive. Not only you have to cut through tough competition, but you will also have to cater to ever-growing customer expectations. You have to make use of advanced technological tools to achieve the goals and to embrace new technology; you have to become more productive. There is yet another reason for focusing more on business productivity. Since the market is now open without borders, you have to cater to global customers for which the price of the product is an important consideration. You can offer very competitive price by increasing productivity. However, things are changing fast, and it is not just sufficient to pay attention to inputs and outputs. Productivity today also includes adapting smarter ways of working.
Take the case of a software development company to understand how it can improve productivity by taking the right approach to database monitoring.
Team Performance Contributes to Productivity
Software development is an area that thrives on team performance. The productivity of any team depends on how well the team uses the specialization of the team members and how good the communication is across the team. The team comprising of engineers, Database Administrators (DBA) belonging to companies like remoteDBA.com and developers should have access to the same information at the right time so that every member stays on the same page right from the stage of inception through the post-development stage.
In the process of software development, specialization often becomes necessary to make use of the complementary skill sets that each member offers that helps in the smooth transition of work from one stage to another. Collaboration among the team members is evident when a developer pushes code containing database queries, and the DBA takes responsibility for load testing and troubleshooting of the new release. The knowledge and specialized skills of each team member ensure more stable applications and faster shipping.
Communication is the Prime Mover
If any team that combines specialized resources with segmentation, like in software development, collaborates and communicates poorly the productivity gets affected. DBAs and databases play a unique role in software development and belong to the category of specialized group in the team. Besides paying close attention to the specialized members of the team, you have to be equally attentive to the metrics that help to overcome barriers to achieve better productivity through improved level of communication.
Push productivity by Sharing Responsibilities
The software development team has to depend on DBAs who are the specialists of the team. Depending on their skill sets and knowledge, they handle tasks that are exclusive to them, hence segmented. They have the experience that other members of the team do not have. In the process, the company becomes dependent on the specialists that actually may hinder productivity when you scale up.
To overcome the dependence and to create a collaborative environment between developers and DBAs that would help to improve productivity, it is better to avoid stark demarcations and start sharing responsibilities between them. Another way could be to hire full-stack developers who possess broader skills. Regardless of which path you take, you have to start by sharing knowledge between DBAs and developers that would help to understand each other’s roles and create good understanding. This would become the stepping-stone for sharing more responsibilities in future.
Strong Communication Within the Team
The teamwork in software development acquires a special dimension concerning free-flowing communication among team members promptly that can have a deep impact on the end product. A single misunderstanding could have catastrophic consequences. The tight coordination between the team members keep the teams and systems performing at the highest level of efficiency. Effective communication helps quick identification and resolution of issues that help to avoid significant outages and slowdown of the process. Firstly, the frequency of communication must be such that people do not feel like being bombarded with information. Secondly, the quality of information has to be informative as well as actionable. The absence of balance between timeliness and quality in communication would create too much noise with little effect on the outcome of the team effort.
Use System Alerts for Timeliness
The feature of system alerts is essential for database or application monitoring solution. However, you must not overuse it. Alerts need fine-tuning and events should trigger alerts but at the optimum frequency. It should never happen that alerts become a cause for disturbance for the team members. Developers and DBA should also be able to set their alerts and monitor it so that there is sharing of the monitoring burden between them.
Quality of Communication
Communications must be relevant to the context and have enough depth and clarity so that it is easy to understand. Metrics driven conversation that entails comparing multiple graphs and sharing screenshots of charts is an efficient way to collaborate better.
Creating a productive team of DBAs and developers by using the powers of communication and specialization would help better understanding that improves productivity.
About the author:
Sujain Thomas used to be the mentor of database management companies including remoteDBA.com. Currently, she owns a business of his own that besides offering services in database administration also engages in digital marketing. A session of golf on Sunday afternoon is what he likes most.