On: Accounting for Developers

[sundarurfriend]

From your description, it sounds like bookkeeper:accountant as DB-user:DB-admin - the accountant/admin defines the schema, and the bookkeeper/user only gets to work at the data level, with no metadata level decisions. Is this analogy sound?

[jasode → sundarurfriend]

That can be a loose analogy if one is using the perspective of job titles.

I was emphasizing the different "cognitive activity" of each instead of job titles. As for workers' positions/roles, that's more fluid.

For example, in the small company[1], the "bookkeeper" is also doing the "accounting tasks".

In this other larger company[2], the "bookkeeper" is more of a data-entry person and reports to the CPA.

[1] http://jobview.monster.com/Bookkeeper-Job-Palm-Bay-FL-US-151...

[2] http://jobview.monster.com/Bookkeeper-Logistics-Firm-Job-New...

[tmornini_ey → sundarurfriend]

I believe this is a good analysis if you see the DB administrator in the role of scheme and report design, interpreting reports, and using those reports to plan for the future, and the DB user as inserting new rows (never updating!) and doing simple queries on the data.