Political Issues

The technical hurdles required to support a DB2 environment sometimes pale in comparison to the political issues. Technical problems can always be addressed by a combination of outside expertise, enhanced hardware, add-on tools, and overtime. Political issues are more difficult to overcome because they typically rely on human nature, which is fragile at best.

Of paramount importance to the health of your DB2 support structure is keeping the valuable employees with DB2 skills. Although doing so is not always easy, you can do it by packaging jobs with a healthy mix of job challenge, fair salaries, and merit-based promotions.

When this type of workplace is achieved, however, problems occur when other employees learn that junior personnel with advanced DB2 skills are being paid more than senior personnel without those skills. However, DB2 and SQL skills are in demand in the marketplace , so failure to fairly compensate skilled DB2 employees could result in their leaving. You can take either of two approaches to dealing with the problem, but neither is pleasurable. Either underpay DB2 professionals and risk losing them to firms willing to pay the going rate, or pay the going rate for DB2 expertise and risk possible resentment from the rest of your application development personnel.

Another personnel issue involving DB2 for z/OS is the current IT skills shortage. The demand for IT skills far outpaces the supply. And with DB2 for z/OS, in particular, the problem is troubling. With the client/server boom of a few years ago, many of the folks who learned DB2 in its early days have moved on to other DBMS products (such as Oracle and SQL Server) and platforms (such as Unix and the Web). Finding, and then keeping, employees with DB2 and mainframe skills can be quite difficult.

Following are some other political issues that you must deal with in a DB2 workplace. If 24- hour availability and support is required, your personnel might have to adjust their attitude toward shift work and carrying pagers . Most IT professionals are prepared to be "on call" to resolve production problems.

Often many programmers will clamor for the opportunity to work on DB2 projects for the chance to learn SQL and relational skills. They are aware of the monetary rewards that can result if these skills are added to their repertoire . Choosing which of your valued personnel should be given this chance can be difficult. With the advent of client/server technology and the Internet, many shops now have the opposite problem: skilled DB2 professionals wanting to expand their horizons are looking to move out of the DB2 arena into other projects using newer (and resume-enhancing) technology.

Another type of political problem that you can encounter is the direct opposite of the preceding one: ambivalence. People are sometimes afraid of change, and DB2 forces change on an organization. This change can scare IT personnel and create a resistance movement against DB2 development efforts. This resistance can be assuaged with education and time.

A growing political problem these days is maintaining proper levels of mainframe skills. As the current crop of skilled mainframe technicians retire ”or move to other platforms ”there is an insufficient supply of new talent to take their place. Let's face it, they just aren't teaching mainframe skills in college any longer. And today's university graduate is more interested in working with the Web, Java, XML, and other, new, "cool" technologies. Fortunately, IBM has augmented DB2 to work with and support most of these newer technologies so it becomes a bit easier to train the non-initiated on mainframe technology.

Finally, many organizations have an "island unto themselves " attitude. This attitude should be avoided regarding DB2 development and support. DB2 is complex and dynamic, which makes it difficult to master. Do not be shy about attending user groups meetings, contracting expert consultants to assist with difficult or critical tasks , or contacting other local companies that have experienced the same problems or developed a similar system. Most DB2 professionals are willing to share their experiences to develop a contact that might be useful in the future. And, by all means, share your experiences with other shops. The more informed everyone is, the better your experience with DB2 will be.