Grant Fritchey

26Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Development, Leadership, Age

While I was at the VMWare HQ getting some amazing training a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to meet a large number of "C" level people from that organization and Pure Storage. In addition, they had multiple development and project management leads come and talk to us. All the attention was nice (but it was the information we were receiving that was truly awesome). But part way through the second day I realized something. I was sitting in Silicon Valley. I was talking to, effectively, the captains of industry and their chief lieutenants. And many, most, of them were at or near my age. Wait a second. I thought the Valley was run by teenagers? I'm constantly told that older people are getting squeezed out of technology by…

24Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 20 Comments

Thoughts on PASS Board Nomination Process: #passvotes

PASS

Having very recently gone through the nomination process for the PASS Board, I thought I would share a few things about it. Overall, it was a great experience. I feel that I really had to stretch to meet everything required of me. It was quite difficult to put together all the campaign material. Deciding on who to ask to give you recommendations was also very difficult. All, very much, as it should be. We're talking about stepping up to run for the board of, essentially, a multi-million dollar corporation. It should be hard to do that. The interview process with the Nomination Committee was also no picnic. Most of these people had already served on the board, so they knew exactly what you, the nominee, was going to get into,…

23Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

SQL Server, T-SQL

The latest update to my book, SQL Server Query Performance Tuning was released last week. This is the fourth edition of the book, and the third edition that I've been responsible for. At the urging of my editor, Jonathan Gennick,Â I haveÂ completely restructured the book for this release. The chapters have been broken up and rearranged so that they're smaller, more easily consumed. Yes, I've worked with my technical editor, Joe Sack, to add lots of new information and to ensure that the existing information is more accurate and more useful. But, we've also added new chapters on topics that weren't given enough attention in the previous versions of the book, such as parameter sniffing. It can certainly seem like these book releases are just some incremental changes on top of…

22Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Communication and the Board: #PASSVotes

PASS

The whole idea behind PASS is to build a community of people who can assist each other in their daily work lives. PASS succeeds at that wonderfully. Further, PASS, the organization, tries extremely hard to let you know what it's doing and how it's doing things. You can read the PASS Blog to get all sorts of good information. One of my recentÂ favorites was this great summary of how the Summit speaker selection process was run. I think it's a positive thing that the organization is so open. I intend to take it one more step. If I get elected (huge "if"), I'm going to make a point of blogging about, well, the stuff I end up doing. No, I'm not going to be the official mouth-piece for the organization,…

19Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

A Manager or a Community Person: #PASSVotes

PASS

I am running for the PASS Board. You can read more about what I've posted and what others have to say here on this page. Today I want to ask you a question. Should someone on the board be a manger or should they be a community person? Let's avoid the easy answer of both for a moment, not because that's the wrong answer, but because it's the right one. Clearly you need a mix of these skills to be on the board. But, where you fall on my simplistic question could determine the kind of person you want to vote for on the board. Let's discuss it a bit. According to Wikipedia (deal with it),Â a board of directors is "meant to oversee the activities of a company or organization."…

17Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

I Am Running For the PASS Board of Directors: #passvotes

PASS

This year, I submitted my application to run for the PASS Board and it was accepted. This then is my announcement to all of you and the beginning of my campaign for election. My name is Grant Fritchey and I'm running for the PASS Board. It's traditional to either make all sorts of promises for the things you're going to do or to attack your opponents. I'm not going to do either. I don't have any grand promises to make. I'm not going to attackÂ my opponents because I know and respect them. I'm voting for James Rowland-Jones myself and so should you. Let's do this instead. Let's talk about PASS, you, me, your career, mine, and how PASS can change your life. PASS changed my life for the better. Like…

16Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2014 Pre-Conference Seminar

PASS, T-SQL

I'm putting on a pre-conference seminar (also known as a pre-con) at the PASS Summit this year. I'm really honored to be able to present this and I'm pretty excited about it. So, if you want to talk query tuning, let's get together at the Summit. For a few fun facts about the event, check out this Q&A over at PASS. To register for the event and my pre-con, go here now.

15Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Podcast on Devops and the Database

DevOps

I've been attempting to expand my reach to get back to my roots in development. I'm doing this because I really believe in the concepts behind devops, that these walls we've erected between development and dba, between dba and san admin, et, ad nauseum, cetera, need to come to an end. The great news is that there are a lot of other people who feel the same. We're changing things. Come on over to the dark side, we have wine. Any way, I had a blast talking database devops with Bryan for his podcast. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

10Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Statistics in SQL Server

SQL Server

I've put together a new Curah! of links to some of the better articles on SQL Server Statistics, specifically those for SQL Server 2014. The changes in the cardinality estimator can't be ignored. If you want to talk about statistics, I'll be presenting at Live360 in November on that topic and several others. Go here to register for this event.

09Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

It’s All Fundamentals

Professional Development

I'm learning how to speak German. Interestingly enough, you don't start off reading dissertations. Instead, you begin by learning the names of things, Teller for plate, Buch for book. The fundamentals. I'm a third degree black belt in Ken Ryu Kenpo. But you don't start that, or continue it, by learning complex kata. Instead, you start with how to make a fist, how to hold your hands up in a defensive stance. The fundamentals. I've been doing crossfit and Olympic weightlifting for a couple of years now. I've been working hard on my clean, standing up tall during the lift, getting my elbows around quick. The fundamentals. Situation after situation, skill set after skill set, you have to get the fundamentals right. And, if you don't get the fundamentals right,…