Professional Development on Andy M Mallon - AM²

Your documentation belongs with your code

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 11:02:59 -0400

If this dog-umentation is right, can you spot all the problems in the generated arf-ifact?

For years, I’ve advocated for keeping developer documentation in the same code repository as the code it describes. In the age of AI, that practice has become even more important.

Clear, Concise, Complete, and Correct: Avoiding AI Slop

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 16:58:36 -0400

We used to call Callie "C". There’s a particular kind of writing that has become increasingly easy to produce: technically plausible, grammatically correct, reasonably well organized, and almost completely exhausting to read.

You know the stuff–it has a lot of words. It has headings for everything. It explains things that don’t need explaining, repeats the same point three different ways, and somehow manages to leave out the details you actually needed.

Year 5: May 2018 - May 2019

Wed, 22 May 2019 09:00:38 -0400

In my last few posts, I’ve walked down memory lane, and talked about a ton of great successes I’ve had in my five years as blogger & speaker. It’s been fun to reminisce about how far I’ve come and brag about some success. Today’s post has a bit of a different theme.

Year 4: May 2017 - May 2018

Tue, 21 May 2019 08:30:21 -0400

In Year Three, I had a pretty big year. I kind of felt like I had peaked. I had received the Community Influencer of the Year Award and Microsoft MVP Award. Where do you go from there? Mostly, I just wanted to keep up what I was doing, and keep sharing what I was doing.

Year 3: May 2016 - May 2017

Mon, 20 May 2019 09:00:52 -0400

Year Two was a busy year, and I was taking blogging seriously. In Year Three, my goal was to keep focused on what I learned in the FreeCon the year before, and keep moving forward with both blogging and speaking at conferences and user groups. I was putting a bit more effort into my speaking (and thus easing off on the blogging some). I was still trying to get into a regular cadence of blogging, and most Sunday mornings, I was at a coffee shop in front of my laptop trying to focus. Dedicating time to blog doesn’t guarantee completed posts–but it helped. I published 27 blog posts during this 12 months–fewer than the prior year, but still averaging one post every other week. I have a full-time day job that doesn’t pay for me to blog–so those posts (and all my in-person speaking presentations) were written nights & weekends in my “free” time.

Year 2: May 2015 - May 2016

Fri, 17 May 2019 08:00:41 -0400

My blog's Terrible Twos weren't so terribleIn Year 1, I only wrote 6 blog posts. In Year 2, I made a conscious decision to take things seriously, and kicked things into high gear. During this 12-month period, I wrote 36 blog posts--my best 12-months as far as pace & productivity in these five years.

This was an incredibly transformational year. I spoke at a user group for the first time. I went to PASS Summit for the first time. I spoke at a SQL Saturday for the first time. I helped organize a SQL Saturday. I had blog posts picked up and published in multiple SQL Server newsletters. To say it was a whirlwind would be an understatement. I wrote a blog post that, to this day, remains the most popular post on this blog.

Year 1: May 2014 - May 2015

Thu, 16 May 2019 09:00:29 -0400

I wrote a little bit about starting my blog in my last post. But let’s take a closer look at that first 12 months.

I’ve lost my blog stats for that first year, so I can’t say exactly how many visitors I had. I can say that the number of views was so low that it didn’t matter. If I were going to offer a generous estimate, I would guess I got whopping 100 page views in year one (mostly from me).

Blogging on a whim

Wed, 15 May 2019 09:00:06 -0400

On May 16, 2014, I bought a domain on a whim. I’d been sitting in the NOCC (Network Operations & Control Center) at my employer, helping with maintenance. I was waiting on another team to perform their task, and champing at the bit.

What the heck is downtime, anyway?

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 09:00:17 -0400

If a server falls in a data center and no users are around to notice, does it count as downtime? There's a lot of discussion about preventing downtime. As a DBA and IT professional, it's my sworn duty to prevent downtime. I usually describe my job as DBA something along the lines of, "to make sure data is always available to the people and applications that need it, and never available to the people and applications that shouldn't have it." Preventing downtime is certainly important for that first part--but how the heck do you define downtime?

What “downtime” means to most DBAs

When DBAs think about downtime, we often think in terms of “the server is offline” or “the database isn’t responding to queries” or even “the database isn’t responding to queries fast enough.” But is that really downtime?

SQL: A love story

Mon, 21 Jan 2019 08:00:54 -0500

I’m a college drop-out. When I was trying to figure out my life, a friend (my brother’s ex) referred me to a software company where she was working–I got the job because I was (a) breathing, (b) eager to do the job, and (c) cheap. The application we built and sold was built with VB6, SQL Server, and later a bit of VB.NET. In my one year of college, I’d decided that I hate software development, but I fell in love with SQL Server. I’ve spent most of my career working with SQL Server (albeit a brief stint doing Oracle stuff), and I’m very happy that I fell in love with the SQL language and SQL Server in particular.

Failure is always an option

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 08:00:49 -0500

A while back, I had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with Bert Wagner (blog|twitter), Erin Stellato (blog|twitter), and an anonymous friend about some of our #SQLFail moments.

https://youtu.be/osqoWOw2jss

Everyone screws up

Everyone has their failures. Nobody is perfect. But failure can be a good thing. We can learn from our failures, and learn not to make the same mistakes again in the future. Failure only becomes a problem when we make the same mistake repeatedly. Bloggers spend a lot of time writing about our successes, but we’re human and we make mistakes, too. This post is a chance to share one of my memorable failures.

Working from home: Home office tour

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 11:08:10 -0500

Callie might be the best office mate I've ever had. About two years ago, I moved my home office down into the basement at our house. At the time, I was working from home two (sometimes three) days per week, and sharing a home office with my husband was starting to feel cramped. He was rarely working at the same time as me, but only half the space was mine. The basement has a large finished room that we weren't using for anything else, so it was up for grabs. I painted my new office, and moved right in. This gave me a dedicated, and somewhat secluded place to work--no more worrying that my early morning call will disturb Ken while he sleeps on the other side of the wall, and less worry about getting interrupted during video calls.

Earlier this year, I started a new job as Product Manager for SentryOne, and work from home full time. This means I spend more (awake) time in my office than any other room in the house. Over the last few months, I’ve spent some more time making my office be someplace I actually look forward to going every day. I finished my last project over the weekend, so I thought I’d take everyone through a guided tour of my home office.

I'm in a book! Data Professionals at Work

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 19:34:59 -0400

Back in January, I got a message from Malathi Mahadevan (blog|twitter) asking me if I would participate in a book she was working on. The book, Data Professionals At Work, is part of Apress Media's "...At Work" series. The book is an anthology of interviews with Microsoft-focused data professionals. I want to thank Mala again for inviting me to participate, and for all the effort she put into making this book happen. A number of us will be at PASS Summit this year, so keep an eye out for details on some book-related events at Summit!

The list of interviewees spans data professionals with a wide range of specialty and experience. There are Microsoft employees, DBAs, Developers, BI Developers, and more. With such a great list of contributors, just about every data professional will find some chapters familiar and other chapters an adventure in a different career.

Who are the extra special people in your life?

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 09:28:34 -0400

Warning: This is not my typical blog post. It has nothing to do with databases, nor IT, nor even technology. However, it has everything to do with you, with your career, and with your success. I’ve decided to turn this exercise into a public blog post, but it is a deeply personal, raw blog post. I don’t expect others to share their thoughts publicly, but I encourage everyone to take some time and do this same exercise privately.

Hanging up my DBA cleats

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 10:00:52 -0400

Take the time to celebrate any #ChampagneMoment that life throws your way. Remember to toast your own accomplishments, big or small.

I’m no accidental DBA. Very shortly after I started working in tech, I realized that I wanted to be a DBA when I grew up. Eventually, I landed that DBA job, and have been a DBA ever since. I talk about my journey when I give my “How to get your dream job” talk (you can watch the recording here).

How to get your dream job - Webinar recording

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 09:30:58 -0400

I recently presented for the PASS Professional Development virtual group with my session “How to get your dream job: resume & job hunting tips.” When I’m speaking at SQLSaturdays and User Groups, I frequently meet people looking to advance their career, make a career change, or are just interested in how I got where I am. Earlier this year, I decided to turn that conversation into a 60-minute session. In addition to the one-on-one conversations, I can now do a one-to-many session to share my own experience and offer some additional advice to other data professionals.

Interviewed by Mohammad Darab

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 10:01:42 -0500

As part of Mohammad’s series of interviews, he interviewed me on my thoughts on the future of SQL Server, the DBA role, and the cloud.

Read the interview on Mohammad’s site.

The most important resume tip

Sun, 09 Jul 2017 10:52:24 -0400

Writing a good resume is hard. People will tell you lots of rules about what you should always or never do with your resume. Should you follow those rules? Are things different because of your industry/background/geography/niche? Should you be clever or classic? It depends™.

There is one important thing to keep in mind for your resume. This tip is not a rule, but it is a universal fact. Whether you’re a battle-scarred IT veteran, or a fresh-faced college grad, keep this one tip in mind when you read or update your resume.

Job hunting for database professionals

Tue, 19 Jul 2016 10:00:44 -0400

Like most people, I’ve changed jobs a few times in my life. My path from teenage grocery store cashier to Database Architect was a complicated and multi-step journey. During that journey, I’ve made some good decisions, and some bad decisions. If you’re like most tech folks, you’ve probably had a similar experience.

Benefits tell you a lot about a company

Mon, 11 Jul 2016 10:00:58 -0400

When you’re interviewing with a new company, pay attention to their benefits. Even the ones that aren’t important to you personally.

Benefits don’t just include health/dental/vision insurance and retirement/pension (I’ll call these “core benefits”). It includes life insurance, disability, maternity leave, vacation, sick time, as well as “perks” like free snacks in the lunch room, paying your cell phone bill, or a company retreat to Napa. Every one of these are important considerations.

Job hunting is like dating

Mon, 11 Jul 2016 10:00:15 -0400

Most of us spend at least eight hours per day working. In America, we spend an average of 25 minutes commuting, each way. That’s nine hours dedicated to work every day. You probably see your coworkers as much as you see your friends and significant other. That’s why finding the right fit is important.

Dumplings, Databases and Corporate Espionage

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 23:07:22 -0400

This blog post takes a tangent from my usual technology-specific ramblings, but I’ll make the connection eventually. Just bear with me.

Dumplings

Dan dan mien, mango bubble tea, and petite chicken dumplings in Sichuan sauce

Today, I was craving some mapo tofu, so I went to one of my favorite lunch joints, Dumpling Daughter (website|twitter). As I walked in, I realized there was a news crew filming. When I asked Nadia, the owner, about her visitors, she asked if I’d seen the Boston Globe yet–and told me to check it out. I hadn’t, so I ordered my mapo tofu, and scurried off to look up the Globe story which was easy to find because it was on the main page, above the fold.

Watch your step! Don't become a DBA-hole

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 01:37:00 -0400

No, I’m not discouraging anyone from being a DBA. I’m just discouraging DBAs from being A-holes.

DBAs (and IT folk in general) have a terrible reputation for being curmudgeons, jerks, and a-holes. These guys exist, and working with them is a miserable experience–but they’re a minority. Unfortunately, they are a memorable minority and they give the rest of us a bad name.