OVERVIEW OF ADMINISTRATION FUNCTIONS - Database Design and Development: An Essential Guide for IT Professionals - page 422

Data availability. Ensure that data is available to users from the database system—
whenever data are required, whatever data are required, and however data are
required.

Data system performance. Ensure continued acceptable performance levels of the
database system.
Examine the major goals listed. Think of the types of skills and training needed
to perform the administration function. As you scrutinize the activities and tasks
required to accomplish the goals and objectives, you will conclude that persons per-
forming the administration function must have both managerial and technical skills.
For example, the tasks for determining enterprise information requirements
involve a lot of coordination and organization. The tasks for establishing the infor-
mation framework require more planning and coordination than working with
highly technical details.
On the other hand, the tasks for physical implementation and ensuring system
performance suggest more technical details than planning and coordination. Ensur-
ing that the database system is quickly recovered from malfunctions and made avail-
able to users within a short time also involves more technical skills than managerial
acumen.
Consider the goal of data security. Who gets authorized, for what purposes, and
to access which data items—these are matters of planning and organization. But
how to set up the authorization is more technical than managerial in nature.
On the basis of these considerations, many organizations realize that adminis-
tration of a database system is not for a single group but needs two groups of spe-
cialists. So they are dividing up the administration function between two groups of
professionals. One group, adopting the more managerial aspects, has come to be
known as the data administration group; the other, taking on the more technical
responsibilities, is known as the database administration group.
Figure 14-2 illustrates the division of responsibilities between data administra-
tion and database administration.
Although the bifurcation of responsibilities between data administration and
database administration is gaining ground, not all organizations with databases have
clear-cut divisions. Nor do most organizations have two distinct groups handling
data administration and database administration tasks. Many small to medium-sized

Information Requirements
Data Integration
Information Framework
Physical Implementation
Data Quality

Data Security
Data Availability
System Performance

DATA
ADMINISTRATION

DATABASE
ADMINISTRATION

Figure 14-2 Data administration and database administration.