Illogical dba

I suspect that what we are seeing is the split between roles. Remember when the concept of having a sysadmin was new? "What? you mean you need a dedicated individual to take care of the machine?" How about when the role of DBA was invented? "You mean you need ANOTHER person to take care of the database?" I don't think the proper term is 'logical dba', but in large fast moving projects (oxymoron), there is a definite need for someone to figure out the what while someone else punches the keys. I don't have time anymore to deal with the instance itself, I'm too busy going to meetings and translating business requirements into 'reality', Does that make me a 'logical DBA'? I don't think so - they call me MR^H^H an architect. Of course I am working in an Oracle shop..... (but I'm working on that - heard any good Oracle jokes lately? I mean aside from Version 8). In a previous life we had a single 'physical DBA' who took care of 2 dozen or so instances serving 8 or so different projects. He didn't have a real role in terms of 'what'. At the same time we didn't have a dedicated 'logical' person setting up the schema, who was not also involved in developing. In that incarnation the application (OLTP) was more important than the data. In my current incarnation (DW) the data is more important than the application. I may get out of this project without ever touching a piece of code (yeuch). I suspect that over the next several years the term 'logical DBA' will go through some gyrations and then finally settle on a firmer title and job description. When it does please let me know. Now I have to run, I'm late for a meeting... cheers j.