RE: Normalization was Left AS/400 and Returned

> From: Fisher, Don
> 
> I keep reading about the benefits of stored procedures on this list
and
> intend to explore their possibilities at some point.  For the present,
I
> and
> my colleagues have more pressing issues.  That's what happens when a
> development staff is half the size it needs to be.  The good news is
that
> if
> we need to make a database change, we do and notify the "power" users
of
> that change so they can make appropriate modifications to their
queries.

And this works fine as long as the number of queries and the number of
database changes is small.  But remember, the idea behind letting power
users do their own queries is to save them time, right?  Well, the first
time you make a database change that affects more than a couple of
queries, I guarantee you will get some pushback from your power users.
And maybe that's the point at which you review your policy and move to a
stored procedure environment; the problem often being that by that time
the power users have such an investment in the old approach that any
conversion will face massive resistance.

(And I agree that the upload, edit, post cycle for data from
spreadsheets is perfectly acceptable and a good way to get external
data, whatever the source, into the system.)

Joe