All posts by: Joel Ewald
What is Technical Debt
With all the snow lately I know everyone was looking forward to another Summer Friendly T-Shirt Series post. To be honest I did not have time to finish writing the next article in that series yet as I was shoveling...
T-Shirt Series: The Misunderstood Table Variable
I have been asked what is the difference between Temp Tables, Table Variables, CTEs, and Derived tables. So I thought I would take this opportunity to do a short blog post on each and then summarize the differences. You can check...
Incorrect SQL71558 error when joining synonyms in SSDT
I recently ran into an issue where the SSDT compiler in Visual Studio was misreporting an error and I wanted to post about the setup and work-around. SSDT, also known as SQL Server Data Tools, is an add-in for Visual...
T-Shirt Series: What is so special about “TEMP” Tables
I have been asked what is the difference between Temp Tables, Table Variables, CTEs, and Derived tables. So I thought I would take this opportunity to do a short blog post on each and then summarize the differences. Today we...
Troubleshooting a Full Transaction Log
Transaction logs are one of the most critical parts of a database and should be managed as such. Running out of disk space can cause application errors and even database corruption. If your transaction log is continually growing there are...
I love you Agile – here is my Waterfall breakup Letter
I came across an agile retrospective activity that asked participants to write a breakup letter for parts of your process that you wanted to break up with or a love letter to the parts of your process that had a...
[We] ain’t afraid of no [retrospective] (Retrospective Activity)
I previously blogged about how important I think retrospectives are, and you can read it here. We recently decided to try and mix up our team EOS Level 10 meeting slightly by replacing the Issue Identification and Resolution portion of...
Using visual aids for actionable reflection
Without reflection there can be no learning. Reflection is the time when we look at what we have done, including actions and behaviors, and evaluate what worked or did not work for a situation. This could be as individuals, a...
Defensive Database Programming
There I was minding my own business having breakfast and reading SQL Server Central‘s editorial when I saw a link to Alex Kuznetsov’s Defensive Database Programming book. I read the book a year or so ago, and much of it will not come as any...
Seth Godin’s Quality Abyss
I have worked at companies in the past where we were constantly struggling to climb out of what Seth Godin classified as Falling down the quality abyss. His post struck a cord of remembrance and so I urge you to read...