How do you measure and demonstrate your value and impact as a DBA?

Remember, you are the Super User of your Companies information . Keep it protected. Keep a good trail of your working activities. Keep communicating with your fellow workers. Keep your standards professional at all times. These are measurable by Audit.

Disaster recovery requirements were part of the KPI that the DBA needs to be aware of. RTO (return to operations), Data Recovery points from backups, etc. What is your strategy for your company. Manage the expectations based on what can be done.

When I was a database administrator, the ability to perform data recovery and help developers write safe and efficient queries was a way to show your capabilities.

In my experience, a database administrator needs to take every opportunity to teach developers how to write safe and efficient queries. Moreover, teach developers how to leverage various database capabilities that can help them design and build more efficient and secure applications.

I transitioned from being a software engineer/database administrator to security while making sure the databases I supported met the DISA STIGs requirements. A database administrator needs to adopt good practices, specially security practices. The database is the main goal of most threat actors.

DBA’s are not meant to be quiet. If your mouth is not doing the talk, let your keyboard and mouse do it. Want your managers trust, be collaborative. It is the contribution that makes you improve and turns you into a great DBA

One example is when leadership, stakeholders, and the workforce use different sides of the same SaaS. The Data Entry specialist puts the data in every day using the same method. The analysts are seeing this method cause errors in bean counting and struggling to see changes. By collaborating with end users and executing the change to the existing system, the data architecture can improve. Building trust with users is an essential part of training a workforce to use data. Especially for pen and paper businesses just now starting out in digitizing their projects. Collaborating with a team and supporting the development of digital skills among end users for integrating and improving systems is a key skill of a database administrator.

Database administrators can show how they are growing their skills by obtaining certifications on the databases they support. Moreover, learning how to manage cloud databases is paramount in keeping skills current.

Although activity doesn't always equate to achievement, I've been able to have reports of new records made, records merged, records deleted and records changed/edited to try to indicate how many records are being worked monthly. Impact can be harder to quantify. Where on a tracking spreadsheet is the cell for time saved by everything conforming to the requirements for a mail merge or RSVP guest list? Where can we find "goodwill" and "trust" in a report? We know it when we feel it from our internal customers. Donors expect a good experience, they seldom make anyone in the org aware when things go well but certainly do so when they don't.