Jen McCown

Speaker Image

Microsoft MVP

Jen McCown is a SQL Server developer and DBA, currently serving as the lead DBA at a state trade association in Texas. She is Senior Editor at MidnightDBA.com, where she creates training videos, the DBAs at Midnight webshow, blogs, reviews, and podcasts. She also writes for Petri IT Knowledgebase and is a forum moderator. Jen is a member, volunteer, and speaker in NTSSUG, PASS, and the PASS Women in Technology virtual chapter. She has presented at multiple SQL Saturday and 24 Hours of PASS events, PASS Summit 2010, and PASS SQLRally 2011.

Sessions

Orientation: What is SQL Server,and what's it for?

Level: 100
Track: None
Time: 09:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Day: 2
Room: Credera 2

What is SQL Server? It's just software. What is SQL Server for? At its simplest, it lets you store data safely, and get it back out again. Is there a right way to say "SQL"? Yes, actually! In this session we will work with the tools to show you around SQL Server, and explore what it can do. If you're looking to get into databases, this is your session.

Unraveling Tangled Code – A Spellbinding Tale of Victory Over Chaos

Level: 200
Track: None
Time: 02:15 PM - 03:30 PM
Day: 2
Room: Credera 2

Once upon a time, you inherited an application or a database that was filled with chaos and inconsistencies. The T-SQL code is overly complex and impossible to ken. The architecture is painful to behold, and grueling to code for. One might optimistically say that query performance is “spectacularly mediocre”. If you’re without good documentation or system architects to guide you, how do you break the curse of confusion?

In this session you’ll learn several methods for conquering chaotic code, and how to seek and destroy some of the nastier coding mistakes and inefficiencies. We will break complicated queries into key pieces, turn them upside-down, and reform them into something sensible. We will vanquish major issues like data abuse and index negligence. We will restructure joins, tame subqueries, and refactor dynamic SQL. We will emerge victorious!