NOTE: This post was composed on an airplane on 2009-10-09.
My "Leveraging SQLDiag for Efficient Troubleshooting" presentation is brand new, so of course it is very important practice the delivery to improve the experience for the audience. I use SQLDiag (as well as the other tools covered in the presentation*) on at least a weekly basis, but the development of the presentation and demonstrations has still involved a lot of work. As has happened with my previous two presentation topics, the development of the slide deck, sample code, and overall presentation took longer than expected. I intended to have a code freeze in-place by the end of September, but that didn’t work out.
So, I found myself in the week leading up to SQLSaturday #25 without having rehearsed in front of a technical audience. When I practiced my deadlocking presentation in preparation for SQLSaturday #17, most of my co-workers that accepted the invitation weren’t able to actually attend, and those that did had to come-and-go. I don’t fault anyone, it’s the nature of our business (being in the unit that provides direct technical support to our "highly managed hosting" customers. Anyway, I decided to go and practice in front of my good friends (and former teammates) on the development team at Usability Sciences Corporation.
The presentation had a lot of issues, but I received great feedback, especially from Brad (blog, Twitter). One of the biggest suggestions was that I limit the coverage of my troubleshooting methodology so that there is more time to focus on demonstrating the tools. I’m very glad to have the relationship with that team that allows me to take and an hour-and-a-half out of their busy development schedule to get valuable feedback on a presentation that still needs a lot of refinement and polish!
* PAL, PSSDiag, SQL Nexus, RML Utilities
