There's never been a time in the Information Technology industry where professional certifications have been more important. Because of the specialized nature of technological careers today, certifications are considered by some to be nearly as important as technological degrees. This focus on certifications has led to the rise of an entire industry around books that assist readers in preparing for various certification tests. In the author's opinion, many, if not most, of these books make a lot of assumptions as to the prior knowledge of the reader and serve more as reference material than a cohesive learning experience.
In my role as an instructor of Oracle technologies, I have noticed a shift in the types of people seeking to learn Oracle. In the past several years, more and more students with little or no experience have been seeking to "break in" to an Oracle career path. Whether they come from backgrounds in business analysis, project management, or other non-database technical areas, these students need to be able to learn Oracle from the ground up. When instructing these types of students, I cannot make assumptions as to the knowledge they bring with them. We must start at the beginning and work our way to "certification level" knowledge. To accomplish this goal in class, the accompanying textbook must be designed in the same way.
Similarly, many certification books today serve only as "exam cram" books that neglect application to real-world scenarios. Readers of these types of books may find themselves with a certification, yet possess no way to apply the knowledge in their first job.
My goal in writing this book has been to address both of these problems. This book attempts to begin at the foundation and continue with the knowledge of the subject required for the certification exam, using real-world examples and tips along the way. This book is heavily example oriented and is intended to serve more as a step-by-step instruction than simply reference material. In essence, I attempt to bring the classroom experience to the reader, using examples, real-world tips, and end-of-the-chapter reviews. This book has been written to be read cover to cover, with the reader completing the examples and questions as they go. Using this process, it is my hope that readers can truly "begin at the beginning", regardless of previous experience, and learn Oracle database administration in a relevant way that will serve them in their pursuit of an Oracle certification as well as an Oracle career path.