In the previous post, we covered the basics of parameter sniffing with a simple demo to show what actually happens.

We took a basic stored procedure and illustrated how the first plan to get cached can have severe performance implications…

A while ago, I was working with a client who was experiencing performance issues on SQL Server 2019.

We quickly isolated the problematic procedure and they asked ’this normally runs fine, why is this a problem now?’ A fair question…

This year I attended SQLBits 2025, which is not exactly unusual for me. What was unusual, however, was that I was one of the many helpers at the event.

The conference was held at ExCeL London and was bigger, brighter and more jam-packed with speakers than ever before…

Within the professional world, I’m a firm believer in putting oneself in uncomfortable, but healthy, situations.

Uncomfortable situations are where development and growth occur. Sure, it’s nice knowing exactly what you’re doing some days, and you complete tasks so easily…

As part of Redgate SQL Test, you get SQLCop
(although the tests themselves are freely available to use).

SQLCop is a set of over 100 open-source tests for your databases.
The tests were originally maintained by George Mastros but are now managed by Redgate Software

Some of the defaults in earlier versions of SQL Server are less than ideal, particularly Cost Threshold For Parallelism (CTFP) and Max Degree Of Parallelism (MAXDOP).

Sure, things have improved in later versions. For example, since SQL Server 2019 the installer now prompts you to change MAXDOP. However, its still a problem for many workloads…

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in performance tuning is the importance of breaking queries tasks into smaller, more manageable sections. Who knew? The experts were right all along when they said, “If you’re confused by the query, SQL probably is too”.

Welcome back friends!

During the past four posts, we have covered the fundamental concepts regarding tSQLt, look at how far we’ve come!. So far, everything we have done has been within SSMS using the open source framework that is tSQLt. In this post, we’re going to take a look at some third party tooling available, harnessing the power of tSQLt.

We’re back once again, with another instalment of the tSQLt series. I hope you’ve been enjoying it so far. Personally, I’ve had a blast getting back into this topic. In the last post, we covered one of the many useful features of tSQLt, the Fake Function option.

Taking this further, in today’s post, I want to cover the Spy Procedure option.

The Journey Continues!

Welcome back to the tSQLt series, where we are covering the fundamentals of Unit Testing within SQL Server by using the tSQLt Framework.

Today we’re progressing onward by discussing some of the useful features within tSQLt to ensure our tests are accurate, reliable, and repeatable.