That innocent-looking SELECT * in your application’s code? It could be quietly tanking your performance, over-fetching data, and making your database suffer. Worse, developers may not even realize the damage they are doing.

In this practical, story-driven session for the database professionals and those who support developers, we’ll dig into the hidden costs of unoptimized queries and the architectural ripple effects of poor ORM usage. You’ll learn why SELECT * is the enemy of performance and maintainability and how to coach your team into writing queries that are lean, explicit, and production-ready.

We’ll explore how ORMs like Entity Framework Core shape database interactions, how to identify and eliminate inefficiencies, and how to create a shared understanding between developers and DBAs that enhances performance and trust. You’ll leave with real-world examples, tuning techniques, and a better strategy for modern, optimized data access.

Who Should Attend:
• Data professionals wanting to improve how they support their developer teammates and their apps that impact databases
• Team leads and architects creating development standards around data access

Key Takeaways:
• Why SELECT * is a bad default and how to replace it with explicit, efficient querying
• How to profile and measure the real impact of query shape on app performance
• Techniques to improve data access using projections, anonymous types, and DTOs
• Common anti-patterns in Entity Framework (e.g., lazy loading, under-specified queries)
• How to build productive Dev–DBA collaboration around performance
• Tools and metrics to monitor and audit query usage over time