I finally got to do James’ review today. It was only a few weeks late, but I hate it when mine is late so I know how it feels. I think it went well. His was the first this year. It works out that most people got hired in the beginning of the year so I have a few coming up. lets hope they all go as smooth as this one, but odds may not be in my favor.
Management
New Guy
After a month and a half of looking Kai finally got a new hire in our Call Center support team to replace Chris moving into our Development group. Tim started today. So far no feedback, but he was by far the best candidate in the group that I saw. Lets hope it works out like the previous hires did. I may have issues with the way Kai does allot of things, but he can recruit the right people even if takes way too long to do so!
Chock Full of Meetings
It felt like I did nothing but have meetings today. And actually I did almost no technical work today so I did sit through allot of meetings, it just didn’t feel long. I need to follow up on allot of projects tomorrow.
Today was just crazy. I won’t go into details but my stress level was way up today. I also got side tracked on allot of stuff. I didn’t get to eat lunch till 2:30, and it is 10PM and I haven’t eaten dinner. I don’t know if I will have anything at all.
I also had a slight head ache today. Yesterday was allot worse. I think it is from not sleeping since both last night and the night before I slept like crap and I woke up with a head ache. When I do that, I should just roll over and call in sick because like 75% of the time that turns into a migraine. Of course I don’t and I pay for it later in the day.
Yesterday was busy but not as crazy as today. Most of the stuff that went on I cannot go into on this blog. I know I want to talk about stuff, but I am taking very serious the need to leave out work details from this site. If you are a friend reading this site, you can email me and I will give you the password. If I work with you and you are looking for information like you used to get off the site, don’t bother. I won’t be giving out the password to anyone I work with.
A Good Day
it was busy today, but I got allot done. I got final approval for the active directory design I wanted.
The initial AD servers are built. Or I should say the OS is built. They goto the data center tomorrow. Then they get mounted and built. Once done the real work begins.
On another project I am having danny work on some VPN setup issues. I wanted to deal with it, but as Glenn said I need to delegate more. And I really do. I am so busy I need to hand off items to others.
IPCC deployment is delayed. This is an internal decision. I never really thought the target date was achievable anyway. These new targets seem more realistic. I would rather the system be correct, than rushed out. More on that as it develops.
NASA Operations as a Role Model
I have always been fascinated with space, space travel, the stars, etc. I always wanted to be a pilot, but alas my vision does not permit that. I still have a love for all things fast! Because of my love of space, I have always been interested in NASA, the space shuttle, etc. My dad is also into that stuff, so he partly drove my interest. I would never have thought of making similarities regarding the technical work I do and NASA.
A few years back Gus got me thinking about technical operations. How a data center is run. How a corporate network is run. He always made the comparison of run the network like NASA runs a space mission. Granted I will be the first person to say what I do is not NASA, but it is the process that we are trying to mimic and not space travel!
Now at first I was like how do you compare the two? The answer is it is all in the procedure. It doesn’t matter what you are doing (putting a person into space, or launching a website) it is the operational theory that ensures that things go right. Sounds far fetched? Maybe. Maybe you have to manage some sort of technical operations to understand?
The basis for this theory as I see it is the following:
1. Never assume anything
2. Have a minute by minute plan for all tasks
3. Have contingencies for everything (when possible). Also note points of no return, roll back’s etc.
4. If a mistake happens, isolate it and ensure it never happens again.
There is a ton more things to go over, but sitting here those are the biggest things that come to mind. It boils down to never leaving anything to chance.
This type of thinking got me (kicking and screaming sometimes) to put together firm policies and procedures to keep our network operating. Every time we have an issue come up it is, how do we prevent this from happening again? I am learning that Technical Operations is really a way of thinking, not just a job!
I am thinking about it more today because I am in the middle of reading “Failure is not an option” by Gene Kranz. Gus gave me the book over a year ago. I started to read it but got side tracked. For some reason I sat down to read it today and I finished half of the book. It is a fascinating read. I don’t know why I stopped reading it last summer. It makes me want to continue my efforts at “operationalizing” things at work. And everyone wonders why I am such a pain in the ass about documenting everything. I do have a method for my madness! It is all about the process. No one person can hold any bit of information. That is why the NASA guys would pretend people had accidents during simulations to ensure that if the real thing happened, everything would work normally! Like I said, a fascinating read. Back to the book for me!
Cube Work
The furniture guys are doing there thing today and tomorrow. I feel like the 3rd wheel, but it does look good that we are keeping tabs on what is going on. Don’t you love obligations? I did get some work done today, but since it is cramped in the IS office up here I was unable to get on a windows box and do some of the work I wanted to do. I have my powerbook only on this trip. I didn’t want to mess with my thinkpad until I get a new one, so I am on my mac only this trip. I have done it before on day trips. I can do most of what I need on it, but not everything.
Tomorrow I hope they finish moving the cubes downstairs. they haven’t started yet. They (furniture guys) setup the offices first today. The cubes are tomorrow.
More later…
The Backlog
Since I am feeling fine today, and I am not in DC (like I planned on) I decided to make a dent in the backlog of work I have piling up. Right now I am taking a break (while my printer is working for me) from going over resume’s. I am still looking for a helpdesk person in NYC. It is a grueling process to go over hundreds of resume’s. I just printed out like 40 for someone else to look at before we call some of these people up.
I am also trying to do some updates to my companies domains. We own way too many of them. The amount of changes I have gotten are piling up. I need someone to do some data entry and make all the changes. It will take days. For now I am doing the most urgent stuff when I have time (like now).
I just finished cleaning out my inbox. I had a few hundred emails to go through and sort. I also went back and cleared out a ton of automated messages I get every day. I am a slave to mail…