Thwack Here Lightly

The "One Page Meeting" Proposal

2011-08-15T17:02:00.004-04:00

Humbly submitted...

I call it the "One Page Meeting" proposal.

1) Every meeting deserves a one page agenda
2) The agenda will not exceed one page
3) Items not on the page will not be discussed
4) No other materials are permitted!!!
5) One attendee must update and distribute an updated one page after the meeting

#4 is the key. No 10-page issue list. No 20-page project plan. No 30-page PowerPoint. Fit it on one page, or you can't discuss it.

A meeting is any collection of 3 or more employees who review past actions (where are we?) and assign future actions (where do we need to be?) in support of a goal. Don't confuse it with training, presentation or one-on-one with your manager. It's not a brainstorming or solution-finding session, either. Those are great as long as the time blocked on your calendar clearly indicates that as the purpose.

Look, the other things are needed. 20-page project plans with associated Gantt charts don't just up and create themselves. But those still usually have one author with major input from, what, one other person?

Think about the last time you had to attend a 20-page project plan review:
- Would your part have fit neatly on one page?
- Did you have to sit through the other 19 pages?
- Was your work any better for that experience?
- Did you get any meaningful takeaways from that meeting?

Now think about the last 30-page PowerPoint viewing. Isn't that actually what we call a presentation, meaning you're just there to absorb some information, not to take away action items?

Will some smart guy say "well, I'll just do mine in 6-pt Helvetica with no margins to fit on one page." Challenge accepted! I'd rather attend a meeting that aspires to adhere to a ruleset, even if it's tongue-in-cheek!

Maybe meetings are better in your company. I wager that they aren't.

2010 Resume Update

2010-09-28T23:03:00.001-04:00

James A. Stagg Jr (Jim)
180 Carriage Circle | Stockbridge GA 30281 | 770-474-3499 | jstagg@gmail.com

Key technical skills:
- Sterling MultiChannel Fulfillment System (aka Yantra) 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0
- Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.x ERP system (aka Axapta)
- JBoss 4.x application server
- Jitterbit 3.x ETL tool
- PROS Pricing Solution Suite
- Windows and Linux system management (primarily RedHat Enterprise Linux)
- EMC VMware and Microsoft Virtual Server
- Perl, bash, SQL scripting

Sep 06 to present: Application Administrator, S.P. Richards Co., Smyrna GA
Support "next generation" order management system project; manage Axapta order management system for $130M/yr subsidiary; intercede in projects as required by VP of IS
+ Led $1M subsidiary ERP system integration project
+ Expanded toolset to include ETL work in support of pricing, industry reporting and pattern-based analytics projects
+ In 2009 review, CIO notes "communication, customer sensitivity, professionalism, and sense of urgency are all strong suits"

Jan 01 to Aug 06: Senior Systems Administrator, S.P. Richards Co., Smyrna GA
Designed, implemented and supported Windows solutions; assisted in budgeting; mentoring junior team members
+ Led $1M legacy system replacement project
+ Led $250k subsidiary network and hardware migration project (Distinguished Service award for efforts)
+ Led $50k Canadian subsidiary network migration project
+ Designed and implemented Windows disaster recovery and backup systems and strategies

Sep 00 to Dec 00: Systems Administrator, Dealergain.com, Norcross GA
Designed, implemented and supported Windows solutions (company ran out of funding in Dec 00 and dissolved in Mar 01)
+ Implemented patch management strategy for Windows systems
+ Researched potential of open source platforms in support of core company functions

Apr 98 to Aug 00: Systems Administrator/Web Designer, Expo.net/Clearbuilt Technologies, Duluth GA
Designed, implemented and supported FreeBSD, Linux and Windows solutions; worked directly with potential and existing customers to define requirements and provide quotes
+ Involved in experimenting with business ideas for start-up concept Websitesfast.com
+ Gained proficiency with FreeBSD system administration

Oct 96 to Apr 98: Systems Analyst, Sportime/School Specialty, Norcross GA
Supported Windows, Apple Macintosh, Novell and AS/400 solutions; managed pre-printed forms supply
+ Created first company web sites for each catalog brand

Aug 94 to Sep 96: Graphic Designer, Sportime/School Specialty, Norcross GA
Produced catalogs, special projects and advertising; supported
+ Managed technical components of $150k catalog desktop publishing system project
+ Created pre-press co-ordinator position, resulting cost savings of $90k annually

Sep 93 to Aug 94: Art Director, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA
Managed team of 5 on daily and special projects deadlines; coordinated with editorial staff on daily front page layout
+ Managed layout and publishing of "1994 Georgia Bench Book" (first time the project was handled in-house)
+ Mentored and trained a Press Assistant into becoming a key Art Department team member

May 92 to Aug 93: Assistant Art Director, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA
Created and managed special projects (books, special supplements, magazines) and daily newspaper deadlines
+ Managed art department team for 6 months during Art Director search
+ Implemented phase two of Apple Macintosh newspaper desktop publishing systems

Sep 90 to May 92: Art Assistant, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA
Produced daily legal notices section and designed print advertisements
+ Implemented Apple Macintosh component of newspaper desktop publishing system

Happy Path: Exchange/Blackberry Email Filtering

2009-12-17T12:01:00.001-05:00

As lame as it sounds, I think one of the best things I've done in the last two years isn't a project. It's my work email filtering via Exchange and my Blackberry. It's far from perfect, but it works astonishingly well for me.

In my case, the definition of "works" is that I see high-priority information more easily. I don't waste as much time as I once did on sorting, filtering and reading to get to what matters the most for the items at the top of my priority list.

Every so often, I'll describe it, and a light will go on for the listener. And that listener is usually someone who gets 500 messages (on a good day... bad days can have MANY more), most of which are, well, just pointless to read. Sometimes, the listener has each one of those pop up in Outlook and alert on a Blackberry. Quel dommage!

I'm no rocket surgeon, so it can't be that I'm all that bright. Mostly, I just culled the ideas from other folks. Here's my version:

1) My Blackberry will only alert for "Level 1" messages

2) Messages CC'd to me NEVER go to my Blackberry (BCC does, though)

3) Messages "to" me get filtered extensively

4) Other oddball rules and practices

Now the details...

1) My Blackberry will only alert for "Level 1" messages

I have no idea why anyone would want a buzz, chime or other noise for EVERY message they get. Some people do. I like to refer to those folks as "crazy," but I mean that with love because it's ultimately a personal preference.

So, task one is to set up filtering on my Blackberry. I have control over some of the alert messages that are time-critical. That means I can generate them with the "high importance" message header, which simplifies the rule. But that's not required.

I may flag all messages from a particular address as "level 1" messages, or I might use a combination of the address and subject line contents. There's plenty on the internets about how do filter on sender and subject.

2) Messages CC'd to me NEVER go to my Blackberry (BCC does, though)

A "CC" in the paper world meant you'd gotten a "carbon copy" of a memo. Its use grew out of a time when paper had to be routed to every party to whom the memo was directed and copied. The "carbon copy" folks got a copy usually as a courtesy. In other words, receiving a "CC" wasn't a direct call to action.

Fast-forward (or timeshift, since even "fast-forward" is a term mired in the 1980s VCR/cassette world) to email communications. We can make as many copies of the message as we want. And receiving a "CC" still is not a direct call to action.

If a sender CC's me, I assume they do not wish for me to take direct action. They may be doing me the courtesy of making me aware of a suggestion or request for action. They may be doing me the courtesy of letting me know that someone else will be doing something or has done something.

But a CC is not the place to send an emailed action request to me. Personally, I only want actionable items on my Blackberry. Informational items can wait until I'm back in Outlook.

3) Messages "to" me get filtered extensively

Part of this is that correctly filtering what appears in my Inbox is a key to only having actionable items appear

All "Outlook" rules are really Exchange server-side rules. It's easy to tell where they live because Outlook will tell you. I've found that if I can't do it server-side, I shouldn't do it at all. That's not the opinion of many "email filter" proponents. Your mileage varies.

My rules break down like this:

A) Cull out junk

B) Route genuine alerts to the correct folder

C) Put autogenerated informational messages in the correct folder

D) Put "CC" messages in the correct folder

A) Cull out junk

First, I filter junk. And I don't mean I use the junkmail filter, though that's helpful. I have two "junk" rules (for external and internal email). I add whole domains to the external rules sometimes. While I try to unsubscribe from email lists, that doesn't always work. I figure I spend 5 minutes a week adding senders or domains to that rule. That's a pretty effective use of 5 minutes each week, too. Internal junk would be things that don't impact our bottom line.

For example, each year we have a chili cookoff. I know we're having it because we have posters all over our department, and it's all good fun. And every year, there's a thread of 40-80 messages of humorous trash-talk. Again, it's all good fun and no harm is intended. But I don't need to see it in my Inbox, and I darn sure don't need it fogging out the one important message I might see on my Blackberry.

B) Route genuine alerts to the correct folder

My day job is to be operationally-focused on the support of multiple applications. And like most operations folks, I have a host of emailed alerts to let me know when excrement is contacting a set of whirring blades. I already have these messages going to my Blackberry as "level 1" messages so it will buzz. All I want in Outlook is to see them in one folder called "_Alerts" (note the underscore so it appears at the top of my folder list).

C) Put autogenerated informational messages in the correct folder

One admin's alert is another's informational message. If it's not something on which I need to take action, or it's just a notification that a job finished successfully, I filter these to a folder called "_Info" for archiving.

D) Put "CC" messages in the correct folder

This goes hand-in-hand with #2. I have them to read later (if I choose to read them at all). Whether I read them or not, I do archive them.

4) Other oddball rules and practices

These are part of my messaging processing, but they aren't specifically about filtering messages for better visibility. I include them because they still feel like part of what works for me in my email-handling systems.

- Actionable items get filed in a folder named "_Action"

It's just a bit of the David Allen GTD method. I don't do this by rule. It's just a handy way to help me process my Inbox.

- All "new email" notifications are off in Outlook

My Blackberry will buzz if it's a critical alert. I don't need Outlook popping something up as well.

- Archive (almost) everything

Ff it's work-related, archive it. If it's about your chili cookoff, well, you can probably delete those messages.

- Use a desktop search application

My archiving is unfancy. I just separate messages by year and they all go into "Save" or "Sent Items." I use Copernic Desktop Search to index the Outlook PST archives. Google Desktop or Windows Saerch 4.0 would probably both do what I want as well.

If you made it this far, and you think "this is like Merlin Mann's Inbox Zero" or "that sounds like a line from David Allen's Getting Things Done" or "Didn't Tim Ferris mention Outlook filtering in The 4-Hour Workweek," you aren't crazy. I just pulled the pieces that work for me to make a system that keeps my Inbox moving. The only goal (and the only one worth having) is for me to see what I need to see when I need to see it. Everything else is secondary.

Dolly Madison "Divide By Two" Fail

2009-02-27T13:20:00.002-05:00

Can't divide by two? Dolly Madison has your back! Only they can't divide by two, either. This is not the best thing I might choose to put in my system. Mathematically-challenged, high-calorie snacks are way worse than just high-calorie snacks.

Let's count the foibles:

If you eat one, it's 200 cal. So the 410 cals on the pack? Either they're expecting a lot of icing stiction to the package, or they expect me to eat the package. One of those alternatives is wholly understandable. The other is slightly alarming.
One roll has no trans fats. Two rolls have 0.5g trans fats. Eat the right one!
One roll has 6g of fat. Two rolls have 11g of fat. Again, choose wiseley!
et cetera

So, I have a math fail, too. I suggested counting the foibles, and stopped at 4. Clearly, my Dolly Madison snack consumption is taking a toll.

Does Anyone Remember How Powerful DNS Can Be?

2009-02-27T11:23:00.002-05:00

I'm not talking about the handful of sysadmin gurus. I mean everyone else from developers to the rest of system and application administrators.
You don't need to name a machine after what it does. You can. But you don't have to. And chances are good that if you own that machine for several years, it will become many more things.

Use a DNS CNAME.

What the fudge is a CNAME?

It's a name that points to another name to get an IP address resolution. Think of the phonebook. You look up "Euripidies Flintstones" to find a phone number. "Euripidies Flintstones" would be considered a DNS A record, or a mapping of a name to an IP address.

Now imagine we had a more sophisticated phonebook that knew Euripidies usually went by the less formal first name "Phil." Looking up "Phil Flintstones" would refer you to "Euripidies Flintstones." In this case, "Phil" is the CNAME.

You have a non-production machine that hosts your dev, qa and uat environments for a web application. The box (we'll call the box "bob" for the sake of argument) is older but perfectly serviceable. And you really don't want to rename it for a number of reasons. And that means you already have a DNS A record for bob.domainname. The box name is unimportant. Name it whatever you want. But if you have to access a major resource on the box, create a CNAME for it.

You could put all your environments on different ports. Heck, you could do what most thoughtless folks do and just address it by IP (oooo, now that's not prone to creating extra work down the road!). Or, you could be one of the 1-percent who take this advice.

bob.domainname's cnames:
devweb.domainname -> points to bob.domainname
qaweb.domainname -> points to bob.domainname
uatweb.domainname -> points to bob.domainname

Web apps are really easy for this. With the magic of IP-less hosting, asking the web server to talk to "devweb" will send you to the right web service.

Take a production example. You have a file server already named "myfiles.domainname." You're just big enough that you plan to add separate database and mail servers. But you'll colocate them on the file server to get started.

myfiles.domainname's cnames:
sql-01.domainname -> points to myfiles.domainname
mail-01.domainname -> points to myfiles.domainname

Why bother? Well, you've already configured numerous clients to talk to myfiles for file shares. When you install your mail server, you're going to have to direct them to something. One day, when you create a dedicated mail server, you have to go touch every client to change from "myfiles" to "mail-01." Or you could just edit the CNAME for mail-01 to point to your new mail server when you finally install it.

The database server can be an even bigger deal. You'll probably write tens (or hundreds) of small and large programs that access the database server. If you leave it as "myfiles," all those applications will need to be changed when you install your dedicted database server. Or, you could use a CNAME and repoint it later with a lot less fuss.

You don't need them for every server and every minor case. But they are an immensely useful tool in your sysadmin arsenal.

CNAMEs, folks. It's the wave of the future, only it was envisioned in the early 80s and ignored by scores of IT professionals.

By the way, here's a useful external link with a simple CNAME explanation: http://rscott.org/dns/cname.html

(One caveat... some Windows services rely on more than a DNS name. They expect to find a WINS name as well. While you can create custom WINS entries, and they're usually successful, Windows file services are notoriously picky about the actual system name... thanks Microsoft!)

On Being Action-Oriented...

2009-02-23T17:34:00.003-05:00

Quick reflection on being action-oriented...

I did a small, boneheaded thing today. Details aren't important. I just did half of something and forgot about the other half. And it's a task that should be handed by a functional person because it's related to customer config data.

(If you're scrunching your nose and furrowing your brow about that, there's usually a dotted line in larger IT organizations that separate "applications" and "data." I can help you install Excel. I can teach you how to use it. I might even show you a formula or two. But I really should leave it up to you to maintain your own spreadsheet, even if you ask me nicely to tinker with it)

All in all, it's a pretty innocent mistake, and everyone is OK with it. In fact, it was barely more than a fleeting thought in a long conversation.

But it made me reflect on times I've been called on the carpet vs. times I haven't. And the times I've been called to task are almost universally times where I haven't done something (for any number of good or bad reasons).

In other words, any time I've made an error of action, it's generally been forgivable. Good thing to remember.

Tonka Mighty Rescue Vehicle

2009-02-22T11:03:00.003-05:00

Found at an antique shop between Peachtree City and Sharpsburg. It's a 1975 or 1976, and it has all three figures and the gurney! Condition is fair, but at least it's complete. If you aren't familiar, the Mighty series are pretty big. This is about a foot and a half long.

Godspeed, Chocolate Cowboy

2009-02-22T10:57:00.002-05:00

Seen on I-285 during my commute. I think the picture says it all...

What Started Your Geekery?

2009-02-17T18:18:00.001-05:00

From whence came your geekish tendencies? Were they made, or did they just happen? Did they magically manifest in your mind in the womb?

At dinner the other night, we discussed a particularly unpleasant way to be introduced to technology:

A) Go away on vacation for two weeks

B) Return from vacation to find a PC on your desk

C) Find large manual to be read on your own time

(the year was 1992, and this was not uncommon)

My mother looks over at me and my father and says "The two of you taught yourselves. How did you get started?"

My father and I look at each other, the table, back at each other, and shrug. My father says "well, I was just there. I don't really know." Now, he's being a bit modest. He was one of the first people at Delta to have a PC, but only because he bought his own (one PCjr for his office and one for the house in 1984).

I started using the PCjr for word processing, Flight Simulator, Gato and Rogue. I wrote tons of papers in junior high, high school and college, printed in dot matrix goodness.

But it wasn't my fist computer. I had a VIC-20 with cartridges for Gorf, Turtle Programming and a 16KB expander. I also had a cassette tape storage system and a printer, both of which were woefully underutilized.

Prior to the VIC-20, I'd used a TI-99 in 6th grade for some sort of pirate text-based adventure game. I haven't a clue why the VIC-20 had appear where the TI-99 did not, given that the TI-99 was way more powerful. It's not even like I wrote many programs. At geek camp (as I think of it now) in 6th grade, most of our computer skills course consisted of us putting characters on the screen just so we could watch that big, fat VIC-20 cursor "eat" them when we held down the backspace key.

Before that, I had an Atari 2600. Preceeding the 2600 was Asteroids, or as I think of it, the single greatest video game ever. And my freind's Oddesy console... we'd swap his Oddesy for my 2600 for a few days at a time. But is that where this started? I'm not sure that it did.

I think it happened before that. I remember being fascinated by my father's baby blue Smith Corona electric typewriter. It didn't hurt that the kid next door had all manner of cast-off devices from his father's machine shop. Heck, I'm fairly certain a broken Sinclair would have been sufficiently entertaining to me.

I vividly recall the brightly-lit panels in Space: 1999's control center and Eagle. Star Trek was a given, but it was more on par with Emergency! as an adventure show. And I picture in my mind as clearly as if it were yesterday when I proudly announced to my second grade class the fantastic new show premiering that night: Battlestar Galactica.

I could go on for pages (Micronauts, Star Wars, comic books, whatever). Was I made into, or did I just happen to become, a geek?

Windows 7 Beta Oddities

2009-02-09T10:04:00.002-05:00

So far, the beta ride with Windows 7 has been clean. Even Authentec stepped up to offer a beta fingerprint driver that was released in the last few days. And Windows 7 even prompts me at that point to say "hey, Hondo, you really should let me fix this device problem for you."

Here are the two oddities significant enough to warrant a mention:

I can't close an Outlook 2003 note. I can make 'em. I can edit 'em. But I can't close 'em without closing Outlook.
Connecting to work via vpn locks out my user account. It's a domain-joined laptop connecting to a Nortel Contivity via pptp and a local Contivity account (the Contivity can use domain accounts via RADIUS, but I don't use that). I don't have to access any domain resources. My account is just instantly locked (which is to say that 7 is accessing a domain resource... I'm just not triggering an event that would do it).

When being #2 is better

2009-02-06T12:15:00.001-05:00

Hertz vs. Avis

Coke vs. Pepsi

Pat's vs. Geno's

Those are all competitors where there's a #1 and a #2. Avis coined the phrase "We're #2. We try harder." Coke would have happily invented Pepsi for the rivalry. And the cheesesteak warriors may both claim to be the "King," but the truth is that the rivalry is as much a reason for success. All it takes is one panoramic look from the converging points of South 9th Street and East Passyunk Avenue to see that.

There's a real silver lining to being #2 that we don't automatically appreciate in full. #2 usually means you get back something for what you give up in volume. Real life is rarely a zero sum game.

For example, if you happened to be a wholesaler, and you went from being the #1 supplier to #2 for a high volume retailer, but your actual profit dollars increased, would you really complain? You might if you lost the #1 slot because your service was bad or your people were knuckleheads. That's not the case here. And it's a very odd sort of good news.

Let's see... You could make more money and work less for it. Winner!

(By the way, I've always been a Jim's guy in Philly, I prefer RC Cola and Alamo is pretty much my consistent go-to rental... but I'll save that for a "When being #3 means you're a boutique supplier")

The Speech...

2009-01-28T11:29:00.001-05:00

WESTMORELAND
O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING HENRY V
What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

From this day forward, 1:37PM will be known as...

2009-01-23T14:02:00.001-05:00

'Leet O'Clock

Since 1:37PM is in 24-hour time 1337.

Posting from the Windows Gadget "Blogger Buddy"

2009-01-23T10:59:00.001-05:00

This could be a good thing. I might be more apt to post more. Might be less good, too. More posting might mean more crap :)

Another good resume revision

2009-01-22T23:53:00.004-05:00

Add "responsible for..." to the scrap heap:

James A. Stagg Jr (Jim)

180 Carriage Circle | Stockbridge GA 30281 | 770-474-3499 | jstagg@gmail.com

Sept. 2006 to present: Project Manager/Application Administrator, S.P. Richards Co., Smyrna GA

Manage projects as required by the Director of Development; manage day-to-day operations of the ERP system for a $130M subsidiary company.

+ Lead $1M subsidiary ERP system integration project

+ Consulting on other projects & issues as needed

Jan. 2001 to Aug. 2006: Senior Systems Administrator, S.P. Richards Co., Smyrna GA

Designed, implemented & supported Windows solutions; assisted in departmental & project budgeting; mentoring junior team members

+ Led $1M legacy system replacement project

+ Led $250k subsidiary network & hardware migration project

+ Led $50k Canadian subsidiary network migration project

+ Designed, implemented and supported Windows disaster recovery strategies

+ Implemented library-based backup system for Windows servers

Sept. 2000 to December 2000: Systems Administrator, Dealergain.com, Norcross GA

Designed, implemented & supported Windows solutions

+ Implemented patch management strategy for Windows systems

+ Researched potential of open source platforms in support of core company functions

(Company dissolved in early 2001)

April 1998 to Aug. 2000: Systems Administrator/Web Designer, Expo.net/Websitesfast.com, Norcross GA

Designed, implemented & supported FreeBSD, Linux & Windows solutions; creating customer web solutions

+ Designed, implemented and supported several web solutions for large and small customers

+ Worked directly with potential and existing customers on requirements

Oct. 1996 to April 1998: Systems Analyst, Sportime International, Norcross GA

Supported Windows, Apple Macintosh, Novell & AS/400 solutions

+ Created first company web sites for each catalog brand

+ Installed company's first IP-related services (DHCP & DNS)

+ Learned and implemented fundamentals of directory services

Aug. 1994 to Sep. 1996: Graphic Designer, Sportime International, Norcross GA

Produced catalogs, special projects and advertising

+ Managed technical piece of $150k catalog publishing system implementation project

+ Managed pre-press process of all catalog production for a resulting cost savings of $90k annually

+ Supported Apple Macintosh catalog publishing systems

Sept. 1993 to Aug. 1994: Art Director, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA

Managed art department team of 5 on daily newspaper production and special projects deadlines. Worked with editorial staff to lay out daily front page

+ Designed and produced annual "Georgia Bench Book" in house for the first time

+ Mentored and trained a Press Assistant into becoming a key Art Assistant

May 1992 to Aug. 1993: Assistant Art Director, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA

Created & managed special projects (books, special supplements, magazines) and daily newspaper deadlines

+ Managed art department team for 6 months during Art Director search

+ Supported Apple Macintosh newspaper publishing systems

Sept. 1990 to May 1992: Art Assistant, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA

Produced daily legal notices section and designed print advertisements

+ Assisted in implementing newspaper publishing system

Dang: Fire Destroys Trackside Tavern

2009-01-20T21:35:00.001-05:00

Sad. If they rebuild, I'll be back:

http://decaturmetro.com/2009/01/20/fire-in-trackside5th-earl-building-this-morning/

I mean, I'll still throw an awful game of 501... always ending up with a 7 or 11 and one dart left.

This Is America...

2009-01-20T13:10:00.001-05:00

And I'm proud to be a part of it.

Synaptics TouchPad + Windows 7 Business

2009-01-19T10:59:00.002-05:00

I'm running Windows 7 Business on an HP NC6400, and it's pretty sweet. Out of the box, the only pieces that don't work are the SD Card reader and the fingerprint scanner.

I also have a super-sweet (to me, anyway) IBM Ultranav portable USB keyboard that has a Synaptics TouchPad (and TouchStick, which I don't really use) built in. It's nice not needing a traditional mouse on my desk.

Funny thing is that the TouchPad on the NC6400 works fine. But the TouchPad on the Ultranav doesn't. I tried the one from Lenovo (since IBM handed that off a couple of years ago). Turns out all I needed to do was to go to the Synaptics driver site and install the Vista driver.

Works like a champ.

Project Freakout, Part 5

2009-01-16T18:22:00.002-05:00

The plane landed. Most of us walked away. Of course, there's still foam on the runway and some cleanup.

Yay!

And we might have to build a new plane. But that's the breaks. One day when time allows, I'll do a more detailed wrap up.

Excel Pivot Tables Are Good

2009-01-16T18:04:00.002-05:00

No, I don't really have a tutorial here. I've never been one to swoon over Excel. I mean, it's a nice little tool, and I use it a good bit.

Many moons ago, I'd started an article (yes, I didn't even finish it) that said "if you're not using pivot tables in Excel, you're missing the point of Excel." It's like a lot of pseudoprogramming tasks. I didn't need it, so I didn't try it.

And then I did need it. And, hoo boy, is it helpful:

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/using/excel_pivot_tables_collins.mspx

I had a list like this:

Custid, Warehouse, Ship To, Sales

0001, DC01, Dealer, $100.00

0001, DC01, End User, $500.00

0001, DC02, Dealer, $200.00

0001, DC02, End User, $900.00

(you get the idea)

...and that just doesn't look nice in Excel. What I really wanted was to show the custid on the X axis, the warehouse on the Y axis and subtotal the ship to under each warehouse.

The pivot table is perfect for that sort of formatting. The idea is that we'd save money and provide better service moving the "Dealer" types to a different delivery type. But that's a story for another day.

Sorted! Windows 7 and Office 2003 Color Scheme

2009-01-16T11:35:00.003-05:00

Running Windows 7 and Office 2003? Not a big fan of baby blue?

One suggestion was to run the Office apps in Windows 2000 compatibility mode, which switches the color scheme to 2000's old default gray. But Outlook isn't real happy in that mode on Windows 7 (as in it won't start).

You can get the same (or for my money, better) results by checking the Disable Visual Styles button on the Compatibility tab for the exe. Simple, and the app runs as it should.

Now if I could just find that Office 2007 install DVD...

SQL Server date & time

2008-08-07T11:24:00.003-04:00

Gotta keep this in an easy-to-find place...

This one converts SQL Server datetime to the format I use the most (yyyy-mm-dd):
convert(char(10),CREATEDDATE,120) as CREATEDDATE

This one takes seconds from midnight and spits out hh:mm:ss:
convert(varchar(8),Dateadd(s,CREATEDTIME,0),14) as CREATEDTIME

By the way, if you deal with Axapta, the CREATEDDATE and CREATEDTIME fields should be pretty familiar to you. And you've probably encountered this before.

Arabia Mountain Trail in South Dekalb

2008-06-09T21:17:00.000-04:00

PM Survival Kit, part 1

2008-05-27T17:11:00.002-04:00

I should have remembered all of this from my sysadmin days. Sometimes you need to get everyone in the same room. And when you do, it works a lot better if those people can have power, network connectivity and such.

Here's a list of things every PM should have in their survival kit. You are not required to have these completely in your posession, but you do need access to them (or you need to know where to steal, er, liberate or reallocate, them).

Must have (you're lost without it):

Network hub or switch (with at least 8 ports & of the non-wireless variety)
One large power strip (like 20 sockets... or two small ones)
Extension cord (min. 25 feet)
Legal-type notepads
Flip chart (unless you've been blessed with whiteboards)

Nice to have (you look like a pro for having it):

Wireless switch (see, it's there... it's just not the default way to connect everyone)
Laptop power supply for sharing (assuming your company has a standard build)
Fan (as in big comma oscillating)
Sriracha hot sauce (if you have to ask...)
Carnation French Vanilla Creamer (ditto)

Project Freakout, part 4... the long march to go-live

2008-05-26T16:39:00.003-04:00

I kept the "Freakout" series title, though the freakout has passed. As the recent "Reorganization" post might lead you to infer, we're in the closing stages of the project.

At some point, go-live is visible. It's tantalizingly close and desperately far away all at the same time as defects appear, missed features are debated and stuff that did work doesn't work and then works again. Nerves get frayed. Days run long. Folks are thrown under buses.

Not much to add, really. We'll land the plane. It'll have both wings, a rudder and horizontal stabilizers. It might dead-stick to a gear-up touchdown on the taxiway just to the left of the active, but everyone will be able to walk away with no more than minor scratches.

Reorganization, Part 1: Stagnation

2008-05-26T11:18:00.004-04:00

There's something percolating in my noodle about teams, projects and what it takes to close a project.

It's not fully formed yet, but here's two kernels of it:
1) Physical work arrangements
2) Inevitable drops in focus & energy

The modern cubicle arrangement kills productivity without preserving much privacy or personal space. Couple that with the second law of thermodynamics (see "entropy"), and it's not surprising that projects (or any activity, for that matter) grind to a halt.

Several interesting "asides" live in the thermodynamics comparisons. Think of your workplace in the context of friction, potential and equilibrium. Someone smarter than me has probably connected those dots more eloquently than I could (or will below).

Entropy is a measure of a system's inability to do work. The entropy of a closed system not currently at equilibrium will increase over time until it reaches a maximum value at equilibrium (that's why perpetual motion machines fail).

Nature repeats it's rules over and over, even in structures we don't anticipate (like human organizations). Think through it, and see if you agree. You might imagine exceptions. Given the human nature of organizations, and the myriad of outside variables, they're certainly valid exceptions.

Even the best organization coasts downhill on the slow road to entropy. The catch is that the second law only applies to a closed system. Few of us work in static teams with no turnover, so we're always opening a door to the system (at least by a small crack). Recognizing the slow flow to entropy, though, is important for keeping an organization vibrant.

John Boyd wrote "Suppress tendency to build‑up explicit internal arrangements that hinder interaction with external world" in his brief "Organic Design for Command and Control." That's a fast-track to organizational entropy. Most teams have a habit of closing the door to the outside, but quick. It's a very human thing to see the world in the "us" and "them" picture.

Boyd's comment is easily seen in both a micro and macro context. It could be the little relationships inside or between teams in a sub-group of an organization (like a department). Or, it could be the organization's unwillingness to face it's slowly-advancing role in the marketplace.

So, I kinda left point #1 dangling for several paragraphs, and I want to come back to it.

When we close projects, we move key team members (who share a departmental but not necessarily a managerial organizational position) into the same room. It might be for a few hours to get everyone on the same page. It might be for weeks to maintain our focus.

These ad-hoc organizations within an organization break (at least partially) the second law by un-closing a system. They can't become the de facto organization without the entropy clock beginning it's slow countdown all over again, so it's a Good Thing that they are temporary.

If all organizations will drift to maximize entropy at a point of equilibrium, one of the best ways for work to get done is to break out into these ad-hoc teams.

Most organizations are situated poorly to take advantage of that. We have large cube farms and few (if any) offices or meeting spaces that can be reserved for these ad-hoc teams. Yet that's critical to getting the work done.

Add to that the dubious quality of cube privacy and personal space. I'm just disconnected enough from the organization to reduce my efficiency, but it's not private enough to have an actual, private conversation about a personal matter. And it's not really a place to which I can escape for an hour or day of personal focus.

Again, I don't have a fully-formed proposal here. I'm working to one, and I'll share the details.

Suffice to say that I'd like to see:
A) More semi-private "ad-hoc team" spaces where 4-14 people can comfortably segregate themselves to overcome entropy
B) Actual "private" space to which individuals can escape for an hour or a day (developers, for example, may need to spend days or weeks at a time in this space)
C) An open workspace for the rest of the area. Keep the cubes if you want, but they seem like a waste

Links:

New Resume Format

2008-05-18T20:33:00.003-04:00

Manager Tools... love it, love it, love it.

By the way, they've made two points over the years:
1) My resume (and probably yours) stinks
2) Even when you fix it, it may still stink

Fortunately, they also have some suggestions. I took them to heart and made a first pass...

James A. Stagg Jr (Jim)
Street | City State Zip | Phone | jstagg@gmail.com

Sept. 2006 to present: Project Manager/Application Administrator, S.P. Richards Co., Smyrna GA
Responsible for managing projects as required by the Director of Development; day-to-day operations of the ERP system for a $110M subsidiary company.
+ Leading $750k subsidiary ERP system integration project
+ Consulting on other projects & issues as needed

Jan. 2001 to Aug. 2006: Senior Systems Administrator, S.P. Richards Co., Smyrna GA
Responsible for designing, implementing & supporting Windows solutions; assisting in departmental & project budgeting; mentoring junior team members
+ Led $1M legacy system replacement project
+ Led $250k subsidiary network & hardware migration project
+ Led $50k Canadian subsidiary network migration project
+ Designed, implemented and supported Windows disaster recovery strategies
+ Implemented library-based backup system for Windows servers

Sept. 2000 to December 2000: Systems Administrator, Dealergain.com, Norcross GA
Responsible for designing, implementing & supporting Windows solutions
+ Implemented patch management strategy for Windows systems
(Company dissolved in early 2001)

April 1998 to Aug. 2000: Systems Administrator/Web Designer, Expo.net/Websitesfast.com, Norcross GA
Responsible for designing, implementing & supporting FreeBSD, Linux & Windows solutions; creating customer web solutions
+ Designed, implemented and supported several web solutions for large and small customers
+ Worked directly with potential and existing customers on requirements

Oct. 1996 to April 1998: Systems Analyst, Sportime International, Norcross GA
Responsible for supporting Windows, Apple Macintosh, Novell & AS/400 solutions
+ Created first company web sites for each catalog brand
+ Installed company's first IP-related services (DHCP & DNS)
+ Learned and implemented fundamentals of directory services

Aug. 1994 to Sep. 1996: Graphic Designer, Sportime International, Norcross GA
Responsible for catalog production as well as creating special projects and advertising
+ Managed technical piece of $150k catalog publishing system implementation project
+ Managed pre-press process of all catalog production for a resulting cost savings of $90k annually
+ Supported Apple Macintosh catalog publishing systems

Sept. 1993 to Aug. 1994: Art Director, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA
Responsible for managing art department team of 5 on daily newspaper production and special projects deadlines. Also responsible for working with editorial staff to lay out daily front page
+ Designed and produced annual "Georgia Bench Book" in house for the first time
+ Mentored and trained a Press Assistant into becoming a key Art Assistant

May 1992 to Aug. 1993: Assistant Art Director, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA
Responsible for creating & managing special projects (books, special supplements, magazines) as well as supporting daily newspaper deadlines
+ Managed art department team for 6 months during Art Director search
+ Supported Apple Macintosh newspaper publishing systems

Sept. 1990 to May 1992: Art Assistant, Fulton County Daily Report, Atlanta GA
Responsible for producing daily legal notices section as well as designing newspaper ads
+ Assisted in implementing newspaper publishing system

Lead Sled

2008-05-13T22:45:00.001-04:00

Here's the Giant Cadex 980c, clean and with a new paint job:

NULL values in SQL Server subqueries

2008-03-12T11:19:00.003-04:00

I'm no SQL query expert, though I do need to crunch through some reports on occasion. Here's one that drove me nuts.

I have a freight amount that is either zero or positive. It's never negative, and it's never NULL. In some cases, we would wipe out the value on an invoice based on a freight allowance. Both the freight and allowance values are in a separate table from the invoice headers.

My goal is a report that puts the actual freight amount into an output file for later analysis. The invoice header table only has a summary of all miscellaneous changes, so I have to go back to the misc charge table to get the freight... and the allowance, if it exists.

Aye, there's the rub.

It's not really hard, or at least it shouldn't be. I return the value via a subquery. And there's a nice function called coalesce(). It works like this:

coalesce(value1, value2, valN)

...where valN is the value you want to return if the value is NULL. Not so fast, my freind! I had to wrap the subquery in the coalesce function rather than put the function in the subquery:

BAD

select
invoice
(select
coalesce(value, 0)
from table2
where misccharge = 'Allowance'
) as frtallowance
from table1
where invoicedate = today

GOOD

select
invoice
coalesce((select
value
from table2
where misccharge = 'Allowance'
), 0) as frtallowance
from table1
where invoicedate = today

That'll matter to someone somewhere one day.

When You Do A "Select Case UCASE"...

2008-03-11T10:53:00.003-04:00

When You Do A "Select Case UCASE" in VB and match something on it, you really need to match the UCASE in the matching statement. Otherwise, people suffer and hair is surreptitiously removed by the handful... 'cause you'll be the only one aware that you're pulling out your hair. The only evidence your co-workers will see will be you... sans locks, albeit in patchy, embarrasing spots, finally emerging from your cubicle, spouting phases like "I'm such and idiot!"

Yes, It Is Hard. That's Why We Hired You.

2008-02-22T12:36:00.000-05:00

I'm very happy to have opportunities to be coached. For certain, I wasn't complaining. I was talking with an exec about my current, large project. I started to say "it's hard in our environment..." in reference to setting and keeping a project deadline. The exec politely but decisively stopped me at "it's hard..." with a smile and a tilt of the head and said "Yes, it is hard. That's why we hired you to do it."

He then listened as I finished my thought. Managing a project where all effort from the project resources is the result of a negotiation with the resource is in fact very difficult. I have no authority to compel anyone to do anything.

And I'm not sure I should.

I've worked with project managers who expect that they can compel effort. And that sometimes seems to come with an odd sense of entitlement. Granted, a sane way to run a project is to make clear to the participants that a project manager to whom you're partially assigned will have an impact on your annual review. And that's a direction in which we're moving.

Still, I'm not sure it's not better to learn how to get participation through negotiation rather than always reverting to the stick. I'd like to have access to the stick sometimes, believe me. To what end would I use that, though? Unless a project's resources are leveled (and who except a rare few can actually say that they are?), that resource is probably (certainly) over-committed.

It's hard. Apparently that's why I was hired.

Project Freakout, part 3... Deadline Freakout!

2008-02-18T21:30:00.004-05:00

I'm at the inevitable stage of a large project where planned work / remaining time > 1. So we ain't got more time. And we won't adjust the date. And we likely won't shed many features. Testing will suffer.

Maybe it's not that bad.

...and professional project managers cringe...

I've worked with a lot of smart folks with more formal project backgrounds (PMs, BAs, developers and QA testers). I've learned a ton from them. And I'm better for structuring my project process, particularly in the beginning months.

See, I'm more of a homegrown talent, steeped in the local corporate culture that is sometimes a bit too... cowboy... stick-and-rudder... for some. At some point, the wild west gets settled. The barnstormers get licensed by the FAA. And we continue our slow march toward respectable project execution.

I've also never forgotten that, at some point, a project has to see the light of day. Test all you want. Until code gets into the hands of the real end-user under production loads, you just don't know what it's going to do.

I don't want to sacrifice my test time. I really don't. Still, I have to acknowledge that there are worse things. My deadline might be tomorrow instead of a couple of months hence. So I do have the luxury of a little bit of time for some deadline freakout.

In the end, I think the lesson is that it's easy to postpone something as long as it never gets closer than a couple of months. Once the deadline is down to a few weeks, it's real. It's a go, or it's not. We're committed or not.

I haven't lost a project yet. I'm not gonna start now.

VW Jetta Mk4 Stop Light Switch

2008-02-12T21:13:00.000-05:00

I've been through three of these already, and I always lost the link to the HOWTO from tdiclub.com. VWvortex has a forum post on it, too... right here!

The main thing to remember is DO NOT rotate that switch with the plunger extended. I broke one doing that. I'll see if the recall switch lasts any longer.

Giant Cadex 980c Road Bike Refurb

2008-02-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

New project, but no pictures yet. I'm refurbishing a 1990-ish Giant Cadex 980c road bike. It's unique because it was Giant's first carbon fiber frame (bonded to aluminum lugs). It's a little grungy, and it was inexplicably spray-painted yellow and red... with a kick stand. But it was loved, and I'll post some pictures of the progress.

Project Freakout, part 2... Scope Freakout!

2008-02-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

Scope Freakout, otherwise known as the part of the project where every requirement that can be documented has been documented. I don't think I've been a part of a large project that hasn't had it.

As a PM, I take a lot of responsibility for that moment. Mind you, dear reader, I have tried valiantly to keep all my business users in the loop to avoid it. And in my case, it turns out we really hadn't missed much.

But let me share my very common mistake. We say a project needs regular status meetings, which we have. Often, we split the detail meetings into business and technical camps (and with good reason). And I do that with the best of intentions, which are to minimize the time impact on everyone. So I cut meetings down to "need to know" groups.

Don't do that so much.

I'm not saying every meeting should be all-hands, dragging everyone through the minutiae of every small feature. What I will do in the future is to schedule regular, all-hands line-by-line reviews of each requirements document at least three times before they go to development.

Your mileage may vary. Mine never does, though I seem to constantly have to re-learn this lesson.

IT Stress

2008-02-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

An IT director in my organization was kind enough to send my way a Computerworld article on stress in IT. Blessedly, the article comes from a for-real CIO, William Cross, who chose it as a topic for his doctoral thesis (I don’t want to move to Tampa, but if I did, I’d definitely want to know if Seminole Electric Cooperative is hiring!). CIOs do get that we’re under stress (I know my CIO is aware of it). I’m particularly intrigued that Mr. Cross advocates stress management sessions. I’ll be adding that to my agenda for the next time I’m in front of my manager.

Interestingly, he notes that soft skills play a role in stress levels:

Is part of that stress a result of insufficient communication skills? Certainly. It goes back to the low social need – IT people don’t really feel comfortable dealing with many other people. And so you combine that with our tendency to give our computers human characteristics, and if you look at a lot of us we talk to our computers like they are people.

So, developing relationships inside and outside of our organizations, particularly with non-IT folks can be as healthy for our bodies as it is for our careers and profession as a whole? He said it better than I could.

As a sidebar to the article, Computerworld contributor C.J. Kelly makes a few positive notes in response to Mr. Cross and adds another good quote:

The CIO in this news story, William Cross, the CIO of Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc. in Tampa, Fla., recommends “steps they can take to reduce stress, such as practicing breathing exercises, setting priorities, avoiding negative people and office gossip, and ensuring that they strike the right balance between job and life. He says, “Your job is not you.”

People in my team try really hard to have several group lunches each week. Recently, we instituted a new rule: no negative work talk during lunch. We’ve made exceptions, but only very sparingly. And it’s always with the acknowledgment that it’s a temporary exception. Our already solid team relationships have only gotten better as a result as we’ve gotten better at being mindful not to be the negative person at lunch.

There are times when we can’t avoid venting, and often no one understands the issues better than a peer. But we see lunch as a break from work, not an extension of it. We still have to offer sometimes uncomfortable, adjusting and direct feedback to each other. Keeping negatives at bay during lunch is working to elevate interpersonal relationships. And that banks personal capital between us, which makes direct feedback with each other a little easier.

I still have trouble with the idea that my job isn’t me. All work is personal. Timothy Ferris seems to agree, though in 4-Hour Work Week (sorry, you'll just have to read the book to get it) that we spend too much time identifying ourselves by our profession rather than as people.

What annoys the rest of the world about us

2008-02-10T21:54:00.000-05:00

Interesting (if somewhat brief) article on some of the frustration users have in dealing with IT folk.

What users hate about IT pros
(link goes to printable version)

Breakroom Cuisine: Mighty Mighty Mocha

2008-02-10T21:51:00.000-05:00

Most of us admin-types do fit the caffine stereotype. And, let’s face it, our professionalism is not in question just because we like to get hopped up on the acrid, steamy brown liquid that spills forth from stained, scuffed glass-and-plastic containers seated precariously over a glorified hot plate.

With the go-go 90s behind us, most of us are not enjoying premium blend Starbucks Arabian Mocha Java anymore (well, we are… after all, we distribute breakroom supplies… lucky us!). Here’s a fun Breakroom Cuisine recipe to take the edge off the brew. Most breakrooms I’ve seen have the ingredients:

1 styrofoam cup (a treat this good deserves a disposable container!)
1 cup-ish amount of coffee (even decaf is usable in this!)
2 packs of instant hot chocolate (bonus for Suisse Miss with marshmallows!)
3 individual creamers (bonus for actual half-n-half! minus for powdered stuff)

Don’t use too much coffee (about a cup… definitely no more than 8 oz.). Don’t add sugar. Add packets of hot chocolate mix to cup. Add creamer (ok, I knocked the powered stuff, but it’s not bad for this). Add coffee. Stir thoroughly to incorporate the sludge at the bottom into the liquid. Enjoy!

Your Value Is Not What You Do

2008-02-10T21:43:00.000-05:00

Well, it is. But it's not.

Your value to your organization is not what you do, or, to be more precise, it’s all about what you can get done smartly. Joel Splosky makes excellent points in his Joel On Software blog about the two important prospects for a candidate being “smart and gets things done.”

In that spirit, your ultimate value to your organization isn’t the very specific role you serve today, though you can’t neglect the need to excel in it. It’s what you bring to the organization in the long term. If your real asset is your detailed knowledge of Windows NT 4.0 or some arcane details about Sendmail routing, you’ve likely reached your pinnacle.

That’s fine if that’s your goal. No, really. If that’s what you want, pursue it. Senior professionals, though, are force multipliers. They add things beyond a simple set of skills. Don’t neglect that area of your own development.

Just Do The Work

2008-02-10T21:40:00.000-05:00

I could stop there. Just do the work (the “you” is implied). It’s amazing to me the lengths to which people will go to avoid doing work that, in the end, is inevitable. I’m not talking about being effective (in a specific sense). We all have our “off” days where the most that’s accomplished is the very careful and detailed tweaking of Excel’s toolbar so that you have easy access to AutoFilter but never have to see that stupid hyperlink button again. In an alternate geek universe, this scenario ports nicely to a day spent installing a tweaking Gentoo.

I mean, at some point, you’re just resisting. And it’s obvious. It’s probably not personal. It’s almost always symptomatic of a larger degree of unhappiness. Moreover, it’s a bad habit that you really need to break.

Magic does not exist to do our gruntwork. That’s the role of interns and junior SAs. If you don’t have those (and even if you do), let’s ponder a short list of things that you just need to stinkin’ do when they’re in front of you:

Create that spec document for the Foobar project
Fix the folder access for *all* the sales users, not just the ones who call
Update the damn server spreadsheet your boss needs to understand your world
Make a coherent project plan for Foobar, and this time remember to send it to everyone
Have an uncomfortable conversation about something that’s bugging you
Resolve that invoice no one wants to touch
Schedule time with friends for lunch. We’re not machines, and people are important, too

I’m not a movie fanboy. But I do remember an interview with Matt Damon on Inside The Actor’s Studio. I can’t find a transcript, but the question was “what’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about professional acting?” His answer? Early in his acting life, a coach had ingrained in him to “just do the work.” To him, all his talent would be wasted if he wasn’t willing to lose 40 pounds for his role in Courage Under Fire, learn to box for the physical fundamentals subtly revealed in The Bourne Identity or write the damn script for Good Will Hunting. Just do the work.

Manager-Tools.com

2008-02-10T21:35:00.000-05:00

If you aren’t reading http://www.manager-tools.com (and listening to the podcast), you are missing something special.

No, you don’t have to want to be a manager to benefit. Go. Listen. Now.

Particularly poignant to our profession is the episode Solution to a Stalled Technical Career.

I’m compelled to link to them since I’m shamelessly adopting the phrase “…or your boss will mess with your addiction to food, clothing and shelter.” I love it.

Project Freakout

2008-02-10T21:29:00.000-05:00

No, it’s not the latest group backing George Clinton. It’s the phase of a project where “stuff” is on paper. That “stuff” may or may not be 100-percent accurate, and the project is moving forward. It’s the phase where someone freaks out about what’s expected. Sometimes, it’s right before the go-live. Sometimes, it’s during the estimate phase. Sometimes, it’s a major milestone in the middle. And it’s a near-inevitablity in any project.

Although, it’s rarely in the middle, unless the freakout candidate is a PM. The middle of any project, even one with well-defined milestones, is that beautiful period between the lie and the time the lie is discovered. Everything can still be accomplished in the remaining weeks. People can always wait until “later” to review “low-level details.” Managers & sponsors are easy to appease, because “we might be running a little behind,” but we haven’t started making withdrawls from our schedule fluffing. It’s the point where, sure, we can afford to re-engineer that interface. After all, we want it done “right” or “not at all,” don’t we?

I’m not being glib. I’m just being observant. I’ve been the freakout person in the past. I see it all the time. I just thought it would be a good time to share.

I shared this with a former manager who said “isn’t another phrase for that ‘the point at which something hits the fan?’” I told him we had to reserve that phrase for what happens during implementation. That’s another topic altogether.

Does The Perfect IT Person Exist?

2008-02-10T21:18:00.000-05:00

It’s all the rage, and another article on it, from eWeek (Building The Perfect IT Person), captured my attention thanks to Digg. I won’t quote much of it, and frankly I’m not a huge eWeek fan. But the article makes a larger point with which I emphatically agree. Good on ya, eWeek!

Business owners & management types want IT folks who aren’t just techies anymore. They want us to understand “the business side of things” so we can more effectively support current and perhaps even be involved in crafting new initiatives.

Whether or not these folks exist (at least in numbers large enough to be statistically significant) is a point of much debate. It’s not much of a debate for me. I see a distinct shortage of IT folks with developed soft skills. After all, it’s the central theme here at wearentgeeks.com. We aren’t geeks. We’re professionals.

What’s that? They don’t want us to be techies anymore? But, and I’ve said all of these at one time, I like technology. I like carefully crafting each server with a custom parts list culled only from my best recommendations. I like hiding in our darkened NOC, safe from the chattering of managers, co-workers and, worst of all, users. I just want to create a component server that does what the application folks tell me it should do; I don’t want to actually be involved in that calculation. I think I should burn down every system and start over from scratch so it will be done the “right way” this time.

Tough.

The organization demands otherwise, and so does our adherence to professionalism. It’s not an end to our techie ways per se. It’s redirecting some of our energy into becoming an integral part of our organization’s business processes. The core of the concept of the perfect IT person demands we embrace dealing with people.

People!

“Technology workers are expected to be able to work outside their comfort zone without stuffing their hands in their pockets and mumbling about rack servers or rolling their eyes when asked to reset a forgotten password. More than a techie, he or she is a meta-techie, having a strong technical base coupled with the ability to explain to nontechies why technology is important.”

Building the Perfect IT Person
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2002881,00.asp

Perish the thought, but the CxOs and business folks have a point. Our value to our organizations comes primarily from our ability to grasp complex mental models, rotate them around, see ways to make them better and communicate those observations. We’re at our best when we’re the bridge for people who have a business problem and need a technical solution.

“According to CIOs, companies comprise two types of individuals—those who know business and those who know technology. Few know both. But if you’re the bridge between the two, suddenly you’re valuable.”

Building the Perfect IT Person
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2002881,00.asp

Think about it this way. Your organization replaces a team member. Is that person immediately as effective as you are? (if you answered yes, please take a moment to clear your desk and consider your future prospects). They probably are not. Why is that?

We readily accept that each organization is different. Even though we use Exchange, my organization isn’t necessarily the same as another mid-market company. So, to understand how my organization uses Exchange, someone has to understand my organization on some level. And, my organization is a big, stinky collection of people. I can’t be a good mail administrator if I don’t know what my people, or my customers, need from me.

Let’s extend the example a bit further. Database platforms provide the basis for commercial and custom applications. Is a new DBA effective from day one? They may have a skill that immediately adds value, but to really make application sing, they need to know more about it, the business, the processes and the people using it.

If that new DBA doesn’t understand how the application is used, how can they possibly tune it to strike a balance between responsiveness for ad-hoc queries and batch processing performance? Just as germane, what’s the impact to the business if ad-hoc queries run during an overnight?

What are some of the hurdles to becoming an effective lead or senior SA? We need to learn who makes the decisions, who influences the decision and who produces the cash for our projects. In other words, we’re forced to learn how to deal with key people. Becoming a part of the budgeting process is often one of our first business communication lessons.

At the core, most of our issues are sociological, not technical (thanks Peopleware! I’m going to tattoo that quote on me someplace!). We use technology to (hopefully) make people more productive. We must know more about business processes before we can know what “productive” means. We have to be about people to be about business.

The finer point to be made is that most of us already accept a smaller version of the role just to deal with and be happy in our jobs. We’re smart. We’ve learned how to get things done. We’ve adapted to complex environments. We endeavor to do right (or at least to do no evil). It’s in us. We just need to let it out. And, maybe, we could spend a little more energy developing the hated soft skills. It’s good for us, and it’s certainly good for our organizations.

Maybe it helps to think of it this way:
The suits don’t want me to be something I’m not.
The suits ask me to be someone they need.

That’s an opportunity, not a prison sentence.

I'd Be Remiss

2008-02-10T21:03:00.000-05:00

I'd be remiss if I didn't add this, even though it's decidedly personal. My father-in-law, one of the best people I've ever known, passed away last Sunday. I don't know how long the AJC will keep the obit posted, so here's a copy:

SHUMATE, Henry Henry Morgan Shumate Sr. passed away on February 3, 2008 after a lengthy and courageous battle with Parkinson's disease and Lewy Body Dementia. Henry was a home delivery milkman and dairy sales manager for 20 years. He was also a real estate broker and owner of Henry Shumate Realty for 30 years. Henry was a longtime member of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Ellenwood and an avid Atlanta Braves fan. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Jean Shumate, daughters Holly Shumate and Jim Stagg, Heidi and James Smith, grandson Nathaniel Austin Shumate Smith, son Hank and Christina Shumate; two sisters Mary and John Colthorp of Smyrna, and Margaret and Jr. Knight of Decatur; several nieces and nephews. A graveside service will be held Tuesday, February 5th at Fairview Memorial Gardens, with Rev. Michael Johns officiating. Wages & Sons, Stone Mountain Chapel 770/ 469-9811 Express condolences at ajc.com/obits
Published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on 2/5/2008.

If you knew him, you know what a great loss it is to the world. If you didn't know him, that's ok. He loved you anyway, and you never would have been a stranger to him.

Let's Start By Cheating A Bit

2008-02-10T20:47:00.000-05:00

Well, it's not exactly cheating since it's my stuff. Many moons ago, Kris and I had a darn good idea for a podcast called We Aren't Geeks, focusing on professionalism in system administration. And we actually posted a few. And they weren't bad. But we're both at the same company now, and the podcast stalled. So, I'm going to cadge (or just as accurately, salvage) some of my posts to that blog over here.

And, yes, I might have tweaked the copy a bit. Hey, it's the magic of editing!