Yes, I admit it. At one time in my career I was an adrenaline junkie. As a mainframe systems programmer, I lived for those 2 a.m. calls to rush back into work to fix a production problem. In those days if it wasn’t nightly batch issues, it was getting the online system back up quickly after it crashed in the middle of the day. The operating environment was complex and the mental stimulus was highly satisfying. Being the hero got us a lot of recognition. And we all enjoy being heroes of the moment, especially in IT where being a hero boosted your compensation. Life was good.

Then I tried management on for size. I had direct contact with the business unit leaders. What an eye-opener! Although they appreciated and generously compensated us for all our heroic efforts to keep things running, they were also asking questions about why all these service interruptions and late report deliveries couldn’t be prevented. The business people analyzed and fixed problems proactively on the business side so why couldn’t IT do the same. Some even suggested that we should be wearing colorful wigs, make-up, shiny red noses, polka-dotted suits and floppy shoes. It was then I realized that although we were getting gratification by attacking and solving complex problems, the value of our reactive culture to the business was low.

The company I worked for at the time embarked on an ITIL journey. I was privileged to be part of the planning and implementation phases (feeling “privileged” now, not at that time). Capacity Management was the first process to be implemented. Boy, what a difference!  Within a year or so, many of our production problems had been mitigated. We had time on our hands. We were invited to participate with Enterprise Architecture teams. We found a whole new world out there. We were looking at new technologies and figuring out if and how they could benefit the business, taking it to new heights. It was more interesting work than scurrying around trying to fix problems. Now when I look back, I wonder how I got so caught up in the reactive thing when there are so many more meaningful things I could do to support my business.

Perhaps it’s time for you to turn in your “adrenaline junkie” hat for a “technology planner” hat.

Until the next time…

Ron

In a poll of IT professionals at the TeamQuest Technology Summit, 85 percent said they were either reactive or more inclined to be reactive in their IT environment.

Maybe it’s the nature of the beast. IT is under demand to produce “more with less” and deliver always-on services. Marketing has a great idea and wants to run a campaign. Are we sitting at the table when marketing pitches a resource-taxing promotion on the company’s infrastructure? Do we allow ourselves enough time to test? Are we given enough time to plan for the campaign?

Some say you can’t sell prevention. But you can sell success. By proving that IT must be part of the strategic leadership on revenue-generating items, the company should have fewer hiccups, decreased headaches and more opportunities to capture revenue.

We’re all after the same thing - success for the company and happy customers. IT, by being ready (i.e., proactive), can help improve a company’s chances by using proper processes to improve revenue-generating and customer-facing opportunities.

For those of you who have had success at being proactive, how do you do it? What needs to happen to move toward being more proactive? Is it better software, processes, or people? Is it a combination?

We want to hear from you.

Craig

We Capacity Planning managers expect and receive information from wide audiences within our organizations. These people have busy schedules just like us. One best practice I have observed over the years is the use of common courtesy. When someone, especially in the business area, gives me information that I need to complete a piece of work, I make it a point to thank them. I let them know I appreciate them taking the time from their busy schedule to get this for me.

What I have found over the years is that the next time I approach that individual with an information request; I get a much warmer and more cooperative response. Many times those people provide additional information that helps provide more accurate predictions of the future.  

A simple “Thank You!” helps strengthen business relationships and makes it easier to get the information we need to be successful; both personally and organizationally.

Try it. I think you will be pleased with the results.

Until the next time…

Ron

Just about everyone has access to a dictionary these days. Just because you bought one and put it on your shelf doesn’t mean you have to read every definition and use every word in the book. That’s time consuming and provides limited value. My apologies if you’re a lexicographer.

I’ve read the ITIL tomes - versions 1 through 3 - and while they provide value, I don’t believe that every person in the organization should read them from cover to cover. Just like a dictionary, you should use what’s best for your situation.

ITSO and ITIL are comprehensive sets of processes and best practices. Since every IT shop is different, they have different needs. Since IT professionals have their strengths and weaknesses, the best action is to winnow through the best practices and select the disciplines that fit your circumstances, and provide measureable and meaningful value.

If one of your organization’s shortcomings is in the Capacity Management or IT Service Management arena, I urge you to take a look at TeamQuest IT Service Optimization (ITSO). Just like a dictionary, there may be components of the framework that can provide immediate value.

In these tough business times, every little step you take to improve service quality and reduce costs is important to your organization’s survival. Find out more - ITSO.

Remember, ITSO and ITIL are frameworks. They are collections of processes and best practices. It’s up to you to determine which components provide value to your organization and then implement them; fill in the blanks in the framework.

By the way, I found some words in my dictionary that best describe this process - “flexibility” and “customization.”

I’m putting my dictionary back on the shelf for now.

Until the next time…

Best Regards,

Ron

While doing my holiday shopping, I encountered less-than-stellar service at a number of businesses. It reminded me of an old business adage about the need to provide better service than the competition. The trap here is that the competition may be delivering extremely poor services so you can slightly raise the bar and perhaps gain an increase in sales - albeit short-term. However this will do little to endear you to your customers or build loyalty.

Competition will continue to raise the bar so your gains will be short-lived and those lost customers will remember you, and probably not in a good light. Best practices tell us that we should provide the best service we can and still make a profit.

From personal experience, I will pay somewhat more for an item if it comes with good customer service. For example, I will shop at my local hardware store (in a town of 1,600 people) for many items rather than go to one of the big box stores. The local people know me on a first name basis and offer better advice even though the items cost 15-20% more. And I don’t need to wander around the store trying to find someone to help me.

Providing quality IT services is no different. Because of the high rate of change, we throw applications out into production but rarely revisit their performance until someone complains.

If we just take a little extra time to review applications and services, we can probably find ways to tune them, improving performance with minimal effort. I have seen the results of some of these tuning efforts. Just spending an hour or two to add or change a database index can substantially reduce response times and resource usage - in many cases by as much as 80 or 90%.  Definitely a win-win situation - a little work brings good return and frees up existing resources, delaying costly upgrades.

The individual saves may look inconsequential (e.g., transaction response dropping by one or two seconds), however when you consider that tens of thousands of transactions are performed each day, week or month, those savings can really add up.

Faced with the economic downturn, maybe a little time spent tuning your applications and services will reap great rewards. Our tools can help you accomplish the work easily and quickly. Besides, these days providing better service without adding additional equipment might be the deciding factor if your business users need to choose between you or an outsourcer.

Until the next time,

Ron

The afternoon sessions were as enlightening as this morning. John Phelps had a great presentation on Green IT. He started out with the statement that companies were not doing Green IT for environmental reasons, but for cost savings and the environment benefited from the work. My colleague agrees. He went extensively into the topic, including pointing out reasons why Green IT is more than power and cooling savings.He finished discussing using alternate energy sources and predicted future trends in the space. McKinsley Quarterly published an article on this subject too.

The last presentation of the day was Cameron Haight’s “Managing the Virtual Server Environment.” Cameron covered the gamut of management considerations - too many to cover in this blog. He states that virtualization has changed the operations landscape probably more radically than at any other time in IT history, pointing out the benefits of virtual environments and the detractions.Server sprawl is the number one issue for people implementing virtualization and Haight covered options and considerations to control it.

He covered the need for chargeback and the difficulties in implementing and sustaining it. If you have time, watch this chargeback videoand tell me what you think.

Cameron closed with staffing considerations, saying benefits will vary widely depending on complexity and individual configurations. He pointed out that 55% of those polled said there was no change in Server per IT Staffing ratios after implementing virtualization. He presumed some of the reasons are that although some admin tasks were greatly reduced, such as provisioning, the complexity of the environment drove greatly elongated root cause analysis times, resulting in no staffing ratio benefits.

Tomorrow is another day and more reports will be forthcoming.

Until tomorrow.

Ron

How any times have we heard the saying “Let’s not reinvent the wheel”? That statement can certainly apply to capacity planners. The trouble is that until recently, capacity planning was not a widely-adopted IT discipline so there were fewer places to share information. Now we have a large number of newer people struggling to do the right things for their company and information sources are not easily found. 

I can remember the first capacity planning work I did and quite frankly, I struggled. At that time there were few publications available and they were usually heavy into mathematical theory and short on practical knowledge.

Over the years it took a lot of work plus countless hours at conferences listening at sessions and swapping war stories at social gatherings to find the best, most efficient ways of doing our work. When I heard ideas to do things better, I took them back and adopted them. Some worked well in my organization, others did not, but over the long haul the ones that worked made me successful.

We capacity planners need to keep up with the challenges resulting from faster moving business. I think Bill Gates said it best with the title of his book “Business at the Speed of Light.” Caught up in these fast-moving times, we often don’t take the time to look around for better ways of doing things or swap ideas with peers. We keep focused and do the work the best we can with our experience and tools at hand. 

We at TeamQuest have strived to help by posting capacity planning and performance tuning information on our website. Although there are a wide variety of articles available, some have indicated their schedules make it difficult to spend the time needed to understand the in-depth articles. With busy schedules in mind, I have recorded a short White-board Series vidcast that covers some of the better capacity planning habits I’ve learned from experience and from those more learned than me. 

Please take a few minutes out of your busy schedule watch the vidcast. It is only about 7 minutes long and hopefully it will give you some ideas that will make you more successful in your current situation and throughout your career.

If you have other ideas for future, helpful clips, please email me at ronald.potter@teamquest.com.

At this past TeamQuest Technology Summit in Tucson, AZ, I had the pleasure of having dinner with Robert Erhardt, Chief Technology Officer for the San Diego Zoo. Robert was one of the keynote speakers and delivered a fascinating presentation on the business of zoos. If there was ever a poster child for best practices, Robert is that person.

We spoke for over an hour about the zoo and its challenges around the world. I only remember one comment that was specific to a particular technology - weather resistant information kiosks.

The rest of the time we talked about the BUSINESS challenges the zoo faced. We discussed the considerable number of animals for which they care that can no longer be found in the wild and the steps they are taking to increase the numbers to be able to reintroduce them to their former habitat. It was a discussion in business terms, not technology. He spoke of business solutions where IT played a role, but again at a high level - such as a data repository of animal care information where zoos, veterinarians and wildlife rehabilitators around the world can learn from each other on the caring for endangered and exotic species.

Robert really impressed me. We are bombarded with media promoting the integration of business and IT but we usually see little of it in our day-to-day lives. Robert is already there and more. Robert has a passion for the animals his organization protects and is an integral part of the business that is needed to sustain the ongoing work. He knows the business as well or better than the people he serves and uses that knowledge to develop innovative solutions, both high and low tech. From a best practice perspective, who can ask for any more than that?

If you share Robert’s passion for animals, please consider going to http://www.sandiegozoo.org/ and make a donation to support their cause. TeamQuest has.

Ron