I give a report every quarter. This most recent quarter report is outlined below. I'm not sure if it will be useful to you, but I have found that If I can explain to the executives in terms they understand why they pay me, they generally feel more inclined to do so in the future.
I put these in financial terms because if you convert this qualitative data (like what you do) into nice easy-to-understand quantitative data (like monetary sums) executives will be able to understand your job and your priorities better.
Summary of Previous Quarter (aka What I did, and why you paid me for it)
- Illustrate changes made to the architecture/infrastructure
Current Status (aka Aren't you glad you hired me to worry about all this)
- Make qualitative data quantitative, so it can be compared to previous quarters - Group broad technical concepts together into categories that can easily be weighed in terms of risk/benefit ratios ex: security, infrastructure, storage, architecture, auditing/reporting, backups, disaster recovery - Include the effects to the overall business (the 30,000 ft/km view)
Expense Report (aka How much I really cost)
-What you spent, where you spent it (again, encouraged to stick to broad categories ex: software, hardware, security, training)
Incident Reports (aka Why you don't pay me enough)
-Document incidents, illustrated how they were resolved, what was learned, and what measures were taken to prevent them from occurring in the future -Though painful, its generally good to point out your grievous errors here as well
Next Quarter (aka Why you're going to keep paying me)
-Make sure you know where your executives priorities are in terms of Availability/Reliability/Security/Cost and make goals for the next quarter
Slashdot Mirror
After reading the news article that thrice-blasted song is back.
I give a report every quarter. This most recent quarter report is outlined below. I'm not sure if it will be useful to you, but I have found that If I can explain to the executives in terms they understand why they pay me, they generally feel more inclined to do so in the future.
I put these in financial terms because if you convert this qualitative data (like what you do) into nice easy-to-understand quantitative data (like monetary sums) executives will be able to understand your job and your priorities better.
Summary of Previous Quarter (aka What I did, and why you paid me for it)
- Illustrate changes made to the architecture/infrastructure
Current Status (aka Aren't you glad you hired me to worry about all this)
- Make qualitative data quantitative, so it can be compared to previous quarters
- Group broad technical concepts together into categories that can easily be weighed in terms of risk/benefit ratios
ex: security, infrastructure, storage, architecture, auditing/reporting, backups, disaster recovery
- Include the effects to the overall business (the 30,000 ft/km view)
Expense Report (aka How much I really cost)
-What you spent, where you spent it (again, encouraged to stick to broad categories ex: software, hardware, security, training)
Incident Reports (aka Why you don't pay me enough)
-Document incidents, illustrated how they were resolved, what was learned, and what measures were taken to prevent them from occurring in the future
-Though painful, its generally good to point out your grievous errors here as well
Next Quarter (aka Why you're going to keep paying me)
-Make sure you know where your executives priorities are in terms of Availability/Reliability/Security/Cost and make goals for the next quarter
Hope this helps