I have tried a bunch of ways. Trained the 'expert' users in the area on how to put in a better ticket. Sent tickets back to them because of lack of information. Judicious of cattle prods and a tack hammer... However, users will use what method is easiest to them, which tends to be:
Calling someone they know directly
Emailing someone they know directly
Emailing the ticket capture email address with 'Call me'
Calling the service desk
Screaming at someone from IS in the hallway
Emailing the ticket capture email address with a long email chain which tangentally mentions the issue somewhere in the middle
I find tfa pretty clueless when it comes a real understanding on what is needed for performance testing and tweaking. A statistical analysis is nice, especially with monte carlo type analysis, like Bungie running Halo 3 on numerious xboxs simulating load and player interactions. However, I find that what is lacking with programmers is a basic understanding on the high levels of process analysis, such as network analysis, CPM, and PERT. Knowing a process has high levels of variance is nice, but not useful for understanding the why. Where is Zed's example of multivariant linear regression or ordered probit? Discussion on hypothesis testing? Anyone, anyone?
I agree with your statement. IT does a bad job learning their customer's business. I think it has to do with the inherent IT ego. I work on some systems (Infor's SmartStream and BPA for example) where other customers can't believe that IT is so heavily involved in business process decisions. Many of our business process improvement projects are run by our systems department (were our IT project managers are) instead of the functional users. For a midcap organization, that seems to be unusual. (Observed phenomina that would make a good research article) However, it works for us.
Don't get me wrong, we still make spectacular screwups. Usually it is due to the lack of a rigourous project management methodology. I am the only person with the project management professional (PMP) certification and there is some resistance against my calls for a more formal process. (I don't want full PMI methodology, only an idiot wants to apply that willy nilly) Ends up that a good quarter to half of my projects start out as someone else's. It is my experience that the major issues tend to be lack of requirements analysis, cost control, and/or scope control being the major issues here. (Another observed phenomina that would make a good research article - should I start writing the problem statements for my fellow researcher too? Get busy) Better training and education would fix some of these issues.
Let me make a comparison. I and another analyst are working similar projects with a similar timeframe. He has worked here for a year after college. I have worked for ten. We have four weeks to finish the project. I finish mine in two weeks at about four hours a day, five days a week. He takes all four weeks, working ten hour days, seven days a week. The difference between us is really experience. I will spend my time up front learning my users wants and needs, while he works on the rock methodology of requirements analysis. (User: I want a rock. Analyst: Is this the rock you want? User: No, find a different rock. Goto Beginning.) I take time every week to network with my users and learn their business processes and what their problems are. My cohort just is to busy showing everyone how smart he is and how hard he works. That is why I read the WSJ, Slashdot, Wired, the Economist, some industry rags (our core business, not IT), and Tech Review at work. It helps for me to understand what my customer needs are, sometimes before they do. Design iterations are quicker and more complete solution wise. Trying to explain it to a fresh face out of college who has been taught just to code is very difficult.
You make a valid point. The discussion becomes what is private and what is not. Lets go to your example of pedophiles. First off, I agree with the bullet to the brainpan concept of handling pedophiles. However, I am think more of the implied children. My brother does not want pictures of his sons on the net while they are minors, especially when they are very young due to the preceived temptation it is to preditors. It is a valid point to encourgage better privacy. When we consider the number of complaints comming to light of Iran's intellegence services targeting expat dissidents, the argument becomes stronger. When we allow for information that can be sigificantly damaging to someone to become public domain, the World suffers in ways we might not anticipate.
Having a kindle and a tendency of reading more then the average geek, due to my Ph.D. work (I read about a Robert Jordon book and a half a day between work-school-pleasure reading, not considering websites and email). I love my kindle for pleasure reading, but find that it does not do a good job for academic or professional reading where one has to cite the work. The form factor works for me, where a DX would be a little too large. I can do about four page flips per second with my kindle, which isn't too bad.
The PDF function works for me since the firmware update, but I don't read game manuals or such. Mostly I read journal articles and vendor documents. I prefer to print those out, since my note taking methodology is kindle-incompatable. I am building summary of the articles I am reading for annotated outlines, so it makes sense to print for my type of work.
What I like the best about the Kindle is the portability mixed with readability and battery life. I have mobipocket on my windows phone and could be a pain at times to read, due to the eye strain and backlight sucking the life out of the battery. I use a book light, which has an advantage with regular books and journal articles. In all, the kindle works for me.
I do have the Kindle app for the PC, but it doesn't really work for me. I wished they did have one for the android phone, just when I can't take my bag with me.
Database size is usually not an issue for modern RDBMS, such as Microsoft SQL, Sybase ASE, Oracle, or IBM's DB2. I am running an ERP on Sybase with 3 TB worth of data, a datamart on Microsoft with 5 TB, a Patient Record System on Microsoft with 20 TB, a HR system with 2 TB, and a Patient Accounting system on Oracle with 8 TB of data. All of these systems talk with at least one other system, usually with the assistance of SSIS (Thank god for SSIS, our ETL is heavy lifting, approx. 5 TB a night of incrementals). With enough server hardware, we can scale up to very large levels easily. We forcast out our data size needs out for the next three years and have been very accurate, not running across SAN issues.
Only systems we have had issues with in the area of data size is MySQL and Informix.
Write a detailed report, explaining all the jargon simply, and then summerize it to about 150 to 350 words. Most executives will read the "executive summery", but you will get bonus points from having the further content. However, if you decide to fill the body of the report with junk, you will find out that some of your reports are being read front to back.
Working on my Ph.D., I have a tendency of writing work reports within the 10 to 20 pages range, using APA citing. I use extended abstracts (~350 words, check the report section of APA 5) and use a clear style of writing, expecting my readers to be college educated, but not to the extent that I am educated. However, I tend to be writing lengthy project plans, audits of projects and systems, and in depth analysis of business processes and products.
I treat status reports differently. Status reports are rarely over ~350 words, weekly reports trending at ~150. Brevity is king here. I put in a table of all of my projects with their status, next milestone, CPI, SPI, and EAC. I might also include PDFs of relevent reports that I had published that week.
Listen to this person. They know their shit. Moving through project management does help with the transistion, but depending on your org, it might not help. All that MBA bs that people complain about actually has purpose.
Usually has at least two. We keep two v-8 generators on standby and have a massive ups battery bank and even then many devices come with their own built in ups.
We have a lot of cable, considering the campus with quite several 4 or more floor buildings with three seperate networks, with redundant run cable. We buy the patch cable in bulk, but the long lenths, we pay someone to run and make. It is just cheeper and we get higher quality. Most people, without a lot of experience, will make crappy cable.
Being a IT PM in health care, I usually have some of the best war stories among my fellow IT PMs from non-health care. Having to crowbar a door to an Labor & Delivery OR because of door control micro going bad while a women went into labor crisis makes for a great story at the bar... at least until the nuke engineer goes, 'Let me tell you about the time I set the radiation detectors off... dramatic pause... from ten feet away'. However, leaving through that stress sucks.
The worst place I had to code is when I had to reprogram a microcontroller in place using a laptop while waste deep in sewage. We had to fix an issue and didn't have enough time to pull it out of the controller box and put it into a test box. So I coded and tested the patch on an emulator then trudged across in waders and types as fast as I could into the terminal window. Thank goodness it took the first shot. Other places we had to code micros... 110 degree utility shaft and a 20 degree roof in high winds. I love my office job now.
I don't think that a full discourse on the basics of theory is required. In sociological work, which is funny to say because I am more of an economist and game theorist in approach, we have to state the strengths, weaknesses, and appropriateness of theory we apply to our research. For example, I use the powers approach in organization analysis, which is considered revolutionary in health care. (All you financial analysts, stop laughing) I have to state why the powers approach of financial analysis is appropriate, what the weakness of that approach, and what benefits it gives. Another example is when I use game theory approaches. I don't have to justify the math, just the method of analysis. Most of my other doctoral cohort is struggling with it at our stage, but I am overloading and progressing faster then the others. I am almost caught up with the next cohort.
What I find that is better about the social sciences in comparison to the hard sciences is that a good slice of us training in dealing with people. I think it improves presentation skills.
That's because they didn't handle the ice core at all. They simply applied a newer computational algorithm to the data collected from the ice core by other scientists years before they published. In fact, the second to last sentence in the paper says "We thank C. Genthon and J. Jouzel for performing the CO2 spectral analysis..." Their papers are, of course, listed at the end with all the other references.
Are you talking about: J R Petit, J Jouzel, D Raynaud, N I Barkov, et al. (1999). Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature, 399(6735), 429-436. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from ProQuest Medical Library database. (Document ID: 42351682)? Because the phrase is not in there. The paper reads like the researchers were involved in the drilling.
It might be a good idea to read at least the next few sentences before hurling accusations of plagiarism around. When you do, notice that the sentence you quoted is the "topic sentence" of the paragraph. Other sentences in that paragraph serve to expand on individual points in the topic sentence, and they're all referenced. In fact, there are no less than 14 references you can read (they're all listed at the end of the article) to catch up on the science contained in that sentence.
Actually, the statement is "leads it reading as opinion or possible plagerism" which is really close to the truth. The section is clumsily written, almost like they are trying to shove two thesis statements into the same flow. It goes warrant one, warrant two, evidence one, evidence two, synthesis two, synthesis one, closure. Since it is hard to track its flow, the section is a difficult read, which causes the warrant to come across badly, removing support from the general thesis.
Really? How about...
That is data analysis and synthesis. I am asking about the appropriateness and validity of the approach, not the data. If a research does not discuss the appropriateness of their approach, then it is impossible to validate the reasons for the approach.
Limiting the data set in what sense?
I would read p. 430-431 if I were you. They limited the ice core due to volcanic activity without discussing the impact. None of my editors would allow me to get away with that.
Really? how about...
If you want someone to research something, you state 'This study raises these questions for further research' or something similar. Another method is to state 'We suggest... but it would require further research'.
Excellent method in proving my point. Thanks. You are a hack, not a scientist. Every point I made is a valid point in academic discourse and is how grant committees should look at your work.
Petit et al. (1999) takes no effort to describe the methodologies used in handling ice cores, which raises questions on the process used. The line "Ice cores give access to palaeoclimate series that includes local temperature and precipitation rate, moisture source conditions, wind strength and aerosol fluxes of marine, volcanic, terrestrial, cosmogenic and anthropogenic origin" is not attributed, which leads it reading as opinion or possible plagerism (Petit et al., 1999, p. 429). Since it is the bases of the work's analysis, it would make sense to give that sentence more concrete foothold in established theory. There is no discussion on this approach's appropriateness or flaws. There is a good discussion on the research team's reason for limiting the data set but not the impact of that limitation. There is no review of further research questions. It reads as a set of scientists too worried about analysis and not with synthesis. The work is biased to its approach and thusly flawed in its presentation.
Slashdot Mirror
... until our new alien overlords fire back. Damn risk takers at NASA...
Hello everyone,
I have tried a bunch of ways. Trained the 'expert' users in the area on how to put in a better ticket. Sent tickets back to them because of lack of information. Judicious of cattle prods and a tack hammer... However, users will use what method is easiest to them, which tends to be:
I thought it was 'what doesn't kill me cripples me for life'...
I find tfa pretty clueless when it comes a real understanding on what is needed for performance testing and tweaking. A statistical analysis is nice, especially with monte carlo type analysis, like Bungie running Halo 3 on numerious xboxs simulating load and player interactions. However, I find that what is lacking with programmers is a basic understanding on the high levels of process analysis, such as network analysis, CPM, and PERT. Knowing a process has high levels of variance is nice, but not useful for understanding the why. Where is Zed's example of multivariant linear regression or ordered probit? Discussion on hypothesis testing? Anyone, anyone?
As a side note, Statistics in a Nutshell is the only book programmers really need on stats.
Military. Twenty guys could take over Mountain View with some decent training.
Jeanne,
I agree with your statement. IT does a bad job learning their customer's business. I think it has to do with the inherent IT ego. I work on some systems (Infor's SmartStream and BPA for example) where other customers can't believe that IT is so heavily involved in business process decisions. Many of our business process improvement projects are run by our systems department (were our IT project managers are) instead of the functional users. For a midcap organization, that seems to be unusual. (Observed phenomina that would make a good research article) However, it works for us.
Don't get me wrong, we still make spectacular screwups. Usually it is due to the lack of a rigourous project management methodology. I am the only person with the project management professional (PMP) certification and there is some resistance against my calls for a more formal process. (I don't want full PMI methodology, only an idiot wants to apply that willy nilly) Ends up that a good quarter to half of my projects start out as someone else's. It is my experience that the major issues tend to be lack of requirements analysis, cost control, and/or scope control being the major issues here. (Another observed phenomina that would make a good research article - should I start writing the problem statements for my fellow researcher too? Get busy) Better training and education would fix some of these issues.
Let me make a comparison. I and another analyst are working similar projects with a similar timeframe. He has worked here for a year after college. I have worked for ten. We have four weeks to finish the project. I finish mine in two weeks at about four hours a day, five days a week. He takes all four weeks, working ten hour days, seven days a week. The difference between us is really experience. I will spend my time up front learning my users wants and needs, while he works on the rock methodology of requirements analysis. (User: I want a rock. Analyst: Is this the rock you want? User: No, find a different rock. Goto Beginning.) I take time every week to network with my users and learn their business processes and what their problems are. My cohort just is to busy showing everyone how smart he is and how hard he works. That is why I read the WSJ, Slashdot, Wired, the Economist, some industry rags (our core business, not IT), and Tech Review at work. It helps for me to understand what my customer needs are, sometimes before they do. Design iterations are quicker and more complete solution wise. Trying to explain it to a fresh face out of college who has been taught just to code is very difficult.
mlankton,
You make a valid point. The discussion becomes what is private and what is not. Lets go to your example of pedophiles. First off, I agree with the bullet to the brainpan concept of handling pedophiles. However, I am think more of the implied children. My brother does not want pictures of his sons on the net while they are minors, especially when they are very young due to the preceived temptation it is to preditors. It is a valid point to encourgage better privacy. When we consider the number of complaints comming to light of Iran's intellegence services targeting expat dissidents, the argument becomes stronger. When we allow for information that can be sigificantly damaging to someone to become public domain, the World suffers in ways we might not anticipate.
For some reason, I think cryptography is going to become more popular... what is the stock symbol for PGP?
Having a kindle and a tendency of reading more then the average geek, due to my Ph.D. work (I read about a Robert Jordon book and a half a day between work-school-pleasure reading, not considering websites and email). I love my kindle for pleasure reading, but find that it does not do a good job for academic or professional reading where one has to cite the work. The form factor works for me, where a DX would be a little too large. I can do about four page flips per second with my kindle, which isn't too bad.
The PDF function works for me since the firmware update, but I don't read game manuals or such. Mostly I read journal articles and vendor documents. I prefer to print those out, since my note taking methodology is kindle-incompatable. I am building summary of the articles I am reading for annotated outlines, so it makes sense to print for my type of work.
What I like the best about the Kindle is the portability mixed with readability and battery life. I have mobipocket on my windows phone and could be a pain at times to read, due to the eye strain and backlight sucking the life out of the battery. I use a book light, which has an advantage with regular books and journal articles. In all, the kindle works for me.
I do have the Kindle app for the PC, but it doesn't really work for me. I wished they did have one for the android phone, just when I can't take my bag with me.
Database size is usually not an issue for modern RDBMS, such as Microsoft SQL, Sybase ASE, Oracle, or IBM's DB2. I am running an ERP on Sybase with 3 TB worth of data, a datamart on Microsoft with 5 TB, a Patient Record System on Microsoft with 20 TB, a HR system with 2 TB, and a Patient Accounting system on Oracle with 8 TB of data. All of these systems talk with at least one other system, usually with the assistance of SSIS (Thank god for SSIS, our ETL is heavy lifting, approx. 5 TB a night of incrementals). With enough server hardware, we can scale up to very large levels easily. We forcast out our data size needs out for the next three years and have been very accurate, not running across SAN issues.
Only systems we have had issues with in the area of data size is MySQL and Informix.
Write a detailed report, explaining all the jargon simply, and then summerize it to about 150 to 350 words. Most executives will read the "executive summery", but you will get bonus points from having the further content. However, if you decide to fill the body of the report with junk, you will find out that some of your reports are being read front to back.
Working on my Ph.D., I have a tendency of writing work reports within the 10 to 20 pages range, using APA citing. I use extended abstracts (~350 words, check the report section of APA 5) and use a clear style of writing, expecting my readers to be college educated, but not to the extent that I am educated. However, I tend to be writing lengthy project plans, audits of projects and systems, and in depth analysis of business processes and products.
I treat status reports differently. Status reports are rarely over ~350 words, weekly reports trending at ~150. Brevity is king here. I put in a table of all of my projects with their status, next milestone, CPI, SPI, and EAC. I might also include PDFs of relevent reports that I had published that week.
You are right. It is one of our favorite benefits.
Heck, at least Kissinger won after actually reducing nuclear weapons, decreasing tension, and opening up China.
Listen to this person. They know their shit. Moving through project management does help with the transistion, but depending on your org, it might not help. All that MBA bs that people complain about actually has purpose.
Well cited, very informative. I love it. Hey, what is with the helicopter over the hou0u8409ulksfd['OQ#([No Carrier]
Usually has at least two. We keep two v-8 generators on standby and have a massive ups battery bank and even then many devices come with their own built in ups.
We have a lot of cable, considering the campus with quite several 4 or more floor buildings with three seperate networks, with redundant run cable. We buy the patch cable in bulk, but the long lenths, we pay someone to run and make. It is just cheeper and we get higher quality. Most people, without a lot of experience, will make crappy cable.
I, for one, welcome our new Blood Ice Masters... at least until I get the blow torch out. It is neat to see where life will thrive.
Being a IT PM in health care, I usually have some of the best war stories among my fellow IT PMs from non-health care. Having to crowbar a door to an Labor & Delivery OR because of door control micro going bad while a women went into labor crisis makes for a great story at the bar... at least until the nuke engineer goes, 'Let me tell you about the time I set the radiation detectors off... dramatic pause... from ten feet away'. However, leaving through that stress sucks.
Talk with you doctor about antifungal medicines and testings. If you have an accute fungal infection, antibiotics can make it worse.
The worst place I had to code is when I had to reprogram a microcontroller in place using a laptop while waste deep in sewage. We had to fix an issue and didn't have enough time to pull it out of the controller box and put it into a test box. So I coded and tested the patch on an emulator then trudged across in waders and types as fast as I could into the terminal window. Thank goodness it took the first shot. Other places we had to code micros... 110 degree utility shaft and a 20 degree roof in high winds. I love my office job now.
I don't think that a full discourse on the basics of theory is required. In sociological work, which is funny to say because I am more of an economist and game theorist in approach, we have to state the strengths, weaknesses, and appropriateness of theory we apply to our research. For example, I use the powers approach in organization analysis, which is considered revolutionary in health care. (All you financial analysts, stop laughing) I have to state why the powers approach of financial analysis is appropriate, what the weakness of that approach, and what benefits it gives. Another example is when I use game theory approaches. I don't have to justify the math, just the method of analysis. Most of my other doctoral cohort is struggling with it at our stage, but I am overloading and progressing faster then the others. I am almost caught up with the next cohort.
What I find that is better about the social sciences in comparison to the hard sciences is that a good slice of us training in dealing with people. I think it improves presentation skills.
Are you talking about: J R Petit, J Jouzel, D Raynaud, N I Barkov, et al. (1999). Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature, 399(6735), 429-436. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from ProQuest Medical Library database. (Document ID: 42351682)? Because the phrase is not in there. The paper reads like the researchers were involved in the drilling.
Actually, the statement is "leads it reading as opinion or possible plagerism" which is really close to the truth. The section is clumsily written, almost like they are trying to shove two thesis statements into the same flow. It goes warrant one, warrant two, evidence one, evidence two, synthesis two, synthesis one, closure. Since it is hard to track its flow, the section is a difficult read, which causes the warrant to come across badly, removing support from the general thesis.
That is data analysis and synthesis. I am asking about the appropriateness and validity of the approach, not the data. If a research does not discuss the appropriateness of their approach, then it is impossible to validate the reasons for the approach.
I would read p. 430-431 if I were you. They limited the ice core due to volcanic activity without discussing the impact. None of my editors would allow me to get away with that.
If you want someone to research something, you state 'This study raises these questions for further research' or something similar. Another method is to state 'We suggest... but it would require further research'.
Excellent method in proving my point. Thanks. You are a hack, not a scientist. Every point I made is a valid point in academic discourse and is how grant committees should look at your work.
Petit et al. (1999) takes no effort to describe the methodologies used in handling ice cores, which raises questions on the process used. The line "Ice cores give access to palaeoclimate series that includes local temperature and precipitation rate, moisture source conditions, wind strength and aerosol fluxes of marine, volcanic, terrestrial, cosmogenic and anthropogenic origin" is not attributed, which leads it reading as opinion or possible plagerism (Petit et al., 1999, p. 429). Since it is the bases of the work's analysis, it would make sense to give that sentence more concrete foothold in established theory. There is no discussion on this approach's appropriateness or flaws. There is a good discussion on the research team's reason for limiting the data set but not the impact of that limitation. There is no review of further research questions. It reads as a set of scientists too worried about analysis and not with synthesis. The work is biased to its approach and thusly flawed in its presentation.