Can we talk? Without sounding like a gaggle of geeks at a trade show, at
least long enough to realize what a golden opportunity this could be?
- Vince is being asked to showcase his stuff, rather than having to defend
/ justify himself on the basis of someone else's expectations.
- The suits are not going to be impressed with the kinds of number
crunching this thread is kicking around; rather, are the customers getting
excellent service. Here's what we try to provide in terms of
service-level-agreements (SLA). all of which are suitable for the green /
yellow / red light approach.
- Are the systems / RDBMS up as scheduled? Or, are unscheduled outages /
interruptions occurring some percent of time?
- Are the customers (internal or otherwise) getting a callback and/or
resolution within x number of minutes? How does that compare with their
expectations?
- Is the data safe? Green for backups completed; green for recovery tests
successful; green for intruder / security monitoring, etc.
- Are the period's operational expenses at or below budget? Green.
- Are the systems sustainable? Patches / versions / vendor contracts are
kept current: give yourself a green. Still running 7.3.4 or <gasp>
earlier? Not so green. Get their attention.
My two cents, and of course, my opinion and comments do not necessarily
represent those of my employer.
Dave Van Zandt, OCP
ALCOA, Aerospace Products Division
Received on Fri Jul 19 2002 - 00:03:07 CDT
