Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
service's FAQ or other user documentation and then directing the user to that document.
Requests forservice activation, allocations, orconfiguration changesindicate anopportun-
ity to create a web-based portal or API to make such requests obsolete. Any ticket created
by an automated system should have a corresponding playbook entry that explains how to
process it, with a link to the bug ID requesting that the automation be improved to elimin-
ate the need to open such tickets.
At the end of oncall and ticket duty shifts, it is common for the person to email out a
shift report to the entire team. This report should mention any trends noticed and any ad-
vice or status information to be passed on to the next person. The oncall end-of-shift report
should also include a log of which alerts were received and what was done in response.
When you are oncall or doing ticket duty, that is your main project. Other project work
that is accomplished, if any, is a bonus. Management should not expect other projects to
get done, nor should people be penalized for having the proper focus. When people end
their oncall or ticket duty time, they should not complain that they weren't able to get any
project work done; their project, so to speak, was ticket duty.
7.3.2 Other Strategies
There are many other ways to organize the work of a team. The team can rotate though
projects focused on a particular goal or subsystem, it can focus on reducing toil, or special
days can be set aside for reducing technical debt.
Focus or Theme
One can pick a category of issues to focus on for a month or two, changing themes period-
icallyorwhenthecurrentthemeiscomplete.Forexample,atthestartofatheme,anumber
of security-related issues can be selected and everyone commit to focusing on them until
they are complete. Once these items are complete, the next theme begins. Some common
themes include monitoring, a particular service or subservice, or automating a particular
task.
If the team cohesion was low, this can help everyone feel as if they are working as a
team again. It can also enhance productivity: if everyone has familiarized themselves with
the same part of the code base, everyone can do a better job of helping each other.
Introducingathemecanalsoprovideacertainamountofmotivation.Iftheteamislook-
ing forward to the next theme (because it is more interesting, novel, or fun), they will be
motivated to meet the goals of the current theme so they can start the next one.
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