Disaster Preparedness - The Practice of Cloud System Administration - page 310

The MoD can give hints about how to fix the problem only after sufficient guessing or if
the contestant has reached a dead end. Eventually either the contestant takes the issue to
resolution or the MoD explains how it should be solved.
The MoD usually begins by saying an alert has been received from the monitoring sys-
tem and identifying what the message is. The contestant might respond by saying which
dashboard or log should be checked. The MoD explains what is seen on the dashboard or
in the logs. This back and forth continues as the contestant first tries to determine what the
problem is, then talks through the steps to fix the problem. It can help a lot if the MoD has
prepared screenshots (real or fake) that he or she can pull out and show the contestant, if/
when the contestant asks the right questions. These might be screenshots from an actual
incident or something prepared from scratch. Either way, they add a lot of realism to the
exercise.
Some teams have a “no laptops” rule when playing Wheel of Misfortune. Contestants
aren't allowed to use a laptop directly to check dashboards and such, but rather must de-
scribe what they want to look at or do to one of their teammates, who drives a laptop and
projects the result onto the shared screen for everybody else to see. This forces contest-
ants to be explicit about what they're doing and why. It serves to expose the contestants'
thought processes to the rest of the audience.
Ifthecontestant isnew,basicscenariosshouldbeused:themostcommonalertsandthe
most typical solutions. More advanced contestants should get scenarios that involve more
nuancedproblemssothattheaudiencecanlearn.Thegoalshouldneverbetotrickthecon-
testant or to provide a no-win, or Kobayashi Maru, situation. The goal of the MoD is to
educate workers, not to “win” by defeating the opponent.
To keep it fun, teams can add game show theatrics, starting the session by playing a
theme song or spinning a wheel to select the next situation or just for effect.
Noscoreorpointsaretallied,becauseWheelofMisfortuneispurelyatrainingexercise.
The team leader or manager should observe the game as a way to identify which members
should be given additional coaching. There is no need to embarrass individuals; the sug-
gestion that they get more coaching should be made in private. On the positive side, the
game is also a way to identify which team members have strong troubleshooting skills that
can be nurtured and perhaps used to help others develop their own.
The game should be played more frequently when the group is adding new people or
technology, and less frequently when things are static. By turning the educational process
into a game, people have an incentive to want to play. The game keeps the process fun and
involves the entire team.