What is it like to be a first time Configuration Manager in a medium to large sized company

For those that have followed my blog over the last two years then you know that I am new to Service Mgt and indeed Configuration Mgt working on a CMDB pretty much from scratch.  Well, since my last post I can say that our CMDB is now live. Oh, before I forget for those that don't know CMDB = Configuration Management Database.  This blog is a an update on that and what challenges I continue to face and struggles with a tool which seems pretty cool and powerful, but with a desire to try and curtail my technical strengths and urges to spend hours/days/weeks trying to work out how to resolve a single problem and find a better way of doing something.  I guess thats the 17 or so years of being a UNIX Admin coming out.

Anyway, moving onwards.  We went live on the 27th of September 2014 on a Saturday.  It was all planned over several months.  Testing, re-testing, more testing, countless discussions with the vendor on what other companies are doing, what best practice is etc.. Trying to take into account what particular groups would want to see. That is, what would the network guys want ? what would the wintel teams see as useful ? Service Desk ? Midrange & Storage ?.  What do we do with the old legacy CMDB data which was downright awful - duplicates, triplicates, incorrect data.  How do I appease everyone ? How do I get everyone to come to the table to review and discuss their needs.  Heck, lots of questions right ???? If I said that I didn't have the answers for 50% of them but we still went live what would you say ?. We still pushed through thinking that whatever we get is a damn sight better than what we had.  Besides, as I like to call this CMDB, It's DYNAMIC ! Yep, it's not set in stone, I learn, I update the CMDB as we go along. I believe this term in Service Mgt is called "Continuous Service Improvement". ( Oh before I forget I am now ITIL Foundations Certified. )

So where are we today, 4 months after go live.  We have over 235K Configuration Items, we are starting to create some custom tables and apps for reporting purposes.  Audit history, SSL Certificate Tracking.  We have had 2 updates to our CMDB to improve certain functionalities and will have a few more over the next few months. Taking some additional time to discover and map storage devices - SAN, VTL, NAS heads.  Spending time on Business Services and mapping them to infrastructure components.  It's a massive task and will take some time still to become the source of truth.  It's even more challenging that I can safely say that I could quite easily spend 12 months working on this full time and still will not be satisfied. From what I am seeing it needs constant love, massaging - no, not porn like, but technical love and care.  Spending more time with tech teams to do more troubleshooting, more time with vendors and reading forums to determine best way to do things.

One of the things about a CMDB is the pretty pictures it produces :-)

Stay in touch ! Will keep you posted on this Service Management Journey of mine as an Ex UNIX Admin.

Cheers
Chris - the Certified ITIL Foundations man !

Life in Service Management as an ex-unix admin........

Well, where do I start.......
My title.."Configuration & Change Manager".

What am I doing ?
Well, I am one of two custodians in Change Management.  I run the CAB - Change Advisory Board, and TCAB - Technical Change Advisory Board.  I must say it's quite a pleasant change ( pardon the pun ) to sit on the other side of the desk when it comes to CAB.  So many times I have been grilled regarding my production changes - have I thought of this, have I thought of that, have you tested this....etc..etc..etc...It puts quite a different perspective on things and I beleive has made me more aware of "business services" in terms of implications of failed changes and incidents - ie. a broader overview of things.

My primary focus however is in Configuration Management. WTF ???? Yea, I know.  I've come into this role blind but have learnt heaps along the way with talking to people, ITIL user groups, forums etc.. We are coming from a really low base, so the opportunity to create and build the CMDB is pretty exciting and a massive learning curve.  The graphic on the right pretty much sums up my day outside of telling people to give me more detail in there production change. This comes back to my life as a unix admin and how my little insular world building a a Solaris cluster and how it fits into the bigger picture. ie. what is the impact of the cluster if it fails ( odd, I know, both nodes in a cluster failing right ? ). But work with me on this. Lets assume a cluster fails, what are the implications ? Which users are impacted ? Which business service is impacted ? Whats the actual $$$ cost to the business ?  The challenge for me is to work out which products impact which business services ie. sales, invoicing etc.  You will be very suprised that not many people know and the people which did know are long gone. It's a work in progress and by the end of it, if it can somehow become the source of truth for all technical teams, service management and the business then I have acheived what many business try to achieve. It's a massive challenge !

I've also come to realise that there are still many technical people that just dont get Service Management, and why we need it !! I just assumed ITIL had been drummed into all of us over the last 10 or so years.  But yet, people with no idea whoare in technical roles still do exist.

All in all I am enjoying Service Management.  It puts into perspective all the things I used to do in a project, on unix systems and how my small contribution as a unix admin actually equates to the bigger picture.  I don't really miss the hands on work, I sit near a bunch of dba's which are always asking me scripting, unix type questions. I still tinker at home so still get my technical fix in other ways.

Anyway, will keep ya'all posted on the CMDB. Hope you guys enjoy my raving rant !

It's been a while......

So, thought I would provide an update as to what has been happening.  The good news is that the unemployed IT Worker is no longer unemployed.  A UNIX contracting role was found ( via word and mouth ) but also had the opportunity within the same organisation to move out of a hands on technical role and into a more Service Management role.  Let's face it, hands on techo roles in this country are becoming less and less with the ability to support systems offshore, and cheaper labour.  I've been in Service Management now approx 6 months. It's a great role, and a pleasant change from sitting on data center floors trying to bring up a server, working out why the serial cable isnt working, why I can't get console access, labels falling off servers etc.etc..etc...

How many times have we all been in this position. Data Centers, bloody fans, air con units.

Thanks for everyones support. Will keep everyone posted on the Service Management journey.

Day 8......same :-O

As the title suggests....
Had a full on day on Tuesday, gee, it almost felt like a work day, got my stuff ready the night before, caught public transport into the CBD with all the currently employed commuters. It almost felt normal.  So why did I go into town ? Well, had 3 meetings with agencies, of which one had a job to put me up for ( which I'm still waiting to hear back on ), and the other two were more of a meet and greet.  It''s still grim, and I'm hearing stories from people that have been out of work since Christmas etc..etc...I'm applying for a diverse range of roles now, whatever comes up, irrespective of whether I have the skill sets or not.  Maybe someone will feel some compasion for me.  In additional to run further salt into the wounds were these two articles. How frustrating that these have only come to public attention now.  Anyone working in the industry in the last 10 years would be able to tell stories about what was going on here...

Gillard slams IT industry for 457 visa abuse

457 visas shouldn't be first option: govt

Day 3 and still no job

So its now day 3, and still no luck.  Not for a want of trying however, there are just no jobs, I guess it's a case of wrong place, wrong time.  I've been checking seek.com.au daily - multiple times, Telstra Career Website - multiple time, pinging colleagues on Google Chat to see if anything has come up.  So where to from here ? Well, I've taken the step and am now looking for work in Canberra.  It's closer enough to Melbourne to come back on weekends, and not a bad spot - nice and quite.  I'll discuss with the missus tonight what she thinks about me working in another state, but hey, if it pays the bills then it's a small sacrifice ( or large one ) to make.

Once I received the news, I made the customary calls out to past colleagues, managers etc.  Unfortunately, it's been a case of "there is nothing at the moment", or "we're just waiting on some big deals to close and we'll call you when they come through"  I've had a couple of meet and greets, and they have been all positive to date, but again, its the same old story, when something comes up we'll let you know. Despite all this I've remained positive and upbeat.

My name is Chris, and live in Australia's 2nd biggest city Melbourne.  I've been a UNIX sysadmin specialising namely in Solaris Admin work all my working life of 17 years, and have been in constant employment.  I've worked at vendors, and at customer sites so have experience in both camps, as well as working on salary and contract.

Late last year at my then current place of employment we were told that the bank I worked for ( which last year made a  6 Billion dollar profit ) decided that they were going to form a "strategic alliance" ( otherwise known as outsourcing - although we cant refer to this is outsourcing ! ) with a company based in India.  This company was going to do the work of many people more efficiently and we were even told by senior management its because Australia hasn't got the skill sets to complete the work in a timely fashion and that our "strategic partner" were going to achieve this.  Naturally, as workers we all knew what this meant despite the bank trying to convince us otherwise.

A few months went past wondering when we would get that tap on the shoulder to say thanks for your efforts, but now its time to get the "strategic partner" with all the skills missing in Australia to come in, and show us how to deliver on time !  Well....This happened to me a few weeks ago.  Despite many and ongoing efforts by the project/people I worked with to keep me there was no such joy. We/they were told "it's a numbers game, No need to keep us anymore, our "strategic partner" will provide everything and even more" Heck, they have the skills right ?

This is not a story about corporate greed, although could be interpreted as that, it's a story of a 42 year old family man with a wife and two young kids documenting a journey a finding a job in I.T to suit my skill sets.

Hey, I've got free time on my hands so I may as well blog right..

Just saying...