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First thing you need to learn is that sysadmin is about people, not technology If youre a sysadmin so you dont have to deal with people, youre in the wrong business

People need computers to do their jobs If there were no people, the company wouldnt need computers If the company didnt have any computers, they wouldnt need a sysadmin!

Everything a SysAdmin does must have a business reason behind it Like meet an SLA, conform to a regulation, etc. The gear isnt there for you to do cool stuff with If theres no business case for doing something, dont do it

Given that, lets talk – briefly! – about hard skills You know, commands and technology and stuff

Well, OK, you need these skills But which ones you need are specific to your domain of expertise And you can probably guess which ones you should learn And Im betting you can teach yourself the ones you dont already know

Unlike hard skills, this is something you need to learn And something you may not already know

Ability to look at the big picture Figure out requirements Make a plan Evaluate the results Big Picture Applies to existing systems as well as new stuff

Speaking about designing stuff …

From Agile / Extreme Programming Met the requirements and no more Yes, economy of scale and growth But those should be in the requirements Again, anything more and youre wasting time / money

Also, unless youre very good at predicting the future, the product (service, business, whatever) will change in the not-to-distant future and not only wont that feature you wanted to put in now be needed, some of the stuff thats actually in the current spec will need to be thrown out

So again, just whats in the spec and no more

Getting back to people …

If people dont want to ask for help – either because you scare them or youre unpleasant to deal with – you have failed Yes, you have to stay within policy But the goal is yes, not just say no Dont be pedantic

Part of this is giving the answer that is most helpful to the user, in terms the user will understand Dont be pedantic Dont answer with dont do that

Show respect for users Its not their job to know about computers If they knew about computers, the company wouldnt need you So stop saying rude things about them because they dont know as much about computers as you do

Your users are not stupid Really, theyre not Heres something that happened to me that illustrates that …

My wife uses a Mac I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Theyre different in ways not obvious to us On vacation, she asked to use my ThinkPad

How do I open it?

How do I turn it on?

Which button clicks the mouse?

Boy, is she dumb!

Um, no MS in biomedical engineering At least one patent Got bored with engineering, became a doctor Probably smarter than I am

She has ~7,500 hours experience using a computer

I have ~120,000 hours experience

Thats a factor of 16

16! Thats a lot! Most sysadmins forget how big a gap that is

Stop whining about Windows Its pretty much the standard in the business world Get over it Better yet, accept it Whining just annoys your boss Reinforces his/her belief that you have a bad attitude

(And if youre whining about Windows, you do have a bad attitude!) Learn to use Windows desktop Learn common Office apps Learn Outlook If thats what your boss uses for meetings, you use it, too!

The point isnt security The point isnt about making sense Its about complying with legal requirements Which means staying in business You dont have to like it You do have to help implement it Ideally help improve it

Process – if done correctly – helps things Learn how to assess process and effectiveness Learn how to change process to improve effectiveness

Change management – again, if done well – prevents mistakes Mistakes cost money Again, learn how to improve the process so stops hindering and starts helping And do it without whining

Specifically...

His/her job is to manage people / projects, not be a sysadmin Learn to accept this Learn to get help from other people Conferences, IRC, mailing lists, etc.

If theres a problem, dont bash them, go help them fix it! Probably not their fault And theyre not dumb! Ops stuff doesnt usually make it into the spec Devs can only code whats in the spec

Summary: Stop whining!

Thats All, Folks Any questions?

After Today … More questions? Thank you!