> Does anyone have a set of metrics that they use to "measure" the work of a > sysadmin team > that they like?
I'm a *big* fan of customer satisfaction. Ask the customers how the team is working with them. Listen to what the customers value and form metrics or data points around that. When we did things right at $WORK, one of the elements was a periodic "pizza lunch" with the customers. The boss would ask what we were doing right, and what we could improve. It's best if the team is not present when that gets asked, so that honest feedback is given. The boss was a good advocate so she usually started the meeting by asking what were the complicated things we'd helped with. She would also ask if we would visit when things weren't broken, and what we had done to improve efficiency. That get's the mindset away from just thinking in terms of repair work, and into thinking about how the team was contributing to productivity. >Do they have metrics that they don't like? Why? I've never been a fan of ticket metrics. They can be gamed, but worse, it creates a premise that the team is limited to certain services, and they won't get rewarded for any extra effort beyond that (e.g., "hey, I think I've found a way to make your 10 day simulation much faster ...."). If all that gets valued is repair work, people adjust to meet that. Tom also mentioned asking how the boss gets measured. I'd extend that to ask the customers how they get measured. That can shift priorities in the right way. For example, let's say meeting a "ship it!" deadline is everything to them. So yeah, if that means e.g., you agree to postpone some paperwork until the day after the deadline, they will remember where your focus was at. It's good to be vocal/communicative, and let your customer know you are conscious of their needs (e.g., "we know your tape out deadline is the 21st, so we are postponing our patch effort until the 23rd. If your date changes, please let us know and we'll adjust, as our own deadline is the 25th."). Non IT Managers like getting reports that say things like, "The IT dept. moved their patch day so that we could meet our deadline". _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lopsa.org http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
