Suggestions: Open Source Change/Configuration/Project Management Solutions

Looking for comments, suggestions, links to existing (current and up to date preferred) implementations of these types of projects which exist in the open source world.

Some new Glest Screenshots

I thought I would post some screenshots while I was playing Glest. Although there is still much to do with the development of this game, it is by far one of the best free 3D Multi-Player RTS games I have found to date.

New Secret Project

Well, I guess it isn't so much of a secret if you start blogging about it. If you have read any of my other posts below regarding management, goals/objectives, change/configuration as well as charting, you will now have some clue as to what my new project is.

The domain is registered, the preliminary scope statement is almost finished. It will be released under the BSD license (although I may reconsider that). I will likely either host the source via sourceforge or google (I'm still thinking about which would be best).

I should be able to release the full details in about a week and a half after I have had input from some friends, colleagues and mentors (That means you Bruno).

Update: 12/30/2007

I've started contacting people to review and advise based upon what I've written up so far. After I have their input and make appropriate changes/additions I'll be making at least a somewhat more public announcement.

Google releases Chart API

In what is probably one of the most fantastic tools Google has released to date, is the new Chart API. This is a simple URL based format for generating all different sorts of graphs (pie, line, dot, you name it).

Users are limited to 50,000 requests per day (so says google, no word on if a pay version exists). Even with that limitation this is an awesome tool for developers and management to easily generate graphs in web based applications.

I foresee many uses in my upcoming projects.

Change / Configuration Management

I was giving some thought to my earlier post about Metrics for IT Management, part of which included a brief discussion of Change/Configuration management. I went looking around to see what existed in the OSS world for such a package. The majority of what I came up with dealt specifically and only with software development.

This started me thinking that either I was looking in the wrong places (freshmeat, sourceforge, google) - The best that I came up with being able to find was OpenQRM which seemed focused very much on datacenter usage. While it provides a huge selection of a very useful tools, only one screenshot I saw listed "Reports".

So, now I'm considering a project which is built around the more management (.sic PHB) side of change/configuration management, reporting and metrics which can be used as a business tool vs. something which is more an administrative tool. Ideally I would like something which not only satisfies making managers and employees lives easier but can also be used for a PMIS level solution.

There is only one way I know of to approach thinking about such a project and that is over a decent bottle of scotch and gathering up some friends to talk about it.

Comments are freely accepted if you are interested or have relevant input.

Glest - Multi-platform Multi-player 3D RTS

I was trolling through some random blog (I forget who, else I would give credit) and came across a link to Glest
which purported to be a multi-platform, multi-player RTS.

We all need distractions at times and amusements, so I figured I would give it a shot. The first attempt at compiling it from the soureforge provided zip files failed miserably. Small issues like having to convert conf files with dos2unix, satisfying dependencies, etc.. so I chose the alternate route and grabbed the svn provided trunk. I still needed to fuss around a bit, automake needed to be version 1.7 (Ubuntu 7.10) and install dev portions of certain libraries.

This was considerably easier, it compiled per the instructions and loaded up just fine (after I set it to windowed mode). There are still some key issues with the linux variant, the "Start Game" and "Join Game" options don't work - they issue errors if you are watching your terminal. The good thing was you can play the multitude of AI scenarios which are provided.

Overall, it seems like a good distraction, although I could definitely see some need for improvements. Units attacking, auto-actions, etc but overall if development continues it will be an awesome game.

An update, thankfully someone on the forums (hailstorm) pointed me to this site which offers a fix for the "Start Game" option. You can find the information at http://hailstone3.truefreehost.com/?tag=compile

Metrics for IT Management

We all know of our basic type of metrics (say uptime/downtime, traffic in/out) and from there we branch into looking at what ITIL provides (such as say, change management). When you go looking for software to monitor/measure/report or god forbid quantify these, you come up with either Cognos or Accenture. Now, not to shove a stick in the big players eyes (and not to say they don't offer good products), what does the little guy do? The manager who has 5-8 staff and an ever growing room of equipment.

As managers, we should have a keen insight not only into the health of our little patch but also to what changes are coming up and what kind of issues we are facing. In many cases, they are easy to identify but they aren't so easy to quantify, in fact most of the managers I have met in these positions know exactly what is happening - they also know that gathering that data into anything which the PHB's will understand is sometimes a task of no insignificant effort.

Graphs, for the most part are dime a dozen, anyone with a basic understanding of RRdtool and associated higher level software (nagios, mrtg, etc.) knows that the information exists and to some extent is already quantified. Part of the problem is that information isn't unified, the PHB's are going to glaze over if you have them look at 200 individual uptime/availability graphs - they just want to be able to say "our systems have 5 9's of reliability and availability" followed by a string of buzzwords they barely understand.

This is all well and good, but those graphs forget about one very key aspect of IT and IT Management - the PEOPLE. Those systems don't install themselves, they don't operate in autonomous vacuums and they sure as hell don't fix themselves when the fecal matter hits the oscillating bladed cooling device. This is a fact which tends to get forgotten once you get past the manager level - it only get remembered when budget time comes around the CTPHB has to protect his patch of the organization. Then and in almost every case I've seen only then, does the need suddenly appear on the collective doorstep saying "I need this information by next Tuesday".

Change Management will tell you when changes occurred, why they occurred, were they successful, the approximate time estimate. Human Resources might be able to tell you the amount of overtime that was accrued for your team (that is if you work in a company which is kind enough to give overtime to IT employees or time off in lieu - side note HAHAHAHAHAHA). If we have learned anything, getting information from other departments is usually an exercise in frustration and when we do get that information, it tends to be in a format which is as useful as a one armed man paddling a canoe.

So, what do you do if you aren't lucky enough to hae Cognos/Accenture/Remedy at hand and an HR department that isn't bent on world domination through hot cocoa samplers? Well, it's a damn good question, one which I'm really only starting to look into. The simplest thing we as managers can do is record the activities, could be excel, could be a trivially whipped php/mysql db. The second part of that is presentation, if everything is running fine, great, if there are areas where you need resources, then now you have easy concise graphs even the most basic poo flinging PHB monkey can understand.

Normal Work Hours + Department Request (Pie Chart)
- by department
- by employee/resource
Extended Work Hours + Departmental Request (Pie Chart)
- by department
- by employee/resource
Project Work Hours + Proejct Request (Pie Chart)
- by project
- by employee/resource
Resolution Work Hours + Issue
- by system
- by department
- by employee/resource
Unified System Health Histogram (supported by break-out graphs as required)
- by year
- by quarter
- health issues coded to system and or department
- by cause
Usage Histogram
- by service (internal nework, external nework, systems)
Tickets In Start / Tickets Out End Histogram
- min / median / max
- by department
- by system
- by year
- by quarter

Now, there will be those who argue that ITIL provides for all of these things. If you don't have ITIL training or as a group nobody has it, then it becomes a bit of a different story. It's an even bigger story about actually integrating ITIL into an organization.

At the end of the day, we want to showthe organization the value we bring to it and the value we bring to the departments. We also want to show where we need resources to make sure everyone else achieves the organizational goals.

Just think of it this way, a picture is worth a thousand words and as PHB's have a limited vocabulary, well, you see where I'm going.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

I came across this from slashdot that Intel (as well as others such as Cisco) had recently released patches to allow linux to support Fibre Channel over Ethernet. You can find the direct page at http://open-fcoe.org with additional information.

Currently it looks like there is some required patching as it isn't in the official tree yet. This is however a significant advance as it would allow even the home user (granted, the power home user) to setup an FC based system for whatever they are doing.

I'm really hoping I get a chance to play with this if I can get the older machines here all playing nicely together. I'd also like to hear about other peoples experience with it.

A word on goals, objectives and tasks

Goals come first, they represent what the organization wishes to achieve, they reflect the history, values, politics, beliefs of the organization.

Objectives are the second part, they are the steps and milestones which lead to the completion of the organizations goals.

Tasks are the lowest level, they represent the individual or group work requirements which are required to reach the objectvies and in turn the organizational goals.

Think of it in terms of a battle plan, the general says "We need to take that hill". That is the goal.

The objectives being "Take the bridge", "Secure the base", "Attack and take the summit".

The tasks are the specific units assigned to each of the objectives, the directions and information they need to know to accomplish the objectives.

An Introduction to Strategic Planning

This is just one of those huge but often overlooked, under developed areas of business. It is something in my opinion so easy to articulate, so trivial to define and yet so often horribly done by those who seem to control the direction.

I recently had a conversation with a potential business opportunity, after the initial greeting and basic background introductions, of which there was a lot of cross-over and industry knowledge, it was time to get into the business of asking what are sometimes the tough questions - what is it you want to do, what are you objectives and more importantly what are the strategic/tactical obstacles. When I say tough, they are often weakly defined and much of what is there, is in people's head - they forget that while they may have the greatest ideas, excellent opportunities, they don't get written down in clear, concise language which is easily understood by everyone from the C levels down to the front-line. That disconnect is the downfall, it becomes the telephone game all over again.

For example, I often see "To be the market leader in X product or Y service" - but then a failure to define what is meant by market leadership - is it by customer volume?, product/service features?, market share?, service & support? All too often that scope gets put down to "All of the above". The problem with that is age old - resources. To be clear, many organizations do get it right and do have the resources to do all of the above (say for instance, Google) - but we aren't all the big G.

So what do you do if you aren't the big G? it means choices, planning and the ability to adapt to, at least in technology, rapidly changing landscapes. The most important thing - LISTEN, to your customers, to your staff (that means all of them, from the janitor up to the CEO). To many times I've seen someone on the front-line nail an issue right on the head, express it and get shot down or worse, ignored completely.

At least in technology, it is there to bring about, build, increment, support and exceed the strategic business goals/objectives. All to often I see the reverse, a focus on the business supporting the technology to meet it's objectives. That may seem a bit counter-intuitive, give it some thought.

Information Technology should be a profit center, arguably one could say that all departments should be profit centers. That just isn't the case in many organizations these days, consequently, those departments tend to suffer negatively through various means, not the least as being seen as something that costs the company money rather than generates revenue.

Next up on this list is honest evaluation and honest communication, today's organizations have taken on this double speak, too afraid of hurting peoples feelings or losing resources because they feel they have failed. Dead wood is dead wood and unless you are running a firewood supply warehouse, it isn't doing a lot for you other than costing time & money. I'm not saying you have to be mean or without feeling, I am saying if you can't directly communicate problems or deficiencies in an honest manner, you are doing a disservice to yourself and your organization.

So lets jump back into the actual topic here, Strategic Planning;

1. Know what you want to do, what is it that is core to your business and what is it that will be core?

2. Write these down and assign timeframes, are these for the year? the quarter?

3. Evaluate, are the objectives/goals reasonable? are they achievable? do you have the required resources?

4. In what order do these objectives/goals need to happen? can they overlap? do they inter-relate?

5. For each objective, goal, elaborate, have your team elaborate, what do you need to accomplish these? time? resources? what tactical / team level things need to happen?

6. Re-evaluate based upon the input you have received, remember, the greatest resource you have are your people, from the bottom to the top - that means you senior management, don't just talk to your managers, go talk to those front-liners - openly, honestly and LISTEN.

7. The contigency. Know what happens *if* X happens or *Y* does not succeed, incorporate this into the plan.

8. Know thine enemy, both internally and externally. Incorporate this, if an attitude or a performance issue must be addressed, acknowledge it honestly and openly and how it will be dealt with. Externally, always be three steps ahead of your competitor (easier said than done though).

9. Plan. Everything above has given you the knowledge to do the right thing, to not only understand where you are but where you want to be. I can't stress enough that having people understand project management will do no end of good for your organization. That includes the front-line, give them a two day course, whatever you can manage - the more they know how things are going to happen, the more comfortable they will be with change and the better they will work.

10. Formalize. From the top-level to the bottom,when people can read a well defined plan, that acknowledges not only the objectives/goals but acknowledges there part in it, they are more likely to buy into it.

11. Publicize it or at least the relevant salient portions - put the spirit back into your organization that motivates your groups to perform at 95%, %100 of the time and puts the everlasting fear of whatever omnipotent diety you believe in into your competition (and don't be afraid of a little subterfuge there).

12. Recognize success openly, by group and by individual. That recognition has to be meaningful to the organization, the group and the individual. If HR wants to only give out some wankstain piece of paper or a pin, put them up against the wall and have them shot, same goes for the hot cocoa sampler. Actions speak louder than words but at the end of the day, money talks.

13. Acknowledge and learn from failure. This is the place for a piece of paper or a pin (both of them pink), in business, failure is not an option - it is a result and that result can be traced in both directions. That may seem callous or even iron fisted, well, nice guys finish last if they finish at all.

I would say that sums it up in a nutshell, some may disagree, some may argue for a more touchy feely approach to business that suits the Gen XYZ that is coming up into the ranks. You are a business, not a babysitter (unless of course your business is babysitting) and a strong work ethic isn't going to kill them.