Why are infrastructure engineers so busy? Can it be changed?

"Sounds great, I'm sure I could be more effective and efficient, but I haven't any time at the moment." If others would change the ways they work I wouldn't be so busy. Plus there is less time to do all the IT projects as we have to attend internal training on networking, governance, security, HR policy, etc. - which I'm forced to do."

In a normal year, how much time does an infrastructure engineer actually have to deal with technical issues, compared to the coordination and communication issues which collaborative working needs for projects? Could it be any different?

This becomes a common conversation point I have when working with infrastructure engineering teams to supply software and skills to become more productive. Money, business need and solution are understood and agreed, but the effort in changing processes, learning new tools and optimising work methods won't work unless the IT experts and their managers (who set priorities) engage with the project. They must dedicate time to ultimately save time.

IT infrastructure documentation shows the real maturity of how complex infrastructure is managed.

The complexity of IT components and systems is continually escalating, making it uncommon for a single individual to possess comprehensive knowledge or implement modifications without the collaboration of colleagues or suppliers. Requests for information and decisions are often left in the inboxes of other experts who are too busy themselves to respond. Getting a virtual server created and installed on a VMware platform can take anything from a few minutes to over 8 months. Why 8 months? - business case signoff, solutions design, cyber signoff, work order to contractor, contractor was replaced, testbed software install, change form, migrate to production, verify build and backup working, update system admin procedures, etc.

Rather than walk through treacle, these control steps might be bypassed or avoided when much could be automated by workflow - but that involves cost and defined processes. It was frustrating for me, but more so for the internal project manager having to explain to his bosses why my AssetGen software bought 8 months ago wasn't yet delivering benefit. At least the payment process was predictable and was within the 30 day SLA. So the organisation had an IT department that could develop workflow systems handling complex procurement processes, but not improve simple IT project tasks?

Technical specialists require their management to proactively streamline work methods and interfaces. This newsletters' Visio corner at the end shows a method of mapping project tasks to documentation, enabling visibility and impacts to help management focus on where change could be beneficial. Managing infrastructure will perpetually pose challenges due to the need to balance evolving business requirements, technology and people - as well as coping with faults and external changes. If you look at current IT infrastructure documentation, you will quickly see evidence of the maturity of infrastructure management. When it doesn't exist then expect more engineering workload!

Dave's Pet Peeves

It's common sense to learn from others with more experience - it saves time and avoids mistakes.

But in IT we find often people are reluctant to change their ways and adopt new methods. My pet peeve this time is seeing the same ineffective method is being repeated, because some are set in their ways and can't see why change is important. But change is possible, if you set your mind on achieving it.

For instance, I learnt to build an electric guitar in 10 days with a starting woodworking knowledge of splitting logs with an axe. The luthier Mark Bailey running the guitar workshop explained the build sequence, covered the different tools that would be used and was on hand when I needed guidance. End result? A shiny custom guitar, made with special bits of wood and top end components. Self learning from books, YouTube and blogs wouldn't have worked as there were so many options and conflicting decisions to be made. I didn't want to undergo years of experience before I made a guitar, I only had 10 days. So I achieved my new guitar goal and acquired a few new skills by learning from a specialist.

The moral of this story is that getting an end result with complex IT systems and management processes is easier, if additional knowledge and experience is acquired or provided as a resource. You don't have to be an expert if you have others around you, to share knowledge and maybe even take what you find difficult off your task list. We ask lawyers for legal advice, doctors for a medical diagnosis, though we still make the decisions. Continual education is a feature of most IT specialists, but there are limits on how to apply knowledge, so bring in a specialist to help you get there quicker without mistakes, especially where process changes are involved.

Speaking of continual education, I will be running a webinar next month covering the exact topic of Mapping IT Projects & Tasks To Information Sets. You can find more information at the bottom of this article.

Visio Corner

A good first step to saving time is identifying where existing engineering time is being wasted. For instance, look at a common IT project lifecycle and map the steps required in that process to complete it in Visio. I have done this for installing a generic physical server, where I separated the main phases; requirements, assessment, design,? implementation and post-implementation. Then broke them down into the individual tasks, so we can identify the team and time involved as part the project lifecycle. It quickly becomes clear how engineering time can be wasted due to delays in communication.

In the above screenshot, I have focused on just the design phase of the process life cycle. You can see that the task “Create final low level design document” in red is dependant on many other tasks, ranging from allocating existing space or ports to determining various requirements for the hardware. All these tasks will depend on availability and accuracy of existing documents and information sets.

I’ve placed a few examples along the bottom that cover design guidelines, equipment specs, port allocations, fibre connectivity, rack layouts, power capacity, etc. Focusing on just the information set “Rack Layouts”, it is clear that many of these tasks would be hindered if there was no rack layout available - not just the final design document. If you ask for any information and it takes a day or more for someone to respond, a task is going to be delayed. It could be worse, you may have to do a site survey to understand and produce a rack layout just for your project - more delay! ?I have expanded this mapping method in my diagram in the following screenshot to show the bigger picture.

It is evident that even seemingly straightforward tasks such as setting up a physical server can become complex, and the consequences can be significant if the necessary information does not exist or is deemed unreliable. Maintaining this many information sets is a lot of work in itself, which is why it makes sense to integrate data where possible. For example, an inventory list may help support a rack layout diagram, so that it can serve multiple tasks needs. Another benefit of this mapping, is that I can now request updates to essential information sets before I start the design phase. An information set with many to tasks could be the biggest timewaster (or time saver) to a project.

To create the mapping, I used our AssetGen SysMap database to link tasks with information sets and dependencies, so that we could automatically produce and refresh Visio diagrams for different types of project lifecycles. The information sets for decommissioning and migration planning will be different, so as you build up awareness you quickly see critical areas to address that will directly save engineering time.

Upcoming Events - 2024

March 21st – Free Webinar, Visio Tips and Tricks - Part 2 Data Centres Details & Registration 13:00 UK 08:00 US EDT

April 18th – Free Webinar, Mapping IT Projects & Tasks To Information Sets Details & Registration 13:00 UK 08:00 US EDT

I hope you enjoyed this edition of this newsletter, make sure you subscribe by clicking the button at the top of the page to keep updated on future articles and events.