Error 404--Not Found |
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:10.4.5 404 Not FoundThe server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent. If the server does not wish to make this information available to the client, the status code 403 (Forbidden) can be used instead. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address. |
Do it yourself, advises Andrew Stratford, president of the Communications Managers Association (CMA) and vice president of communications for Congress Financial Corp. in New York. The best way to manage employees is to understand exactly what their jobs entail and to respect them for it. "I treat people with the respect that I expect back, and I get tremendous cooperation in return," he explains.
Note that respect means more than just good manners. It's treating employees' tasks as though they are as important as your own, and the best way to do that is to experience the job first-hand.
"I've been involved in everything - accounts payable, purchasing, installation - no job is too big or too small for me to do myself. Even if someone wants a phone plugged in, I'll do it," Stratford says.
On the other hand, don't confuse a "can-do" attitude with an inability to delegate. As Charles DeGaulle once said, "The graveyards are full of indispensable men." While the best network executives understand every person's job, they don't try to do everyone's job.
Build loyalty by encouraging staff members to learn multiple disciplines, advises Rich Glasberg, director of data communication for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Technology means change. Technical employees know their careers depend on keeping abreast. But the best managers realize that new skills are also a fount of job satisfaction.
"My job is to understand when employees are challenged and when they are not. A lot of people won't tell you when they 're not. The first you hear of it is when they resign. Technology keeps people challenged," Glasberg says.
Training isn't enough. The best managers encourage employees to apply what they 've learned by spearheading new projects.
"Avoid pegging people in a hole and making them work all the time on what they know," he says. It's an easy trap to fall into, giving ever more database projects to the database expert. But instead, let the database expert run, say, a Java project. Not only will most technical employees stay longer if they can continue to learn new tricks, but you 'll also benefit from having a cross-trained staff.
Also, think outside the technical box when challenging employees. Management responsibilities are another motivating source. Encourage staff members to grow business smarts along with technical know-how. This helps create loyalty while giving you more choices for promotions.
Organize your department for today's networked economy, advises Ken McGee, vice president and a research fellow for Gartner Group in Stamford, Conn. "Most organizations are still using a 30- to 40-year-old organizational structure based on voice and data technology silos."
Such an organizational chart resembles a Level 1, 2, 3 hierarchy in which problems are escalated up the chain of command. This is a trap because it forces employees to spend most of their time fighting technical fires. That means new projects take a back seat to keeping the network running. "In this kind of organization, when you ask someone what his biggest complaint is, you hear, ÔI can't work on anything because I'm constantly stopped to help fix stuff,'" McGee says.
While that's been a complaint of network staff since networks were invented, the situation has reached a critical juncture, thanks to e-business. As more businesses rely on the Internet, and consequently the network, for revenue streams and cost-cutting measures, the gauntlet is thrown. Engage in e-business and all the associated cost-benefits, or watch profits trickle away to those who do.
If everyone in your department is on fix-it duty, who is going to develop your electronic commerce systems? Or once those basic systems are installed, who is going to supplement them with new capabilities?
New projects should be equal to maintenance. One good way to do that is to dedicate people to tasks, not technologies. For instance, don't have the same folks that implemented the e-commerce system be responsible for maintenance once it hits production. Rather, have distinct implementation and maintenance teams.
Build relationships with numerous customers, McGee also advises. This is a sharp contrast to a network manager's former role: servicing only internal folks. But next year, "for the first time in history, at least half of the network budget will be spent outside the back office," contends McGee, citing Gartner Group research showing worldwide IT spending climbing to $3.3 trillion by 2002, with e-business spending accounting for 50%. That means networking will no longer revolve around building physical infrastructures; it will focus on e-business.
The best network executives understand that their departments will now support new people, such as customers. A network executive must therefore build direct relationships with customers to determine what their needs are in an e-commerce system and to help formulate e-business recommendations.
"Somebody is going to do this. Why shouldn't it be the network executive giving advice on a networked economy?" McGee asks.
Likewise, e-business also means an increasing number of departments will be using the network for mission-critical work. Whereas the sales staff might have used the network for e-mail, faxing and file/print a year ago, next year it'll be using the net for Web-based sales-force automation applications. The network executive must build tighter relationships with internal customers to make sure the network is supporting their growing needs.
Make documentation a religion, says Deke Kassabian, technical director of IS and computing network engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Preach it from the pulpit. Staple it to doorways. Make sure that no project is signed off until the documentation is complete.
"Having good network diagrams and having documentation on all details of device configuration is hugely important. It can't just be that Bob over there knows how some router is configured," says Kassabian, who is also a Network World Test Alliance Partner.
Granted, this advice is a lot like flossing your teeth. You already know you should do it. Unfortunately, most companies never get around to doing it right or well. So when it comes to a list of best practices, this one can't be overlooked.
Improve your documentation practices by developing guidelines for who does the documentation and how it should look (Visio diagrams? Written descriptions?). Build documentation version-control policies (Who updates configuration changes and when?). Don 't assign people to new projects until the documentation is done. When hiring contract workers, budget some of their hours to be spent on documentation per your policies (even if they groan about it).
Hire consultants only when your staff doesn't have time for a project, not when it doesn't have the necessary skills, says Joel Snyder, senior partner with Opus One, a networking consultant in Tucson, Ariz., and a Network World Test Alliance Partner.
"If you hire a consultant to do the work and you don 't know the technology, you 're not going to know it when the consultant leaves, and you're still going to have to learn it," he says.
Likewise, when a consultant is on-site, schedule a lot of quick update meetings. "When you hire someone to do a 40- to 80-hour contract, so much happens in such a short time," Snyder says.
Also be sure that the consultant is operating from a well-written scope of work. "Most people don 't take the time to properly design what the consultant is to do. Then the project goes on and on with the consultant happily billing all the while," he says.
An effective scope of work details exactly what is to be done, within what time frame, in demonstrable terms. But it's tougher than it sounds. It includes enough precision to create understanding, yet is flexible enough to reflect changes mandated by Murphy's Law.
Have two or three primary vendors - no more, no less, Kassabian advises. "Vendor relationships are difficult and time-consuming. Don't have too many of them," he says. At the same time, multiple vendors are a necessity because "end-to-end promises" are still a fantasy.
True, on occasion you'll be compelled to buy a great new product. But when it comes to the building blocks of your network - routers, switches, remote access devices - stick with a select group of vendors, Kassabian says. Put pressure on those companies to keep up with new features, rather than buying products from too many vendors.
Limiting vendors has a great trickle effect: It narrows the number of products you must test. Why put a product through its paces if it doesn't come from - or work with - products from your primary vendors?
Don't test products from young vendors. Have your staff research them, Kassabian adds. For those cool new products that seem to solve your biggest problems, do a lot of "paper research" first, he advises.
Ignore marketing materials, such as brochures, press releases and white papers. Read the manual and the specification sheets. If the product claims to support a specific protocol, have one of your network engineers brush up on the protocol, then talk to the product 's engineer to determine exactly how the product complies. When reading product reviews from the media, download the tester's notes and study them. Under what conditions did the tester get those results?
Paper research will eliminate your interest in 95% of the new products out there, leaving only a handful to test each year, Kassabian says.
The exceptions are leading products in emerging categories. Have your staff get hands-on experience with these products routinely so that they understand the technology as it evolves. When products are ready for trial runs, your people will be, too.
And should a product from a new vendor pass paper muster, don't march it directly to your test lab. Call the vendor in to do that, Glasberg adds. This serves three functions. First, it helps prove the product works in your environment. Second, the vendor spends its resources implementing the test, and that should reduce the time necessary for testing because of the vendor 's familiarity with the product. Third, you can more easily document a correct implementation.
Learn a wider variety of budgeting techniques, particularly zero-based budgeting, advises Richard Heally, president of CLEC Rockefeller Group Telecommunications Services in New York, and CMA board member.
Zero-based budgeting justifies costs as if they were to be expended for the first time, rather than as percentage increases over a previous budget. It begins by prioritizing expenditures. For example, a $1.2 million line item for the Gigabit backbone may be ranked as a higher priority than other expenditures. With the zero-based budget, every penny in that $1.2 million is represented, along with a cost/benefit justification. If money gets tight, this budget shows what gets cut and what doesn't.
Zero-based budgets force you to describe the value of your department in terms non-technology people can understand, Heally says. As torturous as it seems to justify repeatedly every penny you spend, mastering this technique makes the purse-holders understand the network bang for the buck.
The same applies to several other budgeting practices in vogue. These include activity-based budgeting and rolling forecasts. Ultimately, these financial tools help you better document needs.
Incorporate lateral moves into your career, Heally also advises. If technology is all you 've ever done, you may be climbing toward the proverbial glass ceiling. "If you want to learn about a business, you've got to learn each function. It is possible to work strategically in various departments," he says. Nothing will help you understand revenue better than working in the billing department, for instance.
If lateral moves don't seem like a direct route to a presidency, that's because they aren't, Heally asserts. "If you're willing to make your career an experience instead of a climb, you 'll do better. Climbing is an illusion. The ladder is an illusion. Learning the various aspects of how a business runs is better experience than getting a series of 'management assignments.'"
