This is tough

Well my Uncle passed away several weeks ago. That's a mother, an uncle and a daughter on the fringe of death all as the toll for 2008. I am still out in jobless land and beginning to see that the system sucks as badly as I suspected.

Have you ever used those job boards? They are pure unadulterated bullshit....have about the same functional value as the wailing wall...gives you a place to go and get it off your chest, but the net affect is you are absolutely no better off for the experience. I think I am going to plan a test, because I am pretty certain nobody even looks at these things.

You fill out inordinate amounts of information, "apply for a position", sometimes receive a computer generated acknowledgment and sometimes not, and the process seems to stop there. If I am correct, nobody even looks at these things. I would like to know of all the applicants how many people have actually received a call back from a company as the result of posting out on these boards. My guess is that the number on a percentage of all who use these boards is actually very small.

We shall see

Some News

I heard from my cousin Shaun today that his dad is very ill and not expected to live much longer. It is moving at how much sadness there has been on a personal level this year. I'm not sure what this all means...if anything, in the cosmic sense. For me though as an individual it is difficult to assimilate. These people that I have known and loved my whole life, the loss of my job, the ugly economy and yada, yada, yada. Where is it all going? I wonder!

Some Interesting Reading

How to Develop an IT Change Management Program

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

"It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things."
Machiavelli (1446-1507)
The purpose of the Change Management Program (CMP) is to assure that the negative impact of changes to a company’s Information Technology system are minimized by using a standardized process of governance. Some changes are not optional. If, for example, the bar code standard is changing, you must adapt; if a tax withholding structure changes, you must have a change. Nevertheless, all changes of this kind are still subject to governance.
It must never be the case that ad-hoc changes are made to the system or to procedures without some oversight. This idea must originate with senior management and be passed down, with no exceptions, to everyone in the company. Without backing at the highest level, the CMP is a useless waste of time and money. With proper backing, this program will save your company from some very costly errors.

Steps

1. Develop a Request for Change (RFC): This may originate from problem management where an issue, or a series of related issues, is identified and a mitigating change is necessary to prevent (or minimize) future effects. The RFC may also originate as a result of a business decision that will require some modification (add, delete, change) to the supporting technology. An RFC may also be necessary due to outside influences (i.e. governmental regulations or changes made by business partners).
   
2. Obtain Business Change Acceptance: The decision to make a change is typically a business decision where costs vs. benefits are weighed. Even in situations where the change is strictly infrastructure oriented (component or system failure) the decision to spend money resides with the business, not with the IT department. There are occasions when procedures are developed in advance to preauthorize changes such as emergency system maintenance, but regardless of the timing of the authorization, the decision still rests with the business management.
   
3. Initiate the Development Project: Development of the change (including testing) is an IT-guided function. In the event of an emergency change (server is down) those functions are typically predetermined. When a new system is to be developed, there is a collaborative effort between the business users and the IT team. The systems are designed by IT, the design is approved by the business partners (users), developed by IT, tested by a combination of IT and the users, and the final product is approved by both. Careful attention must be given to ancillary effects the new change may have on existing systems.
   
4. Pass the Change Management Gate: The Change Advisory Board (CAB) reviews all changes before they can be put into production. Normally, the CAB will consist of a group of people with different perspectives, backgrounds and areas of expertise. Their function is to review the change from a process and governance standpoint to assure that all foreseeable risks have been identified and mitigated, and that compensatory techniques are in place for any elements of exposure (things that could go wrong). The development team and the change sponsor will present the change to the CAB. Evaluation of risk will be the focus. Implementation strategies, communication to affected stakeholders, backout plans and post-implementation monitoring are elements on which the CAB is required to focus. The CAB is not responsible for determining if the change is appropriate – that decision has already been made. The CAB is also not responsible for determining if the change is cost effective. Again, that is strictly a business decision.
   
5. Implement the Change: If the CAB does not approve the change, the reasons are listed (this is always because certain risks have not been mitigated or communications have not been planned) and the development team will be given time to fix those issues and reschedule a meeting before the CAB. If the change is approved, the implementation is scheduled. It is not normally the case that the CAB is represented at implementation although it is possible that some members of the CAB have expertise that is necessary during the implementation, but they will not be present as official CAB representatives, but rather as subject matter experts (SME). How the change is implemented, the checklist and steps, are predefined and were presented to and approved by the CAB. The entire process must be thoroughly documented and the approved process must be precisely followed.
   
6. Report the Results: Either the change was implemented successfully with no issues, the change was implemented with issues that were corrected during implementation, the change was implemented with issues that were deemed acceptable, issues arose that were unacceptable and the change was rolled back, or in the worst case the change was implemented with unacceptable issues and could not be rolled back. Whatever the result, that is documented and returned to the CAB. The CAB is then responsible for distributing that information to the stakeholders and for storing and maintaining those results in the Change Management system (that may either be an automated database or a paper filing system, but the documents must be maintained for audit purposes).
   
7. Link Problem Management to Changes: Issues that arise should be compared to the CAB documentation of changes so any unanticipated adverse effects of a change can be isolated. It is often the case that undesirable effects of a change are not noticed immediately, but are identified by the emergence of problems in ancillary systems. For example, the addition of several fields to a database might not have a direct negative effect on the users but could impact network performance that would be apparent to other users who are not directly involved with the modified system.
   
8. Periodically Audit the CMP: At least once each year an audit of the CMP should be conducted to assure that all change documentation is maintained and available. Every change approval document should be examined to assure that the proper signatures are in place and that the results of the implementation are properly documented.
   

Tips

• Procedures should be subject to Change Management. If there is a change in system backup scheduling, that must go through Change Management. Analyze every change of any kind (system or procedure) to determine if there is any possible risk.
  
• Standard periodic maintenance should be preapproved. If it is a normal process to reboot a server on Sunday morning at 2:00 AM, it is not necessary to submit an RFC each time, but that process must be approved in advance.
  
• Ad-hoc maintenance must adhere to the CMP. Include such things as testing the fire suppression systems, cleaning sub-flooring in the data center, HVAC inspection and testing and even pest control maintenance. Some companies go so far as to require an RFC if a light bulb is changed in the data center (the ladder fell and damaged the network).
  

Warnings

• Politics can often get in the way of the CAB. "This change is required" may be true, but it could also be a personal agenda from one of the executives. The CAB must have ultimate authority to make decisions on implementation.
  
• Rotate CAB members frequently. Always having the same members can lead to favoritism, and it can lead to burnout. You want your CAB to be fresh, pay attention, and not be subject to outside political influences.
  

Related wikiHows

How to Develop a Risk Management Plan
How to Establish an IT Project
How to Use the Decision Making Process
How to Be an Effective Project Manager
How to Conduct a Simulation Analysis
How to Run an Effective Meeting

Citations

International Standards Organization
COBIT
ITIL
Wikipedia Reference

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Develop an IT Change Management Program. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Moving Right Along

In the spirit of things I am beginning to be less angry and to have a more optimistic spin on what the future holds. I realize that much of what I need to do is squarely in my hands and in some ways this unemployment thing could turn out to be a good experience for me. So far nothing horrific has befallen me or my family. Hopefully this will not be the case

Gary

Thursday April 24, 2008

I am struggling. I have never been unemployed and now after many years of doing the "right" thing I am unemployed. I am sad, mad, angry, frightened of the unknown and a whole lot of things that I didn't think would be my experience at this point in my life.

Cut off from the things I loved in my job by a set of circumstances that I still can't figure out for reasons that make no sense. It seems that having lived a life of "doing the right thing" has netted the worst results. I can't and don't pretend to understand why all this happened. But I do know that the traditional bullshit that gets dished out in these situations is just more food for anger. All the "one door closes and another opens", "there are reasons for everything", "god provides" and the rest of the euphemistic vinegar disguised as sweet pablum is just fueling my anger and resentment. Right now, my quick summary is "I hate America and its false promises" for many reasons....."I hate the people that did this to me and I hope that if there is any justice at all that absolutely horrible things befall them and their familes. Nothing is to heinous and no tragedy can be to great for those responsible for putting me in this predicament.

If I still believed in a god I would switch my alligence to his nemesis so that I could orchestrate the planning and eventual destruction of those responsible for putting me in this situation. Unfortunately with no god to answer prayers, it is hard to believe that there is any demon who could consult me in plotting my revenge.

What a waste this life is

Today Is My Wedding Anniversary

Celebrated my 36th wedding anniversary today. First anniversary in all the years we have been married that I haven't had a job. I can't help it. I do identify with my job. Is this unusual? I don't think so.

I also walked in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk in Tampa. I got a shirt for raising over $100.00. The walk was fun and I'm glad I did it.

Back to my wedding anniversary. I married a pretty okay woman. She has put up with me for all these years and that alone makes her special. I'm glad she is still with me.

Today Was A Little Tough

I awoke fairly early this morning not because I was refreshed, but rather because I just didn't sleep very well. I think I'm still in sort of a surreal state. In my mind I am still working for Sallie Mae. I'm trying to get past it, but I just don't feel that this was a good decision. However, good or not, like it or not, it was the decision and I guess I just need to learn to live with it. It's tough though

After Almost 3 Years I'm On The Road Again

Here I am at 57 years old unemployed again. I'm not sure what I feel about all of this but I do know that I don't want to be in a position to go through this again if I can avoid it. And so at this tender age when I would have otherwise perceived myself preparing for retirement, I am out looking for work and just hoping I can land a job that will pay the rent and keep me in benefits.

I haven't written in this BLOG for a while but I will be updating it regularly going forward because I think it is important that I keep tabs on my thoughts and emotions as I embark on this unwanted journey.

Today I got to speak with some friends....Jim Perrone, Laura Dickerson, and Gary Joyce. I need to call John Bumgarner in the morning. I got to speak with Barry Feierstein and Ken Olson yesterday. Got some closure there.