The art and science of management

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: AUDREY RASMUSSEN ON NETWORK/SYSTEMS
MANAGEMENT
08/17/05
Today's focus: The art and science of management

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Management tools aren't just about technology
* Links related to Network/Systems Management
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: The art and science of management

By Audrey Rasmussen

IT management can be approached from multiple perspectives and
levels. When looking at the reality and vision of the approaches
there are two particular aspects that are interesting: the art
and science of management.

The science side of management tends toward the analytical, as
well as relying on technology. Technologies such as root cause,
statistical analysis that is used to predict behavior, the
likelihood of something happening, or filtering out extraneous
data, are all part of the science of management.

We can be thankful for the technological advances that
management vendors have brought to IT organizations. Advances
such as analytics and built-in intelligence have added
sophistication and automation to their tools.

However, some management solutions are somewhat hamstrung
because they are stuck on a path that may have been influenced
by the legacy of their products, or sometimes developers can get
stuck in a certain mindset. And that is where the art in
management can step in.

As IT administrators, you delve into the art of management every
day. One aspect of this art is the "gut-feel" method of
diagnosis. Experienced administrators just have a knack for
knowing where and what to look for and to quickly remedy a
problem. So yes, one aspect of the art in management is in the
people. And from a process and consistency standpoint, having
the ability to capture the "art" that is in people's heads is
another challenge that many management tools are looking to
solve.

Another aspect of art in management is taking a creative
approach to developing management products that takes an
out-of-the-box approach to solving a problem. The creative
design of management approaches has also been responsible for
innovation in management.

User interfaces are another area where creativity can change the
way that people do things - in a positive manner. For example,
instead of presenting data in random and sometimes familiar
ways, designing the interface so that it makes the user more
efficient and effective takes creativity. Such interfaces can't
be so different that users have a longer learning curve to train
to use it. Nor can it force the user to totally adapt their own
processes to a prescribed process that is dictated by the user
interface, unless there is a specific reason for doing so.

So these are just some examples of how art can be used in
management, and I'm sure that there are many more. But the point
is that many times, the focus of the engineers who are designing
management tools is on the technology. While technology has
brought good things to management, I contend that the
combination of science and art can be more powerful.

For example, architecture of management products is one area
where one assumes a heavy emphasis on technology, and rightly
so. However, like building a house, before I design the
architecture, I have to find out how the people who will be
living in it are going to use the house. What is their lifestyle
like? Do they have hobbies that require special details added to
the house? And what are the people's preferences? Finding out
this kind of information out prior to designing the house, I
would consider as art.

So in designing technology, vendors need to do the same thing so
that what they design fits the user in every way - how it will
be used, other purposes that it must serve, and more. Then the
architecture is designed using a combination of art and science
- using creativity to design the architecture in such a way that
optimizes the use of technology. In this way, the combination is
much more powerful.

So as you evaluate management products, be sure to consider the
technology as you normally do, but go beyond the technology to
see how the vendor has applied the combination of art and
science in its solutions. It can be very enlightening.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Cisco to juice 6500 switch
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm5286>

2. Google goes berserk <http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm5287>

3. Test: CipherTrust tops encryption field
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm5288>

4. IT staff shortage looming
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm5289>

5. Cisco to double Catalyst 6500 switch capacity in coming
months, report says
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm5018>

Today's most-forwarded story:

Cisco to juice 6500 switch
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm5290>
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Audrey Rasmussen

Audrey Rasmussen is a vice president with Enterprise Management
Associates <http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/> in Boulder,
Colorado, a leading industry analyst firm focusing exclusively
on all aspects of the management of information technology.
Audrey has more than 25 years of experience working with
distributed systems, applications and networks. Her current
focus at EMA is system management, application management and
enterprise management technologies. Reach her at
<mailto:rasmussen@enterprisemanagement.com>.
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by NetQoS
Cisco NetFlow: Just Turn It On!

Do you want global visibility into your network traffic in real
time? Take full advantage of your existing routers using Cisco
IOS(r) NetFlow and NetQoS' ReporterAnalyzer for capacity
planning, troubleshooting, and virus detection. Download
"Netflow: The New Approach to Traffic Analysis" to learn more.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=110589
_______________________________________________________________
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http://www.networkworld.com/topics/management.html
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