User failure - it can't just be me

I'm really not trying to be a complicated guy.  While I carry a lot on my plate (CEO of a startup, On the board of Co.'s, father of 4, co-host of wildly successful podcast, avid volunteer and church leader,..)  OK, I bit off more than I can chew...   I'm a soon to be 39yr old Generation X over-achiever, what can I say.    I really thought I could do more with technology.  I believed the hype that I could have it all, an engaged and endearing family, a loyal and supportive staff, an enriched and enlightened media following... yeah FAT CHANCE.  The reality is most of the time I just have a bunch of people waiting for me to show up... physically or mentaly.

While I'm partly to blame, technology has some accountability in this mess.  There is one hype I've encountered and I hope revealing it here will spare you from the same:

Apple Hype - Advanced mobile technology makes it easier to stay informed.
This is a joke...  Here is just one small example.  I used to listen to podcasts by downloading them on to my $50 Sansa MP3 player.  Taking 10 minutes at the beginning of the week I would judiciously read show notes and determine which are downloaded.  (list of the podcasts I listen to below)

So not wanting to spend this 10 minutes, I spent $800 on a fancy iPad since I had already configured iTunes to download my shows automatically.    My hope of setting up a scheduled set of podcast downloads on my mac that would sync to my iPad has turned out to be a big ha ha on me.
1) iTunes podcasts  on  your mac don't sync automatically with your iPad.  (yup, that's a period right there)
2) iPad does not give you a sort order a playlist schedule.  Like everone who listens to industry related podcasts you want to listen in date order from oldest to current.  No such capability on iPad.
3) Can not automatically remove pdocasts... so the list grows and fills your disk up. (I'm sure this was on puposed)

Now I end up spending at least an hour of my time a week downloading and clearing podcasts, switching and sorting them, creating temporary play lists... I listen and learn less and waste more time, total and utter FAILURE on Apples part..

How in the world did  Apple product managers not see this gaping whole in their product design and usability?  Oh wait!  They did... it was a major flaw on the iPod.   Yet, with all the user feedback and frustration, they release it to the iPad

So moral of the story:  listen to your customer and respond.  If the product fa
ils, the user expereince is bad, I don't care how cool the window looks when I can't do simple functions.

My podcast list:
(ITSM weekly podcasts (US, ROW and Antipodean), This week in Tech (TWIT, TNT, & The Social Hour) & The next web daily

Startups vs.best practices... can't we all just get along?

Transitioning from CIO to CEO has been an interesting move for me.  This is not my first time as a CEO, but my role as CEO of Vigilant was short, and Vigilant was an IT services company, so it was still chief of IT services.  However, as much as I dog on ITIL, CObIT and other industry frameworks for being too esoteric and vague, I always have appreciated and applauded the principles and intents.  As SMAK has launched from thought to design to code to hardware, my experiences and training in lifecycly management has served me well.   Our Strategy phase quickly incorporated what our resources and capabilities could be, would be, and should be.  Since I have the unique opportunity to start this IT operations from scratch, I wanted to get our LifeCycle management clear and correct from the start.

Just because we are a lean startup doesn't mean we need to run in chaos.  I certainly am not going to cast all hard lessons learned in the trash.  I know that if a disparate development team is not given a solid and stable platform for code migration, our IT ops will be a mess.  My ITIL students and past clients have heard this expression a million times from me.  If you want to cleanse the pond, you must clean the streams that feed it.  In other words, if you want a clean IT operations platform, you must have solids standards and architectures in place for all involved to work from.  Breaking down the DEV/QA/UAT/Prod barriers is a challenge.  Typically it is based on rights and security.  Access control can be a nightmare and causes much of this angst.  By setting up boundaries and protocols up-front, the streams will stay clean and the pond will be a source of value.

So here is my strategy straight out of SMAKs operation guide on how I plan to allow autonomy and control co-exist.

User Setup and Configuration:

To secure the environment we will utilize a strategy of layered access to systems. Each environment will utilize the same set of layers with a name denoting their environment.

To gain physical access to systems (keyboard, SSH, Remote windows) there will be a user created.
Once physical access is gained you will need to change user or run-as a user with rights to access either system settings / application data (php, xml files / database settings / database information.
Access controls are organized in to functional groups based on assetts. Asset types fall into 5 categories:
Production – Production environment with real users and customers. Needs to exhibit high service warranty.
Demo – Production+ build version of our site with fake data that we will use for demonstration at events, webinars, and other marketing events. (Production+ means at least production vesion with potentially new features to demonstrate functionality)
UAT – User Acceptance Testing Environment– QA Build version signed off on by production release team for Security; Availability; Performance testing. Now awaiting user interaction; regression; usability and design; product marketing sign off.
QA – Quality Assurance Environment – Build version that has been signed off by development team and gone through integration testing. Testing in this environment will focus on Functionality; Security; Performance; Availability; Installation; Recovery. Training to production release team will happen at this build stage. Sign off by Product Management.
Dev – Development Environment – Dynamic build versions be created in this environment with 2 core focus areas

1. InnoDev - New product development focused on publishing new feature sets and requirements from Product Marketing team.
2. ProbDev – Problem Management environment focused on production snapshots for replicating issues found in production.

The following table lists the usernames:  {obviously cleansed and changed for security purposes}  Key here is to create naming conventions that make it ease for each lifcycle to be identified and controlled.  This will make it a lot easier with building RACI models in your CMS map.

User Type	Production User Name	Demo User Name	UAT User Name	QA User Name	Dev User Name
Group Name
Enterprise Cloud Administration
Access User
System Admin
Application Administration
Database Administration
Data Access User (can see datapoint for customer information)
Customer Service Access (access to configuration and registration info)

Turning the page...

What is up with Hooper?
After almost 20 years of fixing technology and relentlessly studying ways to optimize it's usage and the people who administrate it, I have finally come to the realization that we are at the tipping point of communication technologies current usefulness, email in particularly.  Technology as we know it is changing, the methods we use to share, collaborate, engineer, design, problem solve, and innovate are creating huge opportunities but also huge human inefficiencies.

Socialized problem solving is enabling creative resolutions to be found at an accelerated pace in some communities.  However for most people the over indulgence in information sharing and connections is causing a social reaction:  Social Stress is the name I am giving it.  It's the constant desire to be in touch, in the know, in the group.  To have connections with the right people, to get the inside information, to be available to all, all the time.

For years I and many colleagues have been suffering from  "Information Overload".  Well, the problem now is "Connection Overload".  Too many connections, too many ways to be connected, too many relationship management tools...  it's too much. What's worse is all these social media tools are inter-connecting, repopulating and regurgitating the noise you didn't want to hear in the first place.

So this is what I am going to try and do:  To ease Social Stress and fix the "Connection Problem".  My business partners and I have teamed up to develop a technology that will allow you to centrally configure your relationships and connections.  Our hope is that with the reduction of noise, applications will become more meaningful, relationships more meaningful, and life more meaningful.  The company is called SMAK - Secure Messaging Alerting and Knowledge

Over the next few months you will see a new website launched called http://www.getsmaked.com where will make available access to a technology that will filter and stream your emails, status updates and group your connections in a super easy and effective way.
Stay tuned...