Change management in a sysadmin group
Much of this will sound obvious, but the problems that come up
often result from people not realizing these things
Shared understanding of a system maintained by a group is
critical.
- Interdependency between subsystems means one person's attempt to
change something can affect everyone else, sometimes drastically.
- Coordination prevents duplication of effort.
- Sharing knowledge also helps other people avoid making the same
mistakes.
- A good level of common knowledge means that no one person is
indispensable, so people can safely go on vacation and the system
can even survive someone being hit by the proverbial bus.
A lot of problems result from lack of communication:
- It's all too easy to think "Gee, no one will notice if I make
this one little change . . . ."
- It's usually better to get a group consensus before making
a change, in order to ensure shared knowledge.
It just seems to be hard to get people to communicate enough:
- This is why I emphasize tools like RCS, which helps automate
communication and documentation.
- Even with tools, it's a good idea to avoid behing hasty
about making changes and get in the habit of consulting with others.
Steve VanDevender
Last modified: Wed Jun 30 14:39:06 PDT 2010