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More on (sic) experience with wikis

no, that's not a typo ... Preamble: This starts out sounding like a diary entry, but some interesting wiki-focused observations are found below - including metrics! Catching up on old items in my feed reader: Back in November, TechCrunch had an item on AboutUs, which at first glance looked at little self-referential, a web site on web sites. Digging in a bit more - we find it's a wiki about web sites, which is still seemed a tiny bit redundant,…

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Defining an Effective IT Metrics Framework

Had a really good conversation about metrics the other day. We've been discussing ways to express how our systems are performing, delivering value, and staying available - and I'd like to use the same general structure for all systems, regardless of function (transactions, integrations, analytics) or platform (Wintel, AS/400, Open Systems). For each type of metric, we need to understand two dimensions: Performance against some Target. This can either be a baseline (a minimum or average expected score), or a…

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Communicating Complex Technical Concepts

We've faced this problem a few times, as we roll out a distributed application across a network of remote locations. A fairly typical challenge is to explain the impact of a technical architecture improvement in a relevant, meaningful way - without resorting to techno-jargon. A good approach includes: Keep it short - Too much detail and you will lose them. Find the balance between enough information to be valuable, but not so much as to be boring Focus on the…

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