If Only There Was A Way...

Copyright infringement…

ifonlytherewasaway — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:42:17 +0000

I’m pretty sure Jeremy owes me a nickle for every time he used the name of this website during his class.

I haven’t been keeping an accurate count, but it must be at least $4 by now…

If only there was some place you could register trademarks for copyright purposes.

(Thanks for the class, Jeremy!)

Coordination of activities

ifonlytherewasaway — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:39:27 +0000

When there are multiple groups performing multiple activities in an environment, as often as not there are various dependencies between the components that these groups use – sometimes the activities of one group can negatively impact the ability of another group to perform the activities that they wish to do.
All things being equal it is only changes to the environment that should cause any impact to any system. Usually, if nothing changes nothing breaks.
In a complex environment, therefore, it’s probably a good idea to have some people who are respsonsible to “manage” the coordination of all the “changes” that happen. They could even hold meetings about the changes being proposed.

But what could we call such a group? They need some kind of catchy name.
Update Oversight?
Modification Management?
Change Coordination?

If only there was a way… a term to describe a group that managed change.

But I’m at a loss.
Suggestions?

Auditing Active Directory

ifonlytherewasaway — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:00:06 +0000

If only the technology existed natively to keep a record, like a log, of any add/removes/modifies to users, groups, or imagine… all objects. So that someone could simply go to this repository of events and see what happened, instead of emailing multiple teams of people to ask “Hey does anyone know what happened?”

But you must be thinking, these logs are vast, impossible to search, and so large you couldn’t keep that data on the server! I wonder if such software exists that would collect only certain events, to make the data more manageable. It could even send out real-time or daily alerts of any changes to certain types of objects.

Even if such software existed, and your company had already purchased it, there is no reason to believe that it would actually be setup, or you would have anyone employed to actually manage such a piece of software.

If only… oh never mind

Collecting information.

ifonlytherewasaway — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:02:54 +0000

If ONLY there were some kind of method or software that could be used to centrally consolidate information for a number of users. Something consisting of tables of information, that could be updated over time.

Note to developers: NOT EXCEL

And IF ONLY there was some method of access this over the Internet using a web browser.

Ah… what a wonderful world that would be…

Training concept

ifonlytherewasaway — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:43:50 +0000

Here’s a fantastic idea…

For training lower level groups of people (Call centers, help desks etc.) it would be very helpful if some kind of materials for training could be supplied to them. Perhaps even online? Some kind of browser based information or course?

Absolutely revolutionary.

If. Only. There. Was. A. Way.

If it ain’t broke, let’s “fix” it anyway…

ifonlytherewasaway — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:47:23 +0000

Obviously there are challenges with a public facing web site. One of the biggest is that the site should be fully functional for a large a portion of the potential user base as possible.

Without digressing into IE6 support issues, you would THINK that someone would have considered that perhaps someone would visit the site with a browser other than Internet Explorer. Or Windows, for that matter.

When a web site gets a “new” (you’ll note that I didn’t say “better”) redesign, you’d think that some time would have gone into ensuring that it worked on a Mac.

But how would you know? If only there was a way that the web development team, or specifically the QA group, could test against a Mac.

Maybe they could all be given brand new systems… a bunch of Macs to do their design work on. That would certainly help, wouldn’t it?

Hmmmm. QA. I don’t think that means what you think it means.
Of course “quality” isn’t quantified in any way.

Remedial English

ifonlytherewasaway — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:45:12 +0000

If only someone had developed some kind of technology to check the spelling and grammar of text.

Honestly… there’s a payroll issue… and the best that they can document this as is that it is “extreamilly” important that people get “paided”… *sigh*

I guess taking a second to check spelling would be a waste of their valuable precious time.

Don’t even get me started on the whole affect/effect thing. You’d think that they would get that right 50% of the time, but you’d be wrong if you thought that.

Problemmanagementspecialisanalystpersongroup

ifonlytherewasaway — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:38:01 +0000

What would you call someone who has absolutely no specialization in handling problems? A problem specialist, apparently.

What would you call a group that was totally incapable of managing change? Let alone a group that utterly fails to manage transition? You guessed it – Change Management and Transition Management.

What would you call a meeting where problems are not in the least bit managed, but are discussed pointlessly? Yes indeed… a Problem Management meeting.

If only titles reflected the actual achievements of a person or group, instead of their alleged purpose. It would make so much more sense.

If only we had the technology

ifonlytherewasaway — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:32:26 +0000

SRSLY?

“Good Morning, Thank you for contacting IT Asset Redeployment.
All available appointments for laptop upgrades in (location) are currently filled. If you have not received an appointment confirmation you have automatically been added to the wait list and will be notified if any spots open or added.
Feel free to contact us with any questions”

If only there was a way… if only we had the technology…

Apply head repeatedly.

ifonlytherewasaway — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:28:49 +0000

It’s been years worth of trying. It must be me doing it wrong. Maybe I’m just using the wrong words.
The concept of application virtualization just escapes some people. And despite many discussions, whiteboard diagrams, presentations etc… even when you *think* they’ve finally got the idea it becomes obvious, the next time around, that they still do not.

Obtain brick wall. Apply head repeatedly until it stops hurting.