Checklists Bring Order Out of Chaos and Enhance Reliability Systematic procedures help avoid and solve problems
After spending a career with mainframes, I prefer order to chaos. I like the deterministic manner in which mainframe OSes are maintained (audit trails, full piece-part identification, systematic system builds, standardized maintenance tools, maintenance history, etc.) more than the free-fire frontier mentality for configuring, maintaining and debugging Windows PCs (plug-and-pray, installs which sprinkle random files everywhere, rebooting to ignore vanquish problems, etc.). Even logging changes to my PC, I feel at the mercy of the next software install which mysteriously corrupts a working system. But I take some comfort from detailed records and notes on how I've done things and set up systems so I can retrace my path.
In the same manner, when my wife prepares her favorite contribution to potluck events, rum cake, she follows a written recipe (see below). I've teased her about needing—or at least wanting—instructions, but I admire her process and see that it mirrors mine. I'm happy that the only variable between cakes is whether they include chocolate chips and nuts, with no risk of key ingredients forgotten.
http://destinationz.org/Mainframe-Solution/Trends/Checklists-Bring-Order-Out-of-Chaos-and-Enhance-Re http://tinyurl.com/z7jlecx ...plus, Kim's rum cake recipe! -- Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc. [email protected] 3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042 (703) 204-0433 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gabegold Twitter: GabeG0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
