The excellent and readable book "The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right" (link below to avoid wrapping) illustrates -- using examples from medicine, aviation, and many other contexts -- great and pervasive value in applying structure, planning, discipline, and checklists to complex projects. Working with technology, we're more than familiar with lists of instructions for installing, maintaining, debugging, and repairing what we work with. For example, VM through many incarnations has used an IVP (Installation Verification Program) to exercise basic functions. Long ago in a VM data center, we added local functions to the test suite. Ensuring successful IVP operation at least reduces unpleasant surprises when systems entered production. And examples in the book from aviation and the military show how checklists and structured reports avoid problems, solve problems, and improve quality by identifying weak areas.
<http://amzn.to/20qIySD> -- the book Many years ago when purchasing a new mainframe, we endured meetings with our IBM team called Systems Assurance. Tedious though they were, they paid off in ensuring that we bought the right configuration, properly prepared the data center facility, and understood the delivery/installation process. It was clearly based on years of experience with things going not quite right. So -- I'd like to hear about experiences using checklists for anything mainframe related (e.g., designing, developing, testing, debugging, documenting). Initially, being brief is fine; I'll follow up for details. As usual, please copy me directly to avoid replies being buried in list digests. Thanks! -- 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 LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on Linux on System z, visit http://wiki.linuxvm.org/
