RE: Question on Tape Drive Replacement

Thanks Rob !

Great points.

Luckily the CFO ($$$) is as sick of this drive as I am so THAT is good !

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
[mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On Behalf Of rob@dekko.com
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 2:54 PM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Question on Tape Drive Replacement


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Chuck,

Solve this like you would solve any other problem.

1)  Write down the significant situational facts
You have a 9427 tape drive.
You are having x number of problems with it.
It is down x number of hours per period
Maintenance on it is $x
Due to the speed of this tape drive we have x hours unavailable each night
due to backups.
...

2)  Write down possible problem questions
How can we reduce downtime due to backup windows?
How can we reduce maintenance costs?
How can we better the reliability of our backup windows?
...

3)  Write down the answers to a few questions:
a)  Is it solvable?
b)  Whose problem is this?
c)  Whose acceptance?
 i) Problem question
 ii) Responsibility for solving?
 iii) The decision
d) Of what importance?  This can always be answered in $ for a for-profit
company
e) Urgency of problem
f) Urgency of implementation
g) Solution deadline
h) Implementation deadline
i) Help from others (whom)?
j) Quality required (1-10)

4) Refine and decide on the problem question
Basically summarize all the questions in item 2 down into one full
complete sentence.

5)  Create a list of possible choices.
No pros or cons yet.  Nothing is too ridiculous yet.  In fact one of my
possible choices to how to avoid taking this problem solving course for
the umpteenth time was Killing the instructor and thus no one would
volunteer for it again.
Doing nothing is a possible choice.

6)  Refine and combine possible choices to create alternatives.  Detail
out three of them.

7)  Evaluate these three alternatives:
a) Cost/benefit
b) Reversibility
c) Other problems
d) - Risks
e) + Risks
f) Side effects
g) Other
h) Quality Range

8)  Make a decision

9) Implement the decision

Rob Berendt
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin