Re: Boss is asking for 'root cause analysis'

I think he content of this post goes a long way to ifdentfying root cause analysis - and it has little to do with technology.

Ed Stevens wrote:

> Platform -- Oracle 8.0.6 EE on NT4 -- data warehouse app
>

8.0.6 - not supported ... implication, management doesn't care to spend $ on avoiding problems

> We asked a couple of DBAs at another affiliate location on this
> account to take a look and see what they thought. Their only response
> was 'when dealing with data warehouse apps, we always set
> STAR_TRANSFORMATION_ENABLED=TRUE. We tried it and the problem went
> away. When pressed for more details, they could only say "we've
> always done it that way."

Implication - no money on training

> Now my manager is pressing for a root cause analysis and preventative
> measures. When the question is asked regarding why did things
> suddenly fall over and break, the only response the DBA that found the
> solution can give is that perhaps we passed some sort of threshold.
> Now I'm being pressed to determine if that is the case, and if so,
> exactly what was the threshold that was passed; and if not crossing a
> threshold, then what *was* the problem.

Implication - high visibility, therefore fundable ... management doesn't understand how to prioritize

Some secondary questions that need to be answered - did anything change on the OS in the last year? did anything happen to the network? Were the "users" providing a routine report as a part of a special management request (ie. did they need to buy time?) Were the "users" actually a number of people waiting for a print from one user?

In my books, you need to ask you manager to have a 3rd party consultant do a thorough root cause analysis. I get the feeling, because he was told to find an answer, now he is looking for a direction to point finger, and he is asking you to point it at yourself . Received on Wed Apr 30 2003 - 16:33:25 CDT