It may be a bit cliché, but we can't help ourselves. It is Thanksgiving week. And despite everything we all seem to be worrying about these days, there is still so much to be thankful for. As you've probably heard one of us say before, everyone at IQ Services is thankful for our great customers and for the company environment that encourages us to do the best job we can for those customers. But we thought it would be fun to ask our colleagues what they are personally thankful for this year. Here's what we heard:
Kristy - I am thankful it's a 3 day work week! And for people who open their hearts and homes to abandoned and abused animals.
Mike2 – I'm thankful this year for good health throughout the whole family.Gary – I am thankful for the soldiers who are spending this time away from their families. May God bless them and their families and keep them safe and at peace.
Mike B – Mostly, I’m happy just to be here, and that the kids & families are in good shape
Cheryl – I am thankful for my wonderful family. They are caring, loving and most of all supportive. Not too mention, they haven't kicked me out of the house for taking up playing the drums!
Matt – I am thankful for family and friends. Evan – I am thankful for life, love, and happiness.
Shan – I am thankful for the fact that even though my son is 6 going on 12, he still calls me “Daddy.”
Jim J – I am thankful for my family and the opportunities I have had because of the country we live in.
Marla – I am thankful for husbands who do housework, 6-year old daughters who love the Vikes & birthdays that fall on Thanksgiving. Happy 19th David!
Mike3 – I'm thankful for the good health of my parents and my brother and his family.
Steve - I'm thankful that I have loving family and friends to share my time with.
And since two of our best natured colleagues weren't available for comment, we thought it would be fun to create fake statements of gratitude for them – comments in line with their character (hopefully they will be thankful that we were thinking of them):
Suzanne – I am thankful for the chance to visit my daughter in Chicago so her chef boyfriend can treat me to 4 days of great food.
John – I am thankful for fast cars, tire gauges, turtle wax and a dog named Tobey.We hope you have a lot to be thankful for this year too. Happy Thanksgiving!
http://www.iq-services.com/
6601 Lyndale Ave South, #330
Minneapolis, MN 55423
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving Day
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Groundhog Day
For me, one of the more interesting aspects of a typical performance and load testing engagement is how much bad news we deliver and how often we hear in response “OMG – that was horrible. Thank you! When can we do it again?”
As I think of it, the “can we do it again” sentiment describes the big picture when it comes to performance and load testing of a new contact center or communications solution. Proactive performance testing shouldn’t be thought of as a one-off activity. When most effectively applied it’s a process that allows you to try things out until you get them right. Kind of like Groundhog Day, but with you playing Phil Connor.
Something always turns up and most of the time it’s a big deal, which means you really do have to stop and think about what to do to get it right. Often, you need more than 5 or 10 minutes. Most often, you need a few days or even a week to get it right. Experience tells us that things aren’t usually right the 2nd time either, so you have to plan to do it more than twice too…sometimes more than three times.
The advice I give early in every project is to budget enough resources (your team, internal & vendors & suppliers) and plan enough time to test and re-test at least three to four times over a two to three week period.
Yes. Multiple sessions, two to three weeks, time in between.
If your team is prepared for the do-overs and you include the time and resources in your schedule and budget, the Groundhog Day type experience can have a positive effect on your project, your team and eventually your customers.
Mike Burke
http://www.iq-services.com/
6601 Lyndale Ave South, #330
Minneapolis, MN 55423
As I think of it, the “can we do it again” sentiment describes the big picture when it comes to performance and load testing of a new contact center or communications solution. Proactive performance testing shouldn’t be thought of as a one-off activity. When most effectively applied it’s a process that allows you to try things out until you get them right. Kind of like Groundhog Day, but with you playing Phil Connor.
Something always turns up and most of the time it’s a big deal, which means you really do have to stop and think about what to do to get it right. Often, you need more than 5 or 10 minutes. Most often, you need a few days or even a week to get it right. Experience tells us that things aren’t usually right the 2nd time either, so you have to plan to do it more than twice too…sometimes more than three times.
The advice I give early in every project is to budget enough resources (your team, internal & vendors & suppliers) and plan enough time to test and re-test at least three to four times over a two to three week period.
Yes. Multiple sessions, two to three weeks, time in between.
If your team is prepared for the do-overs and you include the time and resources in your schedule and budget, the Groundhog Day type experience can have a positive effect on your project, your team and eventually your customers.
Mike Burke
http://www.iq-services.com/
6601 Lyndale Ave South, #330
Minneapolis, MN 55423
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
So what do you learn?
In my last blog, I talked about test setup and the value of collaborating during the early stages of test planning – even when you’re just talking about who needs to do what and when.
Clearly the setup process has a lot to do with success. But the next question – the one I actually seem to get asked the most – is “So what am I going to learn? Why should we put ourselves through this when we’ve managed the living daylights out of the project, held everyone’s feet to the fire, and the budget’s already tight – running out of time & money (and patience) due to bumps in the road along the way? What’s in it for me? And don’t be vague & give me more of that value prop stuff, give me some real examples!”
Ok. We’ve got a long list of examples to help answer that question. (Check out this webinar to learn more).
But I’m going to suggest something you might not have considered. Not the obvious stuff like un-provisioned trunks, incomplete translations & routing, under-capacity servers, incompatible standards between components from different vendors, misconfigured or under capacity VLANs, etc.
Instead…think licenses. Yep. Licenses.
I hear that more and more, especially in the BC/DR context.
It’s a tight economy and nobody wants to buy more than they need, not that they ever did. But now more than ever it matters. And with IP plus virtualization & cloud computing in the mix, it’s not just about counting trunks or ports anymore. It’s not even CPU cycles or memory. Moore’s Law’s taken care of that one.
It’s about licenses.
“If everyone’s not logged in over here, can I use their licenses over there? If I lose power in Omaha, or the pipe to Chennai, will the licenses be re-distributed & usable in the back-up location?”
Well of course you thought so when you set it up. But what I’m hearing from the folks in our test facility, issues with license configurations almost always show up – often early on – and again in the BC/DR phase of our StressTest™ performance and load testing engagements for new systems.
Don’t overlook or make assumptions about something as simple as licenses – test it & see what really happens.
Mike Burke
Clearly the setup process has a lot to do with success. But the next question – the one I actually seem to get asked the most – is “So what am I going to learn? Why should we put ourselves through this when we’ve managed the living daylights out of the project, held everyone’s feet to the fire, and the budget’s already tight – running out of time & money (and patience) due to bumps in the road along the way? What’s in it for me? And don’t be vague & give me more of that value prop stuff, give me some real examples!”
Ok. We’ve got a long list of examples to help answer that question. (Check out this webinar to learn more).
But I’m going to suggest something you might not have considered. Not the obvious stuff like un-provisioned trunks, incomplete translations & routing, under-capacity servers, incompatible standards between components from different vendors, misconfigured or under capacity VLANs, etc.
Instead…think licenses. Yep. Licenses.
I hear that more and more, especially in the BC/DR context.
It’s a tight economy and nobody wants to buy more than they need, not that they ever did. But now more than ever it matters. And with IP plus virtualization & cloud computing in the mix, it’s not just about counting trunks or ports anymore. It’s not even CPU cycles or memory. Moore’s Law’s taken care of that one.
It’s about licenses.
“If everyone’s not logged in over here, can I use their licenses over there? If I lose power in Omaha, or the pipe to Chennai, will the licenses be re-distributed & usable in the back-up location?”
Well of course you thought so when you set it up. But what I’m hearing from the folks in our test facility, issues with license configurations almost always show up – often early on – and again in the BC/DR phase of our StressTest™ performance and load testing engagements for new systems.
Don’t overlook or make assumptions about something as simple as licenses – test it & see what really happens.
Mike Burke
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