Section 11.5. Strategic Versus Tactical

11.5. Strategic Versus Tactical

For a system administrator, the ultimate time waster is any task that could be eliminated if only we had time to build the infrastructure to make such busywork go away. In other words, the ultimate time management technique for a system administrator is a good IT infrastructure.

Strategic tasks are those dealing with long-term planning, like constructing a security policy, getting buy-in from management, and deploying the policy. Tactical tasks are specific tasks related to a particular process, such as formatting a hard drive or installing a new PC.

The problem is that we get so caught up with tactical tasks that we never feel that we have time for strategic work. We're so busy mopping the floor that we don't have time to fix the leaking faucet.

You won't need to spend time handing out IP addresses if you deploy a DHCP server. You won't find yourself spending days fixing security problems if you have a modern and pervasive security program with things like automatically updating virus/malware/spam detection, self-defending networks, and policies that are supported by the highest levels of management. You won't spend afternoons debugging oddball Windows problems that turn out to be slight misconfigurations if you have an infrastructure that automates operating system installation so that every new machine starts out right. You won't spend nights restoring data from backup tapes if you have a server infrastructure that includes proper power, cooling, and redundant storage (RAID). (Not that RAID replaces the need for disaster recovery backups.)

The key is to make time for the strategic projects. Get them onto your calendar and schedule time for the individual steps in your to do list. My rule is to always have one strategic project going on. I'd like to have 50, but if I spread myself too thin, I won't get any of them done. It's better to pick one good project that gets done than to start 50 that never get finished. The advice in the section "Prioritization for Impact" in Chapter 8 will help you narrow down the project. Get consensus on which project will have the biggest impact, and get the whole team working on it until it's complete.

If you are looking for a good book on this topic, I recommend The Practice of System and Network Administration. It's more than 700 pages and very complete. I am, however, a little biased.