This paper reports field research of Enterprise IT-Management Software deployments in corporate data centers. The observed deployments were complex, time-consuming and often did not provide tools and documentation that optimally supported IT Professionals’ work. The findings highlight deployment work practices and challenges, and inform guidelines for designing deployment tools and documentation that support IT Professionals’ work.

Policy-based automation is emerging as a viable approach to IT systems management, codifying high-level business goals into executable specifications for governing IT operations. Little is known, however, about how policies are actually made, used, and maintained in practice. Here, we report studies of policy use in IT service delivery. We found that although policies often make explicit statements, much is deliberately left implicit, with correct interpretation and execution depending critically on human judgment.

Despite some signs of success, there is still a long way to go in addressing the growing complexity-management gap in middleware systems. One issue that can create complexity for users is a mismatch between tasks in multi-person environments and the task flows in middleware management tools. We present an example scenario that illustrates the complexity of multi-user task flows. This is followed by a discussion of the implications for the design of IT middleware management tools.

While the IT industry is moving forward with service-based solutions, they have left behind critical processes and soft IT assets unmanaged, especially at the intersection of business processes with Business Intelligence (BI). In this paper, we describe the challenges faced by model developers (or statisticians) and business analysts while managing data mining model assets of an organization that supports business processes in making real-time decisions and forecasts.

Data mining is being extensively used for analysis of large data collections. While there is previous work on dashboard support for visual mining of the data, there is little or no work on dashboard support for managing the lifecycle (e.g. health) of the data mining models themselves. Issues such as quick performance decay, large scale deployments, collaborative use, and real-time business integration of models necessitate this type of support. In this paper, based on a year long study, we first describe the six stages of the model lifecycle and the preliminary design of the backend system that helps users manage mining models. Next, we discuss the three dimensions to be considered for dashboard visualization of the model lifecycle: introspection, customization, and presentation.

In this paper we report on a case study of the introduction of a workflow management system for travel management in a higher education organisation. We identify and reflect on the change of the process induced by the system, the functionality of the system, and the usability of the system. Combined with a socio-technical perspective, our findings provide a checklist for systems designers.

System administrators (sysadmins) are a critical population of computer users: they use a wide variety of administration tools to maintain the computer infrastructure on which modern society depends. The design of appropriate administration tools relies on accurate information about sysadmins and their work, yet studies to date collecting this information have been qualitative. In this paper I examine a quantitative source of information about system administrators: the annual SAGE salary survey. The primary focus of the survey is collecting salary and benefits information, so that administrators can compare their compensation with others in similar circumstances. In this poster I do further analysis of the SAGE data from 2002 through 2006, investigating correlations that were not part of the SAGE reports. In particular, I examine evidence for teamwork among administrators, and find evidence for sysadmins working in teams in companies of all sizes.