This episode is about how to be a better z/OS installation specialist, z/OS capture ratios, and a discussion on using Trello. We have a special guest joining us for the performance topic, Miroslava Barahona Rossi. Long show notes are found here .
Mainframe - Being a Better Installation Specialist
- "Better" here means lessons learned, not competing with people. "Installation Specialist" might just as well have used "System Programmer" or another term.
- There's definitely a reason to be optimistic about being a person that does that Installation Specialist or System Programmer type of work:
- There will always be a need for someone to know how systems are put together, how they are configured, how they are upgraded, and how they are serviced...how to just get things to run.
- Consider the new function adoption needs too. There are so many "new" functions that are just waiting to be used.
- A really good installation specialist would take information they have and use it in different ways.
- Knowing parmilb really well.
- You can't be better by only doing things yourself, no one can know everything. You've got to work with others who are specialists in their own area.
- Last but not least, learn how to teach yourself. Know where to find answers (and that doesn't mean asking people!). Learn how to try out something on a sandbox.
Performance - Capture Ratio
- Our special guest is Miroslava Barahona Rossi, a technical expert who works with large Brasilian customers.
- Capture Ratio - a ratio of workload CPU to system-level CPU as a percentage.
- Commercial considerations when billing for uncaptured cycles. You might worry something is wrong if the capture ratio is low.
- Reasonable value is usually 80 - 90. Seeing more like 85 - 95 these days. It has been improved because more of I/O-related CPU is captured.
- Summary:
- Don’t be upset if you get a capture ratio substantially lower than 100%. That's normal.
- Understand your normal. Be aware of the relationship of your normal to everybody else’s. But, be careful when making that comparison as it is very workload dependent.
- Understand your data and causes. See if you can find a way of improving it. Keep track of the capture ratio over the months and years.
Topics - Hello Trello
- Trello is based on the Kanban idea.
- Why are we talking about Trello? We moved to it for high level podcast planning. Template used for hatching new future episodes. We move cards around sometimes between episodes.
- Marna uses it to organise daily work, with personal workload management and calendaring. But it is not a meetings calendar.
Probably with Jira will be more useful than ever. We'll see. - Martin uses it for team engagements, with four lists: Potential, Active, Dormant, Completed. Engagement moves between lists as it progresses
Martin's blog
Marna's blog
So It Goes.
