Five Whys

Five Whys, sometimes written as "5 Whys," is a guided team exercise for identifying the root cause of a problem. Five Whys is used in the "analyze" phase of the Six SigmaDMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) methodology.
The exercise begins with a facilitator stating a problem and then asking the question "Why?" (meaning "Why did the problem occur?"). The group brainstorms answers based on direct observation. Once the group agrees upon an answer, the facilitator again asks the question, "Why?"
The exercise got its name because it generally takes five iterations of the questioning process for the group to arrive at the root-cause of a problem -- but it is perfectly correct for the facilitator to ask less than five "whys" or more than five "whys" depending on the group's needs.

Here is an example of how a Five Whys exercise might proceed:
Facilitator: Our websites were down from 2pm to 2:45 pm on Saturday. Why?
Group: Because the external DNS server failed.
Facilitator: Why did the external DNS server fail?
Group: Because the central process unit (CPU) was peaked at 100% and couldn't handle outside requests.
Facilitator: Why did the CPU peak at 100%?
Group: Because the server kept trying to auto-update Windows.
Facilitator: Why did the server keep trying to auto-update Windows?
Group: Because when the administrator created the server, he forgot to uncheck the auto-update service.
Facilitator: Why did the administrator forget to uncheck the auto-update service when he created the server?
Group: Because he was in a hurry and got distracted by an alarm going off.
Once the team has agreed that they have identified the root cause of the problem - in this case, the administrator getting distracted and forgetting to turn off auto-update, the facilitator should help the group to determine corrective action.
Facilitator: How can we make sure that each administrator unchecks auto-update when he creates a new server, no matter how hurried or distracted he gets?
Group: Create a vanilla server image with auto-update turned off. Have administratorsclone this image when deploying new servers.

Five Whys originated in the Toyota Production System, where it was used for post-mortem investigations into equipment failures and workplace safety incidents. It has proved to be especially useful for helping management teams identify and fix problems that at first glance appear to be technical problems, but upon further investigation, turn out to be people problems.

Revel Virtual Touch

Reverse electrovibration, also known as virtual touch, is an augmented reality (AR) technology that facilitates electronic transmission of the human tactile sense, allowing end users to perceive the textures and contours of remote objects. The field of study involving virtual touch is known ashaptics.

Advancements in reverse electrovibration are under development by Disney Research of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Disney's system, called REVEL, imparts a low-level signal, creating an oscillating, weak electric field around the user's skin. Signal variations correspond to texture variations in the distant object. The signals are generated in such a way that the resulting sensation in the fingers mimics the sensation of sliding the fingers over the object. No gloves or specialized back-pressure-sensor-like devices are necessary. The technology delivers such a small amount of current into the user's body that it poses no health risk.

The most highly anticipated application of reverse electrovibration is one allowing a person to sense the texture of a distant object on the touch screen of a computer or tablet device. The technology can allow for the transmission of Braille characters, as well as conveying the "feel" of everyday objects.

Multipath I/O

Multipath I/O (MPIO) is a Microsoft framework designed to mitigate the effects of a host bus adapter (HBA) failure by providing an alternate data path between storage devices and a Windows operating system. MPIO enables up to 32 alternate paths to add redundancy and load balancingfor Windows storage environments.

Pathing is a networking approach used to address the specific needs of storage networks by changing the way that communication paths are managed and organized. Unlike connection failures in message networks -- which generally just require that the connection be retried -- in storage networks, a failure is more likely to cause a systemcrash. Storage networks also require faster error recovery.

Technically, MPIO represents a hybrid approach to multipathing, combining software specific to each HBA -- the Device Specific Module (DSM) -- with the MPIO features integrated into the Windows operating system. While the DSMs must be written for specific hardware and cannot be generic, Microsoft designed MPIO to be as HBA-agnostic as possible. As such, it depends on the rest of the hardware and software to work correctly in order to do its job.

MPIO requires at least two HBAs connected to the storage device. (A dual-port HBA may provide two data paths, but it still represents a single point of failure.) In a storage area network (SAN) you also need to ensure that any switches or routers laying in the data path have enough path management intelligence to handle disruptions caused by an HBA failure.

DMAIC

DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) is an approach to problem-solving defined by Motorola as part of the Six Sigma management philosophy.

DMAIC, which is pronounced "de-may-ick," is a tool for improving an existing process. The steps can be summarized as follows.

Define: State the problem, specify the customer set, identify the goals, and outline the target process.

Measure: Decide what parameters need to be quantified, work out the best way to measure them, collect the necessary data, and carry out the measurements by experiment.

Analyze: Identify gaps between actual and goal performance, determine causes of those gaps, determine how process inputs affect outputs, and rank improvement opportunities.

Improve: Devise potential solutions, identify solutions that are easiest to implement, test hypothetical solutions, and implement actual improvements.

Control: Generate a detailed solution monitoring plan, observe implemented improvements for success, update plan records on a regular basis, and maintain a workable employee training routine.

DMAIC, which is used to regain control, should not be confused with a similar Six Sigma process called Sigma DMADV. DMADV, which stands for "define, measure, analyze, design, verify," is applied to new processes to make sure that they achieve Six Sigma quality.
Six Sigma methodologies, which were originally used in manufacturing to improve quality, are now used in many disciplines including project management, education and agile software development. All Six Sigma processes are executed by Six Sigma experts designated according to "belt color," using a scheme similar to the ones used in martial arts.

Goobuntu (Google Ubuntu)

Goobuntu (Google Ubuntu) is the default operating system (OS) that Google uses for its employee computer desktop workstations.

Goobuntu is basically a long term support (LTS) version of Ubuntu with custom security features. Ubuntu (pronounced oo-BOON-too) is an open source Debian-based Linux distribution managed by the private company Canonical Ltd. Although new versions of Ubuntu are released every six months, the LTS version isreleased every two years, making it a good choice for large enterprise customers like Google.

According to Google engineer Thomas Bushnell, Google partners with Canonical's Ubuntu Advantage support program and Google administrators use Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) and Puppet for desktop management. Employees are encouraged, but not required, to use the OS -- but all Google's development tools are built for Goobuntu. The OS does not have a default graphical user interface (GUI); employees can use Ubuntu Unity,GNOME, KDE, X-Window or X-Terms.

What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

How much does the first hour of every day matter? As it turns out, a lot. It can be the hour you see everything clearly, get one real thing done, and focus on the human side of work rather than your task list.

Remember when you used to have a period at the beginning of every day to think about your schedule, catch up with friends, maybe knock out a few tasks? It was called home room, and it went away after high school. But many successful people schedule themselves a kind of grown-up home room every day. You should too.

The first hour of the workday goes a bit differently for Craig Newmark of Craigslist, David Karp of Tumblr, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, career writer (and Fast Company blogger) Brian Tracy, and others, and they’ll tell you it makes a big difference. Here are the first items on their daily to-do list.

Don’t Check Your Email for the First Hour. Seriously. Stop That.

Tumblr founder David Karp will “try hard” not to check his email until 9:30 or 10 a.m., according to an Inc. profile of him. “Reading e-mails at home never feels good or productive,” Karp said. “If something urgently needs my attention, someone will call or text me.”

Not all of us can roll into the office whenever our Vespa happens to get us there, but most of us with jobs that don’t require constant on-call awareness can trade e-mail for organization and single-focus work. It’s an idea that serves as the title of Julie Morgenstern’s work management book Never Check Email In The Morning, and it’s a fine strategy for leaving the office with the feeling that, even on the most over-booked days, you got at least one real thing done.

If you need to make sure the most important messages from select people come through instantly, AwayFind can monitor your inbox and get your attention when something notable arrives. Otherwise, it’s a gradual but rewarding process of training interruptors and coworkers not to expect instantaneous morning response to anything they send in your off-hours.

Gain Awareness, Be Grateful

One smart, simple question on curated Q & A site Quora asked “How do the most successful people start their day?”. The most popular response came from a devotee of Tony Robbins, the self-help guru who pitched the power of mindful first-hour rituals long before we all had little computers next to our beds.

Robbins suggests setting up an “Hour of Power,” “30 Minutes to Thrive,” or at least “Fifteen Minutes to Fulfillment.” Part of it involves light exercise, part of it involves motivational incantations, but the most accessible piece involves 10 minutes of thinking of everything you’re grateful for: in yourself, among your family and friends, in your career, and the like. After that, visualize “everything you want in your life as if you had it today.”

Robbins offers the “Hour of Power” segment of his Ultimate Edge series as a free audio stream (here’s the direct MP3 download). Blogger Mike McGrath also wrote a concise summary of the Hour of Power). You can be sure that at least some of the more driven people you’ve met in your career are working on Robbins’ plan.

Do the Big, Shoulder-Sagging Stuff First

Brian Tracy’s classic time-management book Eat That Frog gets its title from a Mark Twain saying that, if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, you’ve got it behind you for the rest of the day, and nothing else looks so bad. Gina Trapani explained it well in a video for her Work Smart series). Combine that with the concept of getting one thing done before you wade into email, and you’ve got a day-to-day system in place. Here’s how to force yourself to stick to it:

Choose Your Frog

"Choose your frog, and write it down on a piece of paper that you'll see when you arrive back at your desk in the morning, Tripani advises."If you can, gather together the material you'll need to get it done and have that out, too."

One benefit to tackling that terrible, weighty thing you don’t want to do first thing in the morning is that you get some space from the other people involved in that thing--the people who often make the thing more complicated and frustrating. Without their literal or figurative eyes over your shoulder, the terrible thing often feels less complex, and you can get more done.

Ask Yourself If You’re Doing What You Want to Do

Feeling unfulfilled at work shouldn’t be something you realize months too late, or even years. Consider making an earnest attempt every morning at what the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs told a graduating class at Stanford to do:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

“Customer Service” (or Your Own Equivalent)

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark answered the first hour question succinctly: “Customer service.” He went on to explain (or expand) that he also worked on current projects, services for military families and veterans, and protecting voting rights. But customer service is what Newmark does every single day at Craigslist, responding to user complaints and smiting scammers and spammers. He almost certainly has bigger fish he could pitch in on every day, but Newmark says customers service “anchors me to reality.”

Your own version of customer service might be keeping in touch with contacts from year-ago projects, checking in with coworkers you don’t regularly interact with, asking questions of mentors, and just generally handling the human side of work that quickly gets lost between task list items. But do your customer service on the regular, and you’ll have a more reliable roster of helpers when the time comes.

What do you with the first hour of your workday to increase productivity and reduce stress? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Racemi

Racemi (pronounced "Ray-SEE-me") is a data center software vendor that specializes in cloud provisioning and cloud migration products.

Racemi's products enable physical-to-cloud (P2C), cloud-to-physical (C2P) and cloud-to-cloud (C2C) migration. The company's products support Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, GoGrid and Terremark cloud infrastructure services.

Racemi products include Cloud Path, a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) application that enables the migration of existing physical and virtual servers to cloud provider environments. The product also enables cloud service migration. Another product, DynaCenter, is a cloud migration platform that enables the migration of server workloads among diverse physical, virtual and cloud platforms. DynaCenter moves the entire server stack, including the operating system (OS) and applications, as well as network and storage configurations.

The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. In its LinkedIn profile, Racemi calls itself "a moving company for the cloud."