Justification for CNC resources.

[xiseesxis]

It seems every year I have to go through an exercise to justify my existence as a CNC to upper management. Does anyone face the same issue I do? What I want to do this year is to provide upper management with some numbers regarding the number of CNC resources required to support our user base. Please share with me in general terms, the number of users you support and how many CNC resources you have on staff (contract or FTEs)? Below are my numbers.

We support five different releases of JDE across the various divisions of my company.

1) OneWorld B732 (yes, it is an old release): Over 1000 active accounts with heavy development requiring packages every Tues, Thurs and full packages every other month.
2) Oneworld B733: Over 50 users but minimal development.
3) Oneworld XE : over 50 user but minimal development.
4) E1 8.10: Over 200 active accounts with heavy development requiring packages every Tues and Thursday with full packages every other month.
5) E1 8.12: Over 800 active accounts with heavy development requiring packages every Tues and Thursday with full packages every other month.

To support all this, we have three CNCs. Two senior (9+ years each) and a very junior guy.

Please share your numbers if you don't mind.

 

[Sebastian Sajaroff]

Hi,

Ask you upper management how they would justify their
own existence... It's very effective though a bit brutal.

Sebastian

 

[xiseesxis]

I like your suggestion but at this point I still need job. Perhaps when economy has improved I can pose that question.

In the mean time, any help?

 

[Larry_Jones]

This is a bit hard to do maybe, but if your continued employment is on the line . . .

1. Either you or the other senior CNC schedule an elective surgery which will require you to be on sick leave for several weeks.

2. The other CNC needs to
a. Take a weeks vacation
b. have a death in the family requiring travel to the other side of the country for the funeral.
c. get a severe version of the swine flu
d. All of the above

3. While both of you are out, hire a hit man to break both hands of the jr CNC.

After a week or two either they'll start to appreciate you or you really are redundant.

P.S. for more ideas google BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell).

 

[Sebastian Sajaroff]

Hi,

Here are some real numbers of accounts I visited or
assist personally :

Note : 1 FTE = 40 hours a week (one person)

Xe iSeries, 20 users, zero development 0.10 FTE
E810 iSeries, 150 users, an update a week, 0.12 FTE
E812 AIX DB2, 150 users, an update a week, 0.12 FTE too
E810 SQL2008, 100 users + DBA activities, 0.25 FTE
E810 AIX DB2, 360 users + lots of dev : 1.75 FTE
E812 iSeries, 200 users + lots of dev : 2 FTE

In my humble opinion, the number of CNCs depend more
on hardware complexity (performance, tuning, number of
servers, etc) and development activity than on the
number of users.

An account with 50 users and lots of dev activity and
some performance issues will require more CNC time than
an account with 500 users, stable architecture and
no development at all.

 

[xiseesxis]

Thanks for your help Sebestian. I agree with you that hardware complexity and level of development activity plays a big role in determining how many CNCs are needed.

All of our JDE installations are on iSeries. The B732, B7332 and XE installs all use Citrix clients. Our 8.10 and 8.12 are AIO installations on iSeries. The 8.12 installation also uses Citrix to publish IE specifically for E1. There's heavy development on three of our five systems. My days are never dull as there is always something going on with one system or another. Weekends are also never free as there data refreshes, full packages, upgrading deployment servers, PTFs, ESUs etc. With only three CNCs, it seems we are perpetually putting out fires instead of taking proactive actions to ensure a stable environment.

[ QUOTE ]
Hi,
Here are some real numbers of accounts I visited or
assist personally :

Note : 1 FTE = 40 hours a week (one person)

Xe iSeries, 20 users, zero development 0.10 FTE
E810 iSeries, 150 users, an update a week, 0.12 FTE
E812 AIX DB2, 150 users, an update a week, 0.12 FTE too
E810 SQL2008, 100 users + DBA activities, 0.25 FTE
E810 AIX DB2, 360 users + lots of dev : 1.75 FTE
E812 iSeries, 200 users + lots of dev : 2 FTE

In my humble opinion, the number of CNCs depend more
on hardware complexity (performance, tuning, number of
servers, etc) and development activity than on the
number of users.

An account with 50 users and lots of dev activity and
some performance issues will require more CNC time than
an account with 500 users, stable architecture and
no development at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

 

[peterbruce]

xiseesxis,

You have got some interesting replies on this thread. Sebastian provided some good generic rules and Larry mentioned one way to make it obvious that the CNC roles were needed.

I have a slightly different suggestion to provide your management with the reasons they need the CNC roles. We have a monthly reporting requirement for "outcomes." This is basically what we have completed and what we have worked on during the month. If you and your fellow CNCs keep a list of such information on a regular basis - including the fact of providing the information, and provide it to your management, that should demonstrate that there is a need for the CNC role - it may even demonstrate to your management that you need additional resources.

All the best for your "self justification" - please let us (JDEList) know what you end up doing and how it works out.