- Joined
- Mar 13, 2012
- Messages
- 350
- Reaction score
- 240
- First Language
- English
- Primarily Uses
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A huge hello from the U.S. mid-west!
I wanted to get the ball rolling a bit with getting to know more of the members on this community and thought a good way to get this going would be to provide a fun list of things about me. I'll happily respond here to any posts but I also want to encourage anyone to PM me as well if you wanted a side conversation to get to know me better, or possibly dig a bit into the facts I listed.
I deliberated on the best way to present this information and found sticking with a good old fashion bullet list of topics would be best.
Primary user handle for forums - Zortik or Kalyfa.
Zortik is a troll hunter I have from world of warcraft. We've had a love hate relationship for about 8-9 years. Funny enough... he's not even the first character I made by a long shot.
Kalyfa is the main protagonist from The Dark. A book that my wife wrote. I just really like the name.
Real name (just the first though, silly stalkers ^_^) - Shawn. I don't care if you refer to me by my forum or real name.
Location - Dubuque, Iowa (United States). It's about 4 hours west of Chicago.
Career - I'm an Operations Architect for IBM. At the very end of this list I'll give you a silly example of what my job role is like. I've been with IBM for about 5 years.
Family - A silly wife and even sillier toddler and a floofy rabbit that doesn't like hands but needs to be up in your business.
Computer I'm using - CyberPowerPC FANGBOOK EVO 17.3"
Game systems I own - Atari, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo WiiU, All the gameboys/gameboy advances, DS and 3DS (XL) (I don't own the newest 3DS), Xbox, Xbox360, Playstion1, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, PSP and PSVita.
I've been collecting games and game systems for over 20 years. I only collect what I personally like though... so you won't see many titles or systems in my collection that I didn't enjoy playing.
Hobbies - I'm one of those unfortunate people who doesn't have a burning passion for anything in particular... with that said though. I absolutely have a preference for what I like!
Now, for those of you still with me after reading all of that... here's that silly explanation about what I do as an operations architect.
First, you'll need to understand that IT architects come in all shapes and sizes. There are many sphere's of influence that IT architects work within but all architects leverage what are known as 'methods'.
As an Operations Architect I work primarily with lifecycles of applications, assets, configuration items, and integration. A common step up from an Operations Architect is an Enterprise Architect.
In some situations, I need to do an evaluation of an existing structure and ensure it meets ITIL guidelines, make suggestions for improvement, track/create metrics, and work with various levels of designers, consumers, and support staff to make it all work out.
Wait... I promised you a silly explanation. Let me build off of that last sentence. I'll use RPGMaker MV as a hypothetical example!
Shawn: Okay, I need to make sure RPGMaker MV is doing well and has solid growth targets. I'll start with the core developers.
Shawn: Hi developers, tell me... what is frustrating you about this program right now?
Developers: Ummm... I don't know. There's a lot of rework everytime we patch something.
Shawn: Okay, what do you normally patch and how often?
Developers: We patch when it's broken or we need to release something new. That's a dumb question.
Shawn: Yes... Do you have guidelines in place for how to collaborate these improvements/fixes amongst the team?
Developers: We're really busy trying to do all this work. What do you want for an answer?
Shawn: Well, I want to make sure your processes are streamlined. Less rework, easier to pinpoint root cause failures, fun times all around!
Developers: Oh! Awesome, thanks! When will it be done?
Shawn: I'll get you an ETA in a few weeks when I've finished gathering requirements. Can you give me some business cases that frustrated you and who you worked with to implement them?
Developers: No, we're busy. Come back when you have those improvement suggestions.
Shawn: *confused face*
Developers: Besides, we take our input from these 3 groups anyway. So you should start with them.
Shawn: Okay... well I'll follow up with you again shortly once I speak with those groups.
You can rinse and repeat that scenario for all involved. Ultimately, I have to interview multiple levels of teams and process owners to see what they like / don't like, get hard examples as often as possible, create a visual diagram of how they all inter-operate, then create a roadmap for suggested improvements.
The hardest part is convincing them to accept a small measure of chaos in changing their process / way of thinking to introduce these improvements.
I don't think that example was silly enough... must be why I'm in IT.
I wanted to get the ball rolling a bit with getting to know more of the members on this community and thought a good way to get this going would be to provide a fun list of things about me. I'll happily respond here to any posts but I also want to encourage anyone to PM me as well if you wanted a side conversation to get to know me better, or possibly dig a bit into the facts I listed.
I deliberated on the best way to present this information and found sticking with a good old fashion bullet list of topics would be best.
Primary user handle for forums - Zortik or Kalyfa.
Zortik is a troll hunter I have from world of warcraft. We've had a love hate relationship for about 8-9 years. Funny enough... he's not even the first character I made by a long shot.
Kalyfa is the main protagonist from The Dark. A book that my wife wrote. I just really like the name.
Real name (just the first though, silly stalkers ^_^) - Shawn. I don't care if you refer to me by my forum or real name.
Location - Dubuque, Iowa (United States). It's about 4 hours west of Chicago.
Career - I'm an Operations Architect for IBM. At the very end of this list I'll give you a silly example of what my job role is like. I've been with IBM for about 5 years.
Family - A silly wife and even sillier toddler and a floofy rabbit that doesn't like hands but needs to be up in your business.
Computer I'm using - CyberPowerPC FANGBOOK EVO 17.3"
Game systems I own - Atari, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo WiiU, All the gameboys/gameboy advances, DS and 3DS (XL) (I don't own the newest 3DS), Xbox, Xbox360, Playstion1, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, PSP and PSVita.
I've been collecting games and game systems for over 20 years. I only collect what I personally like though... so you won't see many titles or systems in my collection that I didn't enjoy playing.
Hobbies - I'm one of those unfortunate people who doesn't have a burning passion for anything in particular... with that said though. I absolutely have a preference for what I like!
- Dungeons and Dragons (5th edition) - I've played since 2nd but never really found any groups. I tend to DM since I'm usually the most experienced once I can coordinate some friends to try it. It's just really hard to coordinate free time between a lot of adults XD.
- Warhammer (Fantasy) - I adore the miniatures. Sadly, nearly all of mine were destroyed as I moved everywhere under the sun many years ago. I've opted to spend my money on other hobbies rather than this one since I know of nobody locally that plays.
- Deck Building Card Games - Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone, Pokemon, Yugioh, etc. I think I just liked collecting them more than anything. I never got into the competitive spirit with researching and building the best deck types. I just liked having fun and goofing off.
- Cards against humanity / munchkin - Cause laughing is the best!
- Cooking - I really enjoy cooking for friends and family. I'm a really picky eater (I'll try just about anything though) but I can easily cook up dishes that I simply hate. It's a bit of a comedy routine when my friends watch me taste test something I hate... it's like looking for a specific type of yuck that everyone else thinks is yummy...
- Anime - I've got a huge collection of anime.
- Movies - A pretty nifty collection of movies too!
- Video Games - I'm a big fan of solo games or co-op games (particularly split screen ones). I'll play almost anything, but my library is composed mostly of single player RPGs (JRPGs mostly), Action Adventure, Action RPGs, Platformer, Rhythm, and Fighting. Some of the latter ones are fun to play on my own, but I bought them to play with friends while they're over.
- Reading - I don't buy that many books honestly. I stick with authors I really like (Yes, this includes my wife. She's published by the way!). I get into a reading mood a few times a year so it's pretty hard to convince me on the fly to buy a book based on a reference. Even if it sounds amazing! I'm just a bad book worm.
Now, for those of you still with me after reading all of that... here's that silly explanation about what I do as an operations architect.
First, you'll need to understand that IT architects come in all shapes and sizes. There are many sphere's of influence that IT architects work within but all architects leverage what are known as 'methods'.
As an Operations Architect I work primarily with lifecycles of applications, assets, configuration items, and integration. A common step up from an Operations Architect is an Enterprise Architect.
In some situations, I need to do an evaluation of an existing structure and ensure it meets ITIL guidelines, make suggestions for improvement, track/create metrics, and work with various levels of designers, consumers, and support staff to make it all work out.
Wait... I promised you a silly explanation. Let me build off of that last sentence. I'll use RPGMaker MV as a hypothetical example!
Shawn: Okay, I need to make sure RPGMaker MV is doing well and has solid growth targets. I'll start with the core developers.
Shawn: Hi developers, tell me... what is frustrating you about this program right now?
Developers: Ummm... I don't know. There's a lot of rework everytime we patch something.
Shawn: Okay, what do you normally patch and how often?
Developers: We patch when it's broken or we need to release something new. That's a dumb question.
Shawn: Yes... Do you have guidelines in place for how to collaborate these improvements/fixes amongst the team?
Developers: We're really busy trying to do all this work. What do you want for an answer?
Shawn: Well, I want to make sure your processes are streamlined. Less rework, easier to pinpoint root cause failures, fun times all around!
Developers: Oh! Awesome, thanks! When will it be done?
Shawn: I'll get you an ETA in a few weeks when I've finished gathering requirements. Can you give me some business cases that frustrated you and who you worked with to implement them?
Developers: No, we're busy. Come back when you have those improvement suggestions.
Shawn: *confused face*
Developers: Besides, we take our input from these 3 groups anyway. So you should start with them.
Shawn: Okay... well I'll follow up with you again shortly once I speak with those groups.
You can rinse and repeat that scenario for all involved. Ultimately, I have to interview multiple levels of teams and process owners to see what they like / don't like, get hard examples as often as possible, create a visual diagram of how they all inter-operate, then create a roadmap for suggested improvements.
The hardest part is convincing them to accept a small measure of chaos in changing their process / way of thinking to introduce these improvements.
I don't think that example was silly enough... must be why I'm in IT.
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