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CSCW
2004
ACM

Field studies of computer system administrators: analysis of system management tools and practices

14 years 4 months ago
Field studies of computer system administrators: analysis of system management tools and practices
Computer system administrators are the unsung heroes of the information age, working behind the scenes to configure, maintain, and troubleshoot the computer infrastructure that underlies much of modern life. However, little can be found in the literature about the practices and problems of these highly specialized computer users. We conducted a series of field studies in large corporate data centers, observing organizations, work practices, tools, and problem-solving strategies of system administrators. We found system administrators operate within large-scale, complex environments that present significant technical, social, cognitive, and business challenges. In this paper, we describe system administrator tool use in critical, high-cost, labor-intensive work through observational, survey, and interview data. We discuss our findings concerning administrator needs for coordinating work, maintaining situation awareness, planning and rehearsing complex procedures, building tools, and su...
Rob Barrett, Eser Kandogan, Paul P. Maglio, Eben M
Added 30 Jun 2010
Updated 30 Jun 2010
Type Conference
Year 2004
Where CSCW
Authors Rob Barrett, Eser Kandogan, Paul P. Maglio, Eben M. Haber, Leila Takayama, Madhu Prabaker
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