North American Network Operators Group

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Network Operations Luminaries?

  • From: Pete Kruckenberg
  • Date: Thu Dec 06 22:42:58 2001

Though I can name off several 'credentialed' network
engineering gurus and the 'bibles' of network engineering, a
recent discussion about the source of network operations
'best practices' left me speechless, and curious.

Who is/are the network operations equivalents of people like
Peter Drucker and Jack Welch--people who are looked at not
only has role models for operations success, but as
luminaries in the industry for having established and
educated the masses about best practices?

What would be the network operations equivalents to revered
business tomes like "The Practice of Management", "Seven
Habits of Highly Successful People", "The G.E. Way" (and a
variety of others that populate the shelves of your friendly
local executive)?

Most network-oriented training seems to focus on the
technology, not on operations (and those subtle but ever so
critical differences between knowing how something is
/supposed/ to work and how it /really/ works, and all of the
effort it takes to create a smooth-running operations
engine).

What are the network operations equivalents to business
programs such as Six Sigma? What about something similar to
the various leading institutions of business management,
institutions that study of how networks are operated (and
used), and develop training and methodologies for better
operations practices?

Pete.