10 improvement goals for
the less-than-perfect end user
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Takeaway: |
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I published this list of resolutions as a download at the end of last year
hoping to nudge myself (and other users) toward some better habits in 2006.
Well, here it is March. We're closing in on the NCAA tournament, and I find
myself not much further along in my efforts to adopt best practices. In case
you missed the download version (or managed to disregard it, as its
own author has done), here are 10 goals aimed at guiding end users toward
improved behavior. IT pros worth their salt are constantly striving
to develop their skills and expand their knowledge and talents to become
better at what they do--so why shouldn't end users
set similar goals for themselves? Most consumers of IT services (whether they
be CIOs, salespeople, accounting staff, or even
those who deliver those services--the IT department, in other words) could
all stand to take stock and consider ways to become better IT citizens in the
year ahead. So in the interest of end user betterment--and
in tribute to the techs who have been so gamely supportive during all my
years of computer use and misuse--I've drafted a set of resolutions aimed at
improving my own user behavior. Maybe you can slip a copy of this document
between the punchbowl and the chipotle-bologna roll-ups at your company's
Final Four party. Give your users a little food for thought. #1: Respect the
necessity of maintaining careful password habits
And then maintain them. One of the simplest ways
in the world to contribute to company security is to follow a few password
best practices. It's not that hard. I'm just lazy about it. I don't share my
passwords, and I don't leave them lying around. But are they as strong as
they should be? Nope. Do I use the same password for multiple services? Yeah,
sometimes. Do I change them as often as I should? Hahahahaha. Well those bad habits are going away, for my
various company logins and on my home system as well. One resource that
helped convince me to clean up my password act (and a good tool for educating
your end users) is this
PowerPoint presentation. #2: Follow the
proper help desk ticket protocol for making support requests
Whoa, do I need to work on this one. It falls
under "old dog, new trick" for me--too many years spent in small,
informal working environments, where you snagged anyone available to help you
obtain software, configure installations, troubleshoot problems. Nowadays,
more employees, more formal organization, and a more sophisticated and
complex infrastructure demand a controlled procedure for making requests. No
more, "Yo, Ted, got a minute?" (I'm
relatively certain that Ted will be happy to hear this.) If your shop is just growing into the need for a
more formalized help desk system, this simple VBA-driven
tool might come in handy. It includes forms for opening and updating
tickets, printable statements for recordkeeping, and a report feature. #3: Handle computer
problems more scientifically
I tell myself to take screenshots of error
messages or write them down and to document the steps that led up to the
problem. And then I don't. I always think I'll remember. (Good one.) Along with recording details, I will stop making
wild, intuitive leaps that yield foregone conclusions about how implementing
some trivial tweak or surfing for chipotle-bologna roll-up recipes caused a
cascade of minute system alterations that months later induced Outlook to
forget that it's the default e-mail client. The tech does not need to hear my
theories. I do not need to look any more foolish than I already do. And
relating objective details becomes impossible when they're overlaid by a
laboriously contrived hypothesis. #4: Practice a
little desktop housekeeping
There's nothing quite like the feeling of
watching a support tech pop open your computer case and seeing wave upon wave
of dust and doghair come rolling out. And an
M&M. How the hell did that get in there? Or having them sit down at your
keyboard to check something on your machine and suddenly noticing that A
through [Enter] have all but disappeared under a
layer of composted Doritos. In fact, as I'm writing this, I see that even the
mouse is looking a little skanky. I can do better
than this, I'm pretty sure. A little regular
maintenance and a can
of compressed air, and I'll have things showroom-bright in no time at
all. #5: Follow corporate
policies regarding downloads and installations on the company machine
Okay, I'm projecting here. I don't fit the
profile of those cavalier or hapless users who stuff their hard drives full
of extracurricular files and apps. But I know it's a big issue for most IT
departments, so I figured I'd throw it in here. If I were ever tempted to put
a lot crap on my machine, I'd resist the urge anyway because if the system
went belly-up, I'd be mortally humiliated. If you don't have a policy
in place, this one will give you a starting point. #6: Take ownership
for ensuring data on my company laptop is backed up
Last spring, my laptop's three-month-old hard
drive failed in a big way. No one could explain it, no one could revive it,
and I chose not to raid my dogs' college fund to pay someone to retrieve my
data. How backed up was I? Well, let's see. I've been working in the IT field
for, erm, DECADES. So of course I was aware of the
critical importance of backing up my files. You betcha
I'd backed everything up. Seven months earlier. Here's an excellent list of laptop
best practices, if you need one. #7: Read the e-mail
sent out by local and corporate IT staff regarding migrations, upgrades, new
security patch deploys, etc.
Especially the messages that say PLEASE READ
THIS!!! That's how bad we users are: IT is forced to implore us in their
subject lines. If I were in the support department, I'd turn my back on users
after the first few e-mails got ignored. "What's that? You don't know
the path to the new file server? Well we explained the changes in those 19
e-mails we sent starting last August. I guess you're on your own." (This
is why I'm not in support. It's also why I don't have kids.) #8: Keep my Outlook
mailbox within reasonable limits
I'm not sure when this started being a problem
for me. At one time, I was so organized and tidy. No really. But now it seems
like I'm always maxed out, forced to dig through glacially compressed layers
of folders containing e-mails dating back to the last century so that I can
remove enough items for my inbox to breathe again. There's some recreational
value in revisiting e-mails addressing Y2K compliance, but at some point, you
just have to let go. Or at least move it offline or archive
it. Luckily, I have an Outlook rule that makes short work of those
e-mails with PLEASE READ THIS!!! in the subject
line. #9: Educate myself
on new software, procedures, and technologies that affect my job
I'm a little selective here, eager to master the
fun and powerful stuff but dragging my heels when it's time to sit down and
learn about anything mundane or utilitarian. So this year, I vow to attend
all training sessions, read the instructions provided by the IT staff, and be
proactive about my own skills development instead of whining to IT and to my
colleagues about the impenetrable interface and idiotic behavior of the new
content management system. (Those things may well be true, but I'm going to
make sure I've earned the right to complain about them.) #10: Don't try to
second-guess the techs who try to help me fix problems
If I'm so damn smart, let me fix it myself. Nuff said. |