Exercise One

For this exercise the participants will break up into small groups. Then they will chose a topic and discuss how they can improve by using the principles discussed in the previous two modules.

Setup

You will need to have large sticky pads or small white-boards for each team. These should be placed around the room so that each team can gather around without interfering with the other teams.

Organize into groups

Have the people count off by an appropriate number to create groups of four to five members. For example, if there are twenty people in the class have them count off to four. There will be four groups of five people each.

The intention is to create a number of groups for the exercise that are small enough that everyone can have a voice and participate. If the groups are to large it is difficult for everyone to participate. If the groups are to small it may be difficult for them to come up with a topic.

Generally counting off while going around the room creates diversity amongst the teams. This way teams should be made up of a cross section of the people attending the training. Any method to create the groups can be used, the thing to avoid is entire groups of people who may not be involved closely enough with the technology to come up with a topic.

Once everyone has counted off, have the teams gather around their paper or white-board.

Chose a Topic

Instruct the teams to each chose a topic. This should be a real topic and not a hypothetical. The topic should be a problem they have today. It will likely be around some technology or process they currently use in the datacenter that could use improvement.

Have the team write the topic on the top of their paper.

The topics can be anything, however it needs to be something that can be solved by applying some of the operating principles previously discussed. It is best if each team has a unique topic. This enables a broader opportunity for collaborative discussion later on.

If teams are having difficulty coming up with a topic suggestions can be made from the following list. It is important for teams to try and come up with their own topic so that it is relevant and meaningful to them.

Topic Ideas:

  • Application deployment process
  • Team collaboration
  • System upgrading and patching
  • Dependencies between applications
  • Developer access
  • Monitoring insights
  • Rolling back
  • Dependency management for applications
  • Configuration management
  • Configuration validation and testing
  • Testing in general

Discuss Improvements

Once each team has chosen a topic, instruct them to discuss how they could improve on the topic by applying some of the new operating principles. They do not need to document in great detail, a word or two so they remember what they discussed is fine.

This section is intended to take some time. Allow enough time for the teams to explore a number of possibilities. Do not rush this process. You should move around the room and make suggestions to help the teams along the correct path. Get a sense of the room and when the conversations begin to move off-topic that is a sign that it is time to move on.

Presentations and Discussions

Have each team briefly introduce their topic and explain what they have discussed for improving the situation. Brief discussion is encouraged in order to further explore the operating principles. This is intended primarily to ensure that folks are gaining an understanding of the material and how they can apply it.

The pace of this should be based on the students understanding. If they are getting it right off this portion can be shortened. If many of the students are struggling with the concepts, this is the place to explore that and foster discussions that lead to understanding.

A break should immediately follow this discussion. This gives you the opportunity to work with individuals who may benefit from additional guidance. This will also encourage the discussions to carry over to the break.