ops matrix
TRANSCRIPT
8/10/2019 Ops Matrix
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SCOPE
LEVEL N-1 N-2 N-3
TITLE Entry/Intern Individual Contributor Senior Individual
Contributor
Work Ethic
Customer
Support
Communication Has reasonable verbal
skills
Has reasonable written
and verbal skills.
Good written and verbal
skills; Ability to work well
with others.
Work Quality &
Efficiency
Follows team processes
and reads documents.
Digs in and makes
progress on work.
Follows team processes.
Documents work.
Attention to detail. Digs
in and makes progress
on work.
Improves existing team
processes. Creates
effective documention
used by others. Attention
to detail. Digs in andmakes progress on
work. Stays focused and
isn't distracted by
irrelevant things.
Decision Making:
Creativity,
Judgment,Initiative &
Flexibility
Needs direction; Knows
when to ask questions.
Takes initiative to tackletasks relevant to skill
level.
Can work independently
with minimal direction.
Takes initiative to tackletasks relevant to skill
level. Capable of and
responsive to change.
Self-starting, able to
work with minimal
direction frommanagement.
Understands need for
lateral thinking; Displays
willingness to adapt to
new ways of doing
business.
Gets things done: Works hard. Takes responsibility for their own actions: does
Viewing everyone you interact with as a customer. Following through on com
Demonstrating the ability to make decisions in the best interest of both the con
alternatives and information. Recognizes the need for and maintains confiden
OPERATIO
Responsible for Self
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Teamwork &
Culture
Strives to be a team
player. Does their best
to support the team and
extend trust and
confidence to others.
Strives to be a team
player. Fosters team by
demonstrating trust,
confidence, and
commitment in others'
actions and decisions to
create a supportive workenvironment.
Effective team player.
Fosters team by
demonstrating trust,
confidence, and
commitment in others'
actions and decisions to
create a supportive workenvironment. Is able to
detect when things aren't
working and works to
address problems.
Technical
Leadership
Able to scope out small
projects;
Able to scope out small
projects; build packages;do service deployment;
Able to scope out
medium sized projects;service deployment; Able
to drive simple live
cutovers
TECHNICAL
ABILITY
N-1 N-2 N-3
System Design
and Architecture
n/a Appreciates basic trade-
offs for large scale
administration.
Understands basic
components in service.
Able to create
requirements which
reflect solid large scale
administrative principles.
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Diagnosis &
Troubleshooting
Able to follow basic
diagnosis scripts and
resolve expected
problems.
Able to follow basic
diagnosis scripts. Has
basic understanding of
decomposing problems
into smaller problems.
Knows when to pull in
someone to help.
Uses causal reasoning
to triage problems.
Demonstrated ability to
decompose complex
problems. Able to
engage in lateral
investigations.
Operations Understands the need
for operations-ready
systems.
Understands the need
for operations-ready
systems, can articulate
the need for automation;
has a "trust nothing"
mindset. Detail oriented.
Able to clearly articulate
key operational
principles, able to identify
key items to be
automated; able to
estimate what is most
likely to break. Extremelydetail oriented. Always
has a plan B. Able to
perform capacity
planning.
Programming
Ability (Shift right
1 for NOC,
networking, and
facilities; Level 5-
8 applicable to
technical track)
able to understand and
write simple scripts.
able to write scripts;
knowledge of 1-2
scripting languages; can
read C. Understands
code management.
can program in an
administrative language;
Can port & install C
programs and create
packages. Understands
code management.
O/S Knowledge &
Diversity (shift
right 1 for people
not working on
hosts day to day)
Good users skills with
one OS.
Strong user skills in
primary OS; Basic admin
experience Understands
local OS environment
Expert user skills with
one OS; Strong admin
skills with one OS; User
knowledge of second
OS; Basic performance
tuning skills;
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LAN &
Networking
Experience (shift
right 2 for people
not in networking
group and make
3rd level ceiling)
familiarity with hubs &
switches, routers
basic understanding of
LAN, UDP/TCP, ports
and services,
Nets/Subnets/Routing.
Basic network gear
configuration experience
Understands LAN
routing protocols;
Intermediate network
equipment configuration
skills and WAN circuit
management. Able to
examine packet traces todebug problems.
Security (Levels
above 3
applicable to
security folks
only)
Understands the need
for security; knows to
ask for help with respect
to security.
Understands the need
for security. Has basic
host security knowledge;
understands the concept
of a firewall. Takes a
defensive posture.
Understands security
theory. Can install and
configure basic firewalls.
Understands VPN
technology and
implementation.
Understanding of
certification,
authentication andintrusion detection.
Understands basic
intrusion response.
Databases (Shift
right by 2 for non
DBA, and cap at
1)
Can write basic SQL
queries; Understands
basic database concept;
able design a basic
schema; can perform
basic database
monitoring.
Can write SQL and read
PL/SQL. Can perform
basic database
installation, creation, and
monitoring knowledge;
Understands basic
database concept;
Understands basic
replication. Can perform
basic database tuning.
Can be responsible for
basic database backup
and recovery.
Can write complex SQL
and PL/SQL; can
perform database
installation, creation, and
monitoring knowledge
with basic trouble-
shooting skills; Can
establish backup
policies; Can tune
performance;
Understands database
internals; Understands
database networking;
Able to evaluate
replication strategies.
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Facilities (shift
right 2 for people
who don't work in
a data center,
Level 2 max for
not facilities team)
Understands need for,
and able to cleanly wire,
rack, and mount devices
Can clearly articulate
data center standards.
Basic electrical signalling
(ethernet length, how
many pairs, etc).
Familiarity with
datacenter facilitiesinfrastructure (Power, Air
flow, cabling).
Can clearly articulate
data center standards
and can develop labeling
and basic layout plans.
Understands signal flows
on all media (and can
use test sets for those),Understands power
(phases, ground, etc),
able to deal with vendors
to resolve technical
issues.
Telco (N/A for
other Groups)
Basic knowledge of
transports types (digital
hierarchy) and basic
alarms. Can follow test
plans to verify
provisioning is correct.
Can test transports and
knowledge of
components used.
Knowledge of specific
network advance
features. Detailed
understanding of
provision and able to
debug provisioning
problems. Able to read
and understand carrier
billing. Able to decode
common signally
protocols.
Detailed knowledge of
carrier transport and
advanced features and
understanding how those
features are
implemented. Able to
guess what phone
company has deployed.
Able to order circuits and
specific all features. Able
to read and understand
carrier billing and
understanding tariff
structures. Able to read
basic signally trace.
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NOC (N/A for
other groups.
Specific for the
NOC)
Can tell the difference
between Red, Yellow,
and Green; Perform
basic maintenance
functions such as push-
truth, Keyme, etc; Will
assist with diagnosis ofissues. Correctly
decides when to
escalate to more senior
personnel. Understands
the documentation
methods that are used
by the NOC; Able to
understand the material.
Tracks alerts as they
arrive in the system and
are able to take initial
actions for remediation;
Understands concepts
about marking hosts in
and out of service; canupdate load balancer
configs; Perform pod
maintenance and
activations; can perform
basic functionality and
host level testing of the
maintenance that was
performed; Able to own
and resolve simple
issues. Correctly
decides when to
escalate to more seniorpersonnel.
Tracks alerts as they
arrive in the system.
Able to correlate events
as they pertain to other
activities. Able to
remedy situations based
on alert information. Ableto perform complex
upgrades of service
groups, and confirm that
things are functioning
correctly when complete.
Will own issues with
medium complexity and
will drive them to
resolution.
Relevant Work
Experience
0-3 year 2-6 years 4+ years
Degree 2-years or equivalent BA/BS or equivalent BA/BS or equivalent
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N-4 N-5 N-6 N-7
Staff / Manager Sr Staff / Sr. Manager Architect / Director Senior Architect /
Senior Director
Strong verbal & written
skills; Works well with
others; Can distill
complex issue to a short
and simple explination.Can work with upper
management;
Very strong verbal &
written skills; Works well
with others. Can bridge
communication gaps.
Understands the need todevelop a listener
oriented communication
strategy; Works with
upper managers;
Very strong verbal &
written skills; Works well
with others and bridges
communication gaps;
Able to communicatecross cultures; Can work
with executives; Able to
speak publicly;
Very strong verbal &
written skills; Improve
any team they are part
of; Able to communicate
position even whenothers have conflicting
viewpoints; Works well
with executives;
Accomplished speaker.
Understands quality
improvement process.
Creates new processes
and documentation.
Stays focused on keyissues and efficient in
time use. Produces the
desired outcome with a
minimum of effort. Able
to estimate schedules.
Leads quality
improvement process
and motivates others.
Authors team processes
and documents. Highlyeffective at completed
work on time. Able to
effectively estimate
schedules. Finds ways
to improve efficiency of
team.
Can drive meta
processes. Authors
organizational process.
Attention to detail.
Highly effective atcompleted work on time.
Able to effectively
estimate schedules. Is
able to improve
efficiency across
organizations.
Drives meta processes;
Authors organizational
processes. Attention to
detail. Highly effective at
completed work on time. Able to effectively
estimate schedules.
Has a proven track
record of improving the
company's overall
efficiency.
Able to initiate projects;
Able to provide direction
to management ontechnical matters.
Identifies what needs to
be done and acts before
being asked to or
required by the situation.
Able to initiate cross
team projects; Able to
provide direction tomanagement on
technical matters.
Consistently anticipates
and drives needed
changes.
Initiates cross team
projects; Provides out-of-
the-box solutions todifficult problems. Able to
balance technical and
business needs.
Consistently anticipates
and drives needed
changes.
Initiates cross team
projects; Provides out-of-
the-box solutions todifficult problems. Able to
balance technical and
business needs.
Consistently anticipates
and drives needed
changes.
n't blameshift. When faced with difficulties, looks for solutions. Displays a sense of personal pride for thei
itments and taking the extra steps to show the consumer that they are important. Treating all consumer
sumer, NetOps, and our company Expressing professionalism, understanding, fairness, self-control and
iality when necessary. Viewing the client as your job rather than as an interruption of your job.
S SKILL MATRIX AND LEVELING
Responsible for Team Responsible for Company and Co
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Effective team player.
Fosters team by
demonstrating trust,
confidence, and
commitment in others'
actions and decisions to
create a supportive workenvironment. Is able to
detect when things aren't
working and works to
address problems.
Introduces new
members to team
culture. Encourages
others to value team
culture.
Improves any team they
are part of. Actively looks
to provide mentorship
and encouragement to
team members;
Involvement with outside
community. Reaches outto other teams;
Regularly examines
team culture looking for
ways to improve team
dynamics;
Improves any team they
are part of; Actively looks
to provide mentorship
and encouragement to
team members;
Involvement with outside
community. Reaches outto other teams;
Regularly examines
company culture looking
for ways to improve it; Is
able to separate
personal agenda from
company direction.
Improves any team they
are part of; Proven as a
transformational coach;
Involvement with outside
community. Reaches out
to other teams;
Regularly examinescompany culture looking
for ways to improve it; Is
able to separate
personal agenda from
company direction.
Ability to mentor team
members; plan andprovide technical
leadership for medium
sized projects. Able to
create formal
requirements for a
project. Able to own live
cutovers.
Ability to plan and
provide technicalleadership for large sized
projects; Ability to
provide mentorship &
technical leadership to
staff; Participates with
the external technical
community. Skilled at
formalizing requirements
for projects.
Ability to plan and
provide technicalleadership for large size
projects across
organizational structures
and anticipate needs;
Ability to provide
mentorship & technical
leadership to technical
staff; Provides
leadership to technical
community (published,
active committee
member, etc.)
Proven ability to plan and
provide technicalleadership for large size
projects across
organizational structures
and anticipate needs;
Ability to provide
mentorship & technical
leadership to technical
staff; Provides
leadership to technical
community (published,
active committee
member, etc.)
N-4 N-5 N-6 N-7
Solid understanding of
production services.
Expert in large scale
administration.
Understands basic
techniques and trade-
offs for HA (High
Availability) systems.
Expert in large scale
administration. Able to
design complex services
which have high
availability requirements;
Ability to design complex
systems trading off
technical issues and
other factors. Skilled at
creating requirements
from customer
interviews.
Proven ability to architect
complex systems which
meet customers' needs
even when need isn't
well articulated.
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Uses causal reasoning
to triage problems.
Skilled at decomposing
complex problems.
Skilled at lateral
investigations. Skilled at
weighting options andcan reason from first
principles.
Uses causal reasoning
to triage problems.
Skilled at decomposing
complex problems.
Skilled at lateral
investigations. Able to
rapidly correlateproblems against
experience. Can write
good post mortem.
Able to diagnose any
technical problem in a
timely fashion. Can write
a good client facing RCA
(Root Cause Analysis).
Able to diagnose any
problem, even when it
crosses company
boundries.
Able to clearly articulate
key operational
principles, able to identify
key items to be
automated; able to
estimate what is most
likely to break. Extremelydetail oriented. Always
has a plan B.
Experiences at capacity
planning
Able to clearly articulate
key operational
principles, able to identify
key items to be
automated; able to
estimate what is most
likely to break. Extremelydetail oriented. Able to
plan for all normal and
abnormal situations.
program in an
administrative language;
Can write simple C
programs. Able to scope
small size software
projects.
fluent in Perl, C or other
systems language;
known system API and
can write networking
code; able to design a
good API
project level coding
experience; know 3+
languages; able to
decompose complex
systems and identify key
APIs.
project level coding
experience; know 3+
languages; able to
decompose complex
systems and identify key
APIs. Theory
background.
Expert user and admin
skills primary OS; Strong
user and admin skills
with second OS and/or
specialty systems;
Strong understanding of
primary OS kernel.
Expert user and admin
skills primary OS; Strong
user and admin skills
with second OS and/or
specialty systems;
Expert understanding of
primary OS kernel; OS
theory background.
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Deep WAN and LAN
routing protocols
experience; Any to work
to resolve problems from
hardware to application
layer. Understands
Networking Theory.
Deep WAN and LAN
protocols experience;
Any to work to resolve
problems to application
layer. Experience
designing networks for
HA services. Networktheory.
Understands complex
site design. Experience
dealing with Internet
scale topology. Deep
appreciate of trade-off
for service availible.
Understands QoS.
Strong security design
and theory; Design and
configure complex
firewalls. Can build basic
certification,
authentication and
intrusion detection
systems. Basic
understanding of incidentresponse and forensics
acquisition.
Expert understanding of
current security
technology, including
firewalls, VPNs, intrusion
detection, certification
and authentication.
Designs site-wide
security infrastructure.
Can lead incidentresponse. Solid
knowledge of forensics
analysis, and legal
implications.
Expert understanding of
current security
technology, including
firewalls, VPNs, intrusion
detection, certification
and authentication. Can
lead company wide
security program which
implements industrystandards. Skilled at
balancing technical and
business requirements.
Expert understanding of
current security
technology, including
firewalls, VPNs, intrusion
detection, certification
and authentication. Sr
Dir. has led company
wide security program
which implementsindustry standards. Sr
Arch: Has moved the
industry forward.
Extensive experience in
daily database
administration; defines
policies within database;
Skilled at schema
design; Performs
application and database
tuning; Defines data
recovery strategy; Has
good knowledge of the
distributed database;
Can develop database
replication strategies;
Fully understand
database internals and
features; Expert in
schema design; Has
thorough system and
database tuning
knowledge; Can devise
complex strategies to
meet data available and
performance metrics.
Fully understand
database internals and
features; Expert in
schema design; Can
devise complex
strategies to meet
availability and
performance metrics;
data warehousing and
experience doing
information
management.
Fully understand
database internals and
features; Expert in
schema design; Can
devise complex
strategies to meet
availability and
performance metrics;
data warehousing and
experience doing
information
management. advanced
information processing
expertise (SLT, etc).
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Can create a project
book. Understands
signal flows on all media
(and can use test sets
for those). Can model
basic cooling. Can make
tradeoff for powerdistrubution. Can lay out
physical space designed
for reliability. Can order
and manage all materials
for a build out. Manage
vendors and
subcontractors.
Has built data centers in
the past. Outside plant
experience with OC-X.
Can model and resolve
cooling. Designs for
workflow and reliablity.
Establish specificationsfor subcontractors and
can run geo-diverse
work crews.
Facilities infrastructure
engineering experience;
able to develop
standards and best
practices across multiple
datacenter sites; plan for
company growth andchanging business
needs.
Detailed knowledge of
carrier transport and
advanced features and
understanding how those
features are
implemented with
specific knowledge of
carriers equipment.
Creates feature
templates.
Understanding tariffs and
how billing integrates
with carrier equipment.
Understanding what
networks can supportwhat signaling. Able to
debug complex signaling
issues.
Detailed knowledge of
carrier transport and
advanced features and
understanding how those
features are
implemented with
specific knowledge of
carriers equipment.
Deep understanding of
carrier provisioning and
be able to effective
escalate problems.
Understanding tariffs and
how billing integrates
with carrier equipment.Can design and build a
phone network.
Expert on transport,
signaling, switching,
provisioning. Command
of voice network
features, and how they
are build. Able to
formulate new services
using existing and new
protocols.
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All of the prior. Also
understands the
infrastructure associated
with the monitoring
system. Able to manage
maintenance activities of
others and keep tabs onthe relationships of what
is occurring and the
effects that are being
seen. Will manage other
members of Netops and
drive issues to
resolution. Owns and
resolves complex issues.
Involves senior
management as
necessary.
All of the prior. Also
understands the
infrastructure associated
with the monitoring
system. Able to manage
maintenance activities of
others and keep tabs onthe relationships of what
is occurring and the
effects that are being
seen. Will manage other
members of Netops and
drive issues to
resolution. Owns and
resolves complex issues.
Involves senior
management as
necessary.
6+ years 8+ years 12+ years 15+ years
BS in CS or equivalent MS or equivalent MS or equivalent MS or equivalent
pdated making use of insights from action research, orginizational learning, and leadership fields
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N-8
Fellow/VP
Very strong verbal &
written skills; Highly
effective at getting
consensus even with
others who haveconflicting agendas;
Works with executives
outside company
Accomplished speaker.
Drives meta processes;
Authors organizational
processes. Attention to
detail. Highly effective at
completed work on time. Able to effectively
estimate schedules.
Has transformed
company's efficiency.
Fundamentally changes
what products and
services are offered;Proven ability to
anticipate trends; Able to
spot discontinuities in
technical and business
landscape.
r work.
s with respect.
willingness to share
mmunity
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Creates a culture that
allows the team to
operate at peak efficency
and learn together.
Proven ability to drive
cross company projects; Ability to provide
mentorship/technical
leadership to technical
staff; Provides
leadership to technical
community (published,
active committee
member, etc.)
N-8
Has created completely
new or novel solutions to
exceptionally difficult
problems though
effective re-framing
changing what
constrains are applied
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Can solve intractable
problems by moving the
industry or redefining the
problem space.
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Expert understanding of
current security
technology, including
firewalls, VPNs, intrusion
detection, certification
and authentication. VP:
Has led company wide
security program which
implements industrystandards. Fellow: Has
made major advance in
state of the art.
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LEVEL N-1 N-2
TITLE Entry Individual Contributor
Work Ethic
Customer Support
Communication Elements of Style - White
Work Quality & Efficiency Effective Executive -Drucker
Decision Making:
Creativity, Judgment,
Initiative & Flexibility
Laderal Thinking - DeBono
Teamwork & Culture Built to Last - Collins Effective Executive -
Drucker
TECHNICAL ABILITY N-1 N-2
Technical Leadership
System Design and
Architecture
Internal Architecture and
Design Documents
Diagnostic &
Troubleshooting [[Work in
Progress]]
de Bono's Thinking Course
Operations
RESOURC
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Covey. Getting
Raving Fans
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Programming Ability The Perl Manual
O/S Knowledge & Diversity The UNIX Programming
Environment - Pike.Tutorials at LISA
System Administration - Evi
Nemeth. Attend LISATechnical Sessions
LAN & Networking
Experience
TCP/IP Illustationed -
Stevens. Attend NANOG
Security Practical Unix and Internet
Security - Spaf & Garfinkel
Building Internet Firewalls -
Chapman & Zwicky,
Firewalls and InternetSecurity - Cheswick &
Bellovin. SANS material
Databases Attend OracleWorld
Facilities
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N-3 N-4 N-5
Senior Individual
Contributor
Staff / Manager Sr Staff / Sr. Manager
The Pyramid Principle Logic
in Writing & Thinking -
Barbara Minto
Six Thinking Hats - De
Bono
Divide or Conquer. Public
Speaking Seminars
What is Lean Six Sigma -George, Rowlands, Kastle
The Goal - Goldratt. SixSigma - Barrows
Software Cost - Bourne.The Fifth Dimension
Strategic Decision Making -
Kirkwood
Good to Great. Leadership
is an Art - Max De Pree
Servant Leadership -
Greenleaf. First Break the
Rules - Buckingham.
The Courage to Teach,
N-3 N-4 N-5
One Minute Manager Software Requirements -
Wiegers
Systems Engineering and
Analysis - Blanchard &
Fabrycky
System Architecting -
Rechtin. Attend USENIX
OSDI, SOSP
How to Solve It - Polya
ES FOR OPERATIONS CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Things Done - David Allen
Help to move to the next level
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The Practice of
Programming by Brian
Kerninghan & Rob Pike
Code Complete
Practice of System and
Network Admin -Hogan &Limoncelli. Solaris Internals
- Mauro & McDougall
Distributed Systems -
Tanenbaum
Routing the Internet -
Huitema. Introduction to
BGP4 - John Stewart III
Applied Cryptography -
Schneier. USENIX Security
Workshop
Computer Forensics
Workshop
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N-6 N-7
Architect / Director Senior Architect / Senior
Director
Sources of Power - Klein
Managing Innovation - HBS
N-6 N-7