Sorry all, but I've decided to "throw in the towel"
Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:11 pm
This is really a codicil to the post of the same name in the archived / locked Site Governance forum. The context is my work on the infrastructure and to understand the background you'd need to look at the exchanges on the Apache infrastructure DLs and the #asfinfra IRC channel (except that most of you won't be able to because these ASF infrastructure services DLs are private and by invitation only -- basically the same access rule that we used for running our services until ASF forced us to change this.)
When I came back from my break in Greece, I realised that no effective progress had been made on the migration of the wiki and forums, as no doubt many of you also gathered. I decided that I couldn't let this happen and basically "reengaged" with the ASF infrastructure team to make the migrations happen. It took quite some effort to achieve this and to sort out the major issues. There are still loose issues to be resolved such as reinstating the admin mailboxes on the forums and sorting out how the proxy cache interacts with the sidebar and guest enabled functionality such as collection publishing on the wiki, as well a future migration of the wiki to MW 1.17.0 ...
However, I've had to take a long look at my involvement in this project. I am left with feelings of guilt because I am letting you guys down, and there are tears in my eyes as I write this -- but I've decided that for my health's sake and my quality of life, I've just got to disengage. I've unsubscribed from ooo-dev and trashed the 1,000s of emails -- none of which really interest me. I will do the same with the infrastructure DLs tomorrow. I need to take break from the forums as well as this just sucks me back in.
I need to emphasise that this isn't a simple case of hostility and flaming as was with my previous blow up with Rob. The infrastructure guys are basically a good team; they work as a small tightly knit community and do a good job. I like them and wish them well. However, we just can't seem to work together in a way that I enjoy.
As with many small stable IT support groups, none of the ASF infrastructure rules, processes, procedures and context are documented anywhere; they are just "commonly understood" by the core members. The way to join this community is a bit like a frat-society or a mediaeval guild: you sit quietly in corner, seen but not heard; learn from the masters how everything works; and build up enough karma before you are allowed to touch anything. At the end of this apprenticeship everyone basically understands how to build every server (or knows who to ask) so the system works; apart from key config files checked into snv, little needs to be written down about how to build and to manage systems, apart from brief instructions which are really designed as checklists to ensure that a familiar admin doesn't forget something critical in rebuilding it if needed.
Given six months, no pressures and enough enthusiasm, I could have probably survived this apprenticeship. However, I was initially given a couple of weeks to migrate a couple of systems to new platform, new S/W versions, new infrastructure, and ASF only has a couple of systems of comparable complexity, so was a ridiculous expectation. This was coupled with the fact that I had no "karma" so the team wished to micro-monitor my work, documentation, etc., with me doing all the work on the to-be-live servers.
I am used to working in a corporate world where everything is formalised typically in an ITIL-style framework: processes and procedures are fully documented; complete documentation is required on all systems; major infrastructure tasks such as these go through normal project management cycles: definition and agreement of requirements; development and testing in a 'dev' enironment; promotion to production though configuration and release management controls. However this philosophy is foreign to the ASF team and its current work practices, and so if I work in my comfort zone or explain its advantages then this is seen as my rejecting or rubbishing the ASF way of working.
So we've had a lot of "norming" issues where we've got to know each other, and invariably a few "storming" ones where our cultures clash. I still can't seem to communicate some of the realistic amounts of work involved to move these systems to 100% ASF-compliant model and to current S/W versions: If I want to work at a ~25% level on OOo support then a realistic elapsed time for a man-week task is a month and not a few days. Why do non-urgent actions need to be done tomorrow? I just feel like I am blundering around in a field of broken glass and if I step on a bit then another bottle (a public rebuke on a DL or IRC) comes winging from the sideline at my head.
I realise that I've made mistakes along the way and could have handled this better, but whatever the rights and wrongs, I have to take a personal view. I am pushing 60 and just too old to go through a punishing frat-initiation. This isn't really an environment that I enjoy or one where I want to spend a lot a time. I am pretty unhappy, and this quickly reflects itself into my health because of my ME/CFS. So too much work, too much pain and too little in return to do this "pro bono", because it certainly isn't doing me any good.
At least the system is migrated and we've bought some time. Hopefully the project and community have got a few months grace to find a replacement for me. Sorry guys.
When I came back from my break in Greece, I realised that no effective progress had been made on the migration of the wiki and forums, as no doubt many of you also gathered. I decided that I couldn't let this happen and basically "reengaged" with the ASF infrastructure team to make the migrations happen. It took quite some effort to achieve this and to sort out the major issues. There are still loose issues to be resolved such as reinstating the admin mailboxes on the forums and sorting out how the proxy cache interacts with the sidebar and guest enabled functionality such as collection publishing on the wiki, as well a future migration of the wiki to MW 1.17.0 ...
However, I've had to take a long look at my involvement in this project. I am left with feelings of guilt because I am letting you guys down, and there are tears in my eyes as I write this -- but I've decided that for my health's sake and my quality of life, I've just got to disengage. I've unsubscribed from ooo-dev and trashed the 1,000s of emails -- none of which really interest me. I will do the same with the infrastructure DLs tomorrow. I need to take break from the forums as well as this just sucks me back in.
I need to emphasise that this isn't a simple case of hostility and flaming as was with my previous blow up with Rob. The infrastructure guys are basically a good team; they work as a small tightly knit community and do a good job. I like them and wish them well. However, we just can't seem to work together in a way that I enjoy.
As with many small stable IT support groups, none of the ASF infrastructure rules, processes, procedures and context are documented anywhere; they are just "commonly understood" by the core members. The way to join this community is a bit like a frat-society or a mediaeval guild: you sit quietly in corner, seen but not heard; learn from the masters how everything works; and build up enough karma before you are allowed to touch anything. At the end of this apprenticeship everyone basically understands how to build every server (or knows who to ask) so the system works; apart from key config files checked into snv, little needs to be written down about how to build and to manage systems, apart from brief instructions which are really designed as checklists to ensure that a familiar admin doesn't forget something critical in rebuilding it if needed.
Given six months, no pressures and enough enthusiasm, I could have probably survived this apprenticeship. However, I was initially given a couple of weeks to migrate a couple of systems to new platform, new S/W versions, new infrastructure, and ASF only has a couple of systems of comparable complexity, so was a ridiculous expectation. This was coupled with the fact that I had no "karma" so the team wished to micro-monitor my work, documentation, etc., with me doing all the work on the to-be-live servers.
I am used to working in a corporate world where everything is formalised typically in an ITIL-style framework: processes and procedures are fully documented; complete documentation is required on all systems; major infrastructure tasks such as these go through normal project management cycles: definition and agreement of requirements; development and testing in a 'dev' enironment; promotion to production though configuration and release management controls. However this philosophy is foreign to the ASF team and its current work practices, and so if I work in my comfort zone or explain its advantages then this is seen as my rejecting or rubbishing the ASF way of working.
So we've had a lot of "norming" issues where we've got to know each other, and invariably a few "storming" ones where our cultures clash. I still can't seem to communicate some of the realistic amounts of work involved to move these systems to 100% ASF-compliant model and to current S/W versions: If I want to work at a ~25% level on OOo support then a realistic elapsed time for a man-week task is a month and not a few days. Why do non-urgent actions need to be done tomorrow? I just feel like I am blundering around in a field of broken glass and if I step on a bit then another bottle (a public rebuke on a DL or IRC) comes winging from the sideline at my head.
I realise that I've made mistakes along the way and could have handled this better, but whatever the rights and wrongs, I have to take a personal view. I am pushing 60 and just too old to go through a punishing frat-initiation. This isn't really an environment that I enjoy or one where I want to spend a lot a time. I am pretty unhappy, and this quickly reflects itself into my health because of my ME/CFS. So too much work, too much pain and too little in return to do this "pro bono", because it certainly isn't doing me any good.
At least the system is migrated and we've bought some time. Hopefully the project and community have got a few months grace to find a replacement for me. Sorry guys.