Where to start?

I have been considering my options as to what to put on this blog. It's tougher than I thought because almost every topic I considered could be written about for many, many pages and the danger of writing only a series of short blog post is that the reader - that's you - could easily take away an incomplete message if the whole series of posts were not read together.

Then I thought, "You're being unfair to your readers. They're smart people. So long as you make it clear posts are part of a series they'll get it." So, I'm going to post that way, some short posts but plenty of themed series.

I can hear you all now thinking "but what themes Mark? What pearls of wisdom do you have to cast?" Many my children, many. :) Here are a few thoughts that I will be investigating in this blog.

• Simplicity in organisational process and how organisations get this horribly wrong, and why, and how to fix it.
• Version control; especially version control trees and a language for describing them. How directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) are useful. How the mathematics of DAGs might help. Where DAGs break down in software configuration management (SCM) and what you might be able to do about it.
• Why ITIL, CoBIT, CMMII and their ilk are both a blessing and a curse.
• How to make the business case for IT systems management, including; configuration, change, release, build, problem, and defect management.
• How to create a powerful and flexible build farm using virtual appliances. The advantages of a virtual build farm. How to automate builds.
• SCM; where people go wrong. How to avoid being one of those people.
• Changing culture; one of the biggest problems faced by anyone trying to introduce systems management into an organisation is cultural inertia. How can you overcome this tendency to 'keep doing the same thing', especially when you have direct authority over the people who need to change?

Well, that's just a few random topics that spring to mind. I'll be adding others as they come up, in the meanwhile I'll be trying to write at least one post a week. I will try to keep these blog post short(ish) and informal. When I find time I will be adding supporting information, or more formal presentation, at http://www.principia-it.co.uk and linking there from this blog.

Good luck with your own efforts.