As a long time follower of Technibble, I thought it best to start a series on automating our day to day jobs. As Technicans, we may be in it for the money, or feeling like a hero, or something else entirely. I know for me, I love being the hero. The check at the end of the day isnt what its about. However, the check feeds me and my family and lets me live a lifestyle i truly enjoy. Ive been at this since I was 16. I am now 31. The company i started when i was 19 started from doing contract work, to running clients directly, to me burning out. When i say burn out, i mean, i got tired of going to work in the morning. Though i loved what i did, I knew that i was wasting my time. I dreaded the customers. I dreaded the mindless part of my job. I had achieved all technical challenges i was encounted. I knew the things i did on a day to day basis could be automated. The customer who was such a pain in the ass and always called once a week for something - I knew i could automate so i never had to see him again.
To be fair - a sliver of my background is I wanted to be a Software Engineer. Specifically - Game development. Im not a Computer Game Software Engineer. My official title currently is Sr. QA Software Engineer II. Going on 5 years. I still have my business. Here is why - I dont have to do anything anymore except on rare occasions.
At the end of this 3 part series, I will release a basic Automation Framework for free with the Source.
(Note - Source is .Net C# based, with a SQL backend & IIS/Apache Server)
Discovery:
This is the very first process you need to do to figure out your Return on Investment (ROI). When i say ROI - I specifically mean Return on Your Time. What is your time worth to you? This is assuming you are writting and developing your automated framework yourself. This does not account for others and the time related to it.
What do you spend most of your time doing? Is it Virus Removal? Imaging? Active Directory work? The dreaded "Its just slow (yet 10 years old)" (yes you can make a 10 year old machine breeze if you know how. Remember it wasnt slow when it rolled off the assembly line). Is it posting on Social media and Craigslist? Yes you can automate some aspects of marketing.
If you do a set of tasks day in and day out. You identify it takes 2 hours out of your day or more, its a candidate for automation.
It may take you 40 man hours to develop a solid automation tool to remove that 2 hours, but those 2 hours are valuable over the course of a 8 hour standard work day. For me, the biggest benefit was ripping out Virus / Malware / Malicious software and speeding up machines - even ancient hardware.
This enabled me to have enough free time to get a real job in the Software industry as a QA Analyst.
Once you identify the key points in your day to day that can be automated, you can start prioritizing and then implementing. Even if its an extra couple hours a night for a couple weeks. You wont regret it.
Which brings us to the next tidbit:
Road to Automation Part 2: Implementing a Automation Framework (with example) and executing:
(Look for link here on 3/20)
To be fair - a sliver of my background is I wanted to be a Software Engineer. Specifically - Game development. Im not a Computer Game Software Engineer. My official title currently is Sr. QA Software Engineer II. Going on 5 years. I still have my business. Here is why - I dont have to do anything anymore except on rare occasions.
At the end of this 3 part series, I will release a basic Automation Framework for free with the Source.
(Note - Source is .Net C# based, with a SQL backend & IIS/Apache Server)
Discovery:
This is the very first process you need to do to figure out your Return on Investment (ROI). When i say ROI - I specifically mean Return on Your Time. What is your time worth to you? This is assuming you are writting and developing your automated framework yourself. This does not account for others and the time related to it.
What do you spend most of your time doing? Is it Virus Removal? Imaging? Active Directory work? The dreaded "Its just slow (yet 10 years old)" (yes you can make a 10 year old machine breeze if you know how. Remember it wasnt slow when it rolled off the assembly line). Is it posting on Social media and Craigslist? Yes you can automate some aspects of marketing.
If you do a set of tasks day in and day out. You identify it takes 2 hours out of your day or more, its a candidate for automation.
It may take you 40 man hours to develop a solid automation tool to remove that 2 hours, but those 2 hours are valuable over the course of a 8 hour standard work day. For me, the biggest benefit was ripping out Virus / Malware / Malicious software and speeding up machines - even ancient hardware.
This enabled me to have enough free time to get a real job in the Software industry as a QA Analyst.
Once you identify the key points in your day to day that can be automated, you can start prioritizing and then implementing. Even if its an extra couple hours a night for a couple weeks. You wont regret it.
Which brings us to the next tidbit:
Road to Automation Part 2: Implementing a Automation Framework (with example) and executing:
(Look for link here on 3/20)
