sage-jobs descriptions

[eticket.llnl.gov">tmd]

I am pleased to enclose the results of the sage-jobs working group's efforts 
to create some "standard" system administration job descriptions.
I want to thank all of the working group members for their contribution.
 
You can expect to see the job descriptions in the upcoming USENIX/;login:
publication.  They will also be available for anonymous ftp as well as in 
a more "formal"/hardcopy form from USENIX (format, distribution method, etc. 
still to be determined).  I will post a follow-up to this email and let
you know the details of the ftp site, and hardcopy availability information.

Once again, thanks to all of you who participated, and here's hoping that
our efforts will make a difference!

 	Tina Darmohray
 	SAGE Jobs Working Group Chair
 	tmdeticket.llnl.gov



********************************************************************************
 
 Organizations that rely on computing resources to carry out
 their mission have always depended on systems administration
 and systems administrators.  The dramatic increase in the number 
 and size of distributed networks of workstations in recent 
 years has created a tremendous demand for more, and better trained, 
 systems administrators.  Understanding of the profession of systems 
 administration on the part of employers, however, has not kept pace 
 with the growth in the number of systems administrators or with the 
 growth in complexity of system administration tasks.  Both at sites 
 with a long history of using computing resources and at sites into 
 which computers have only recently been introduced, systems
 administrators face perception problems that present serious
 obstacles to their successfully carrying out their duties.
 
 Systems administration is a widely varied task.  The best systems
 administrators are generalists:  they can wire and repair cables, install
 new software, repair bugs, train users, offer tips for increased
 productivity across areas from word processing to CAD tools, evaluate new
 hardware and software, automate a myriad of mundane tasks, and increase
 work flow at their site.  In general, systems administrators enable people
 to exploit computers at a level which gains leverage for the entire
 organization. 

 Employers frequently fail to understand the background that
 systems administrators bring to their task. Because systems
 administration draws on knowledge from many fields, and because it
 has only recently begun to be taught at a few institutions of higher
 learning, systems administrators may come from a wide range
 of academic backgrounds.  Most get their skills through on-the-job
 training by apprenticing themselves to a more experienced mentor.
 Although the system of informal education by apprenticeship has
 been extremely effective in producing skilled systems
 administrators, it is poorly understood by employers and hiring
 managers, who tend to focus on credentials to the exclusion of
 other factors when making personnel decisions.
 
 Understanding system administrators' background, training, and the 
 kind of job performance to be expected is challenging; too often, 
 employers fall back into (mis)using the job classifications with 
 which they are familiar.  These job classification problems are 
 exacerbated by the scarcity of job descriptions for systems 
 administrators.  One frequently used misclassification is that of 
 programmer or software engineer.  Although the primary responsibility 
 of the systems administrator is not to produce code, that is the 
 metric by which programmers are evaluated, and systems administrators
 thus classified often receive poor evaluations for not being
 "productive" enough.  Another common misclassification is the 
 confusion of systems administrators with operators.  Especially at
 smaller sites, where systems administrators themselves have to 
 perform many of the functions normally assigned (at larger
 sites) to operators, systems administrators are forced to contend 
 with the false assumption they are non-professional technicians.  
 This, in turn, makes it very difficult for systems administrators 
 to be compensated commensurate with their skill and experience.
 
 SAGE, as the professional organization for systems administrators,
 formed the `sage-jobs' working group to address these problems. 
 Its goals include the creation of a set of appropriate job
 descriptions for systems administrators and promotion of their
 adoption by organizations that employ systems administrators.
 
 Below are the current job description templates that the working
 group has produced.  We have created an additional list of check-off 
 items.  The templates are intended to describe the core attributes 
 of systems administrators at various levels of job performance, while 
 the check-off list is intended to augment the core descriptions.  In 
 particular the check-off list is intended to address site-specific 
 needs, or special areas of expertise that a systems administrator 
 may have.  Job descriptions for more experienced systems administrators
 or more senior positions will typically include more items from the 
 check-off list.
 
 
 
              *******************************************
 
 Definitions:
 
    A "small site" has 1-10 computers, all running the same operating
    system, and 20 or fewer users. (A computer used by only the 
    administrator does not qualify as a site.)
 
    A "midsized site" has up to 100 systems, running no more than 3 
    different operating systems, and up to 100 users.
 
    A "large site" has 100 or more computers, potentially running more 
    than one operating system, and 100 or more users.
 

 Core Templates:

    Note: The titles proposed here may not be suitable for all sites. In
    particular, while "Senior System Administrator" is a relatively
    standard title, the titles in use for the earlier levels vary widely
    from place to place. You should feel free to use whatever title is
    most appropriate for your situation.
 
    Level I, Novice System Administrator:
  	Required skills:
 	   Has strong inter-personal and communication skills; is 
               capable of explaining simple procedures in writing or 
               verbally, has good phone skills.
            Is familiar with UNIX and its commands/utilities
               at a user level; can edit files, use a a shell, 
               find users' home directories, navigate through the file system, 
               and use i/o redirection.
  	   Is able to follow instructions well.  
  	Required background:
  	   2 years of college or equivalent post-high-school
  	      education or experience.
  	Desirable:
  	   A degree or certificate in computer science or a related 
 	      field.
  	   Previous experience in customer support, computer
  	      operations, system administration or another related area.
            Motivated to advance in the profession.
  	Appropriate responsibilities:
 	   Performs routine tasks under the direct supervision of a more
 	      experienced system administrator.
 	   Acts as a front-line interface to users, accepting trouble
 	      reports and dispatching them to appropriate system
 	      administrators.
 
    Level II, Junior System Administrator:
 	Required skills:
            Strong inter-personal and communication skills;
 	      capable of training users in applications and UNIX
 	      fundamentals, and writing basic documentation.
            High skill with of most UNIX commands/utilities. 
 	   Familiarity with most basic system administration
 	      tools and processes; for example, can boot/shutdown
               a machine, add and remove user accounts, use backup programs 
               and fsck, maintain 
 	      system database files (groups, hosts, aliases).
            Fundamental understanding of a UNIX-based operating
 	      system;  for example, understands job control,
 	      soft and hard links, distinctions between the
 	      kernel and the shell.  
        Required background:
 	  One to three years of system administration experience.
         Desirable:
 	    A degree in computer science or a related field.
 	    Familiarity with networked/distributed computing
 	       environment concepts; for example, can use the 
                route command, add a workstation to a network,
 	       and mount remote filesystems.
 	    Ability to write scripts in some administrative language
 		(Tk, Perl, a shell).
             Programming experience in any applicable language.  
         Appropriate responsibilities:
 	   Administers a small site alone or assists in
 		the administration of a larger system.  
            Works under the general supervision of a system administrator
 		or computer systems manager.  
 
     Level III, Intermediate/Advanced System Administrator:
 	Required skills:	
 	   Strong inter-personal and communication skills;
 	      capable of writing purchase justifications, training
 	      users in complex topics, making presentations to an internal 
              audience, and interacting positively with upper management.
 	   Independent problem solving; self-direction.
 	   Is comfortable with most aspects of UNIX systems
 	      administration; for example, configuration of mail
 	      systems, system installation and configuration,
 	      printing systems, fundamentals of security, installing
 	      third-party software.
 	   A solid understanding of a UNIX-based operating system;
 	      understands paging and swapping, inter-process
 	      communication, devices and what device drivers do,
 	      file system concepts ("inode", "superblock").
 	   Familiarity with fundamental networking/distributed
 	      computing environment concepts; can configure NFS
 	      and NIS, can use nslookup or dig to check
 	       information in the DNS, understands basic routing
 	       concepts.
 	    Ability to write scripts in some administrative language
 		(Tk, Perl, a shell).
 	    Ability to do minimal debugging and modification of C
 	       programs.
        Required background:
 	   Three to five years systems administration experience.  
   	Desirable:
 	   A degree in computer science or a related field.
 	   Significant programming background in any applicable language.
 	Appropriate responsibilities:
 	   Receives general instructions for new responsibilities from 
 	      supervisor.
 	   Administers a mid-sized site alone or assists in the 
               administration of a larger site.
 	   Initiates some new responsibilities and helps to plan
 	      for the future of the site/network.
 	   Manages novice system administrators or operators.
 	   Evaluates and/or recommends purchases; has strong influence
 	      on purchasing process.
 
     Level IV, Senior System Administrator:
 	Required skills:
 	   Strong inter-personal and communication skills; capable of
 	      writing proposals or papers, acting as a vendor liaison,
              making presentations to customer or client audiences or 
              professional peers, and working closely with upper management.
           Ability to solve problems quickly and and completely.
           Ability to identify tasks which require automation and automate them.
 	   A solid understanding of a UNIX-based operating system;
 	      understands paging and swapping, inter-process
 	      communication, devices and what device drivers do,
 	      file system concepts ("inode", "superblock"), can
 	      use performance analysis to tune systems.
 	   A solid understanding of networking/distributed computing
 	      environment concepts; understands principles of
 	      routing, client/server programming, the design of
 	      consistent network-wide filesystem layouts.
 	   Ability to program in an administrative language (Tk, Perl,
 	      a shell), to port C programs from one platform to
 	      another, and to write small C programs.
 	Required background:
 	   More than five years previous systems administration
 		experience.
 	Desirable:
 	   A degree in computer science or a related field.
 	   Extensive programming background in any applicable language.
 	   Publications within the field of system administration.
 	Appropriate responsibilities:	
 	   Designs/implements complex local and wide-area networks of machines.
 	   Manages a large site or network.
   	   Works under general direction from senior management.
 	   Establishes/ recommends policies on system use and services.
    	   Provides technical lead and/or supervises system
 	      administrators, system programmers, or others of
 	      equivalent seniority.
 	   Has purchasing authority and responsibility for purchase
 	      justification. 
 
 	 
 Check Offs:
 
    These are things you might want to add to the base job descriptions 
    as either required or desirable. 
 
    Local Environment Experience
        Experience with the specific operating systems, applications, or
    	programming languages in use at the site (for example SunOS, AIX,
    	CAE/CAD software, FrameMaker, Mathematica, Fortran, Ada).
        Experience with the work done by the users at the site. 
    
    Heterogeneity Experience
        Experience with more than one UNIX-based operating system.
        Experience with sites running more than one UNIX-based operating system.
        Familiarity with both System V and BSD-based UNIX operating systems.
        Experience with non-UNIX operating systems (for example, MS-DOS,
    	Macintosh OS, or VMS).
        Experience with internetworking UNIX and other operating systems
    	(MS-DOS, Macintosh OS, VMS).
    
    Programming Skills
       Extensive programming experience in an administrative language (Tk, Perl,
          a shell).
       Extensive programming experience in any applicable language.
    
    Networking Skills
       Experience configuring network file systems (for example, NFS,
    	RFS, or AFS).
       Experience with network file synchronization schemes (for example,
    	rdist and track).
       Experience configuring automounters.
       Experience configuring license managers.
       Experience configuring NIS/NIS+.
       Experience with TCP/IP networking protocols (ability to
           debug and program at the network level).
       Experience with non-TCP/IP networking protocols (for example, OSI,
    	Chaosnet, DECnet, Appletalk, Novell Netware, Banyan Vines).
       Experience with high-speed networking (for example, FDDI, ATM, or SONET).
       Experience with complex TCP/IP networks (networks that contain
    	routers).
       Experience with highly complex TCP/IP networks (networks that contain
    	multiple routers and multiple media).
       Experience configuring and maintaining routers.
       Experience maintaining a site-wide modem pool/terminal servers.
       Experience with X/X terminals.
       Experience with dial-up networking (for example, SLIP, PPP, or UUCP).
       Experience at a site that is connected to the Internet.
       Experience installing/configuring DNS/BIND.
       Experience installing/administering Usenet news.
       Experience as postmaster of a site with external connections.
    
    Security
       Experience with network security (for example, building firewalls,
    	deploying authentication systems, or applying cryptography to
          	network applications).
       Experience with classified computing.
       Experience with multi-level classified environments.
       Experience with host security (for example, passwords, uids/gids, file
            permissions, file system integrity, use of security packages).
    
    Site Specialities
       Experience at sites with over 1,000 computers, over 1,000 users,
    	or over a terabyte of disk space.
       Experience with supercomputers.
       Experience coordinating multiple independent computer facilities
    	(for example, working for the central group at a large
    	company or university).
       Experience with a site with 100% uptime requirement.
       Experience developing/implementing a site disaster recovery plan.
       Experience with a site requiring charge-back accounting.
    
    Documentation
       Background in technical publications, documentation, or desktop
    	publishing.
    
    Databases
       Experience using relational databases.
       Experience using a database query language.
       Experience programming in a database query language.
       Previous experience as a database administrator.
    
    Hardware
       Experience installing and maintaining the network cabling in use at
    	the site.
       Experience installing boards and memory into systems.
       Experience with SCSI device setup and installation.
       Experience installing/configuring peripherals (for example, disks,
          modems, printers, or data acquisition devices).
       Experience with board-level diagnosis and repair of computer
    	systems.
       Experience with component-level diagnosis and repair of computer
    	system.
    
    Management
       Budget responsibility.
       Experience in writing personnel reviews, and ranking processes. 
       Experience in interviewing/hiring.