Empirical studies of programmers: the territory, paths, and destination
Papers presented at the first workshop on empirical studies of programmers on Empirical studies of programmers
Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication
Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication
Connections: new ways of working in the networked organization
Connections: new ways of working in the networked organization
Telerobotics, automation, and human supervisory control
Telerobotics, automation, and human supervisory control
Ghosts in the network: distributed troubleshooting in a shared working environment
CSCW '92 Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work
Physical spaces, virtual places and social worlds: a study of work in the virtual
CSCW '96 Proceedings of the 1996 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Infrastructure management as cooperative work: implications for systems design
GROUP '97 Proceedings of the international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work: the integration challenge
How does radical collocation help a team succeed?
CSCW '00 Proceedings of the 2000 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
A survey of system administrator mental models and situation awareness
SIGCPR '01 Proceedings of the 2001 ACM SIGCPR conference on Computer personnel research
Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction
Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction
The Vision of Autonomic Computing
Computer
System administrators are users, too: designing workspaces for managing internet-scale systems
CHI '03 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Recovery Oriented Computing (ROC): Motivation, Definition, Techniques,
Recovery Oriented Computing (ROC): Motivation, Definition, Techniques,
Researching system administration
Researching system administration
HICSS '04 Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'04) - Track 4 - Volume 4
Usable Autonomic Computing Systems: The Administrator's Perspective
ICAC '04 Proceedings of the First International Conference on Autonomic Computing
Error Messages: What's the Problem?
Queue - System Failures
A1: end-user programming for web-based system administration
Proceedings of the 18th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
Instant messaging bots: accountability and peripheral participation for textual user interfaces
GROUP '05 Proceedings of the 2005 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work
Trust as an underlying factor of system administrator interface choice
CHI '06 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Communications of the ACM - Services science
A research manifesto for services science
Communications of the ACM - Services science
Understanding service sector innovation
Communications of the ACM - Services science
What academic research tells us about service
Communications of the ACM - Services science
Semantics to energize the full services spectrum
Communications of the ACM - Services science
Resource planning for business services
Communications of the ACM - Services science
Communications of the ACM - Services science
The evolution and discovery of services science in business schools
Communications of the ACM - Services science
Service systems, service scientists, SSME, and innovation
Communications of the ACM - Services science
The Clarion Call for modern services: China, Japan, Europe, and the U.S.
Communications of the ACM - Services science
interactions - Help! User assistance and HCI
Design guidelines for system administration tools developed through ethnographic field studies
Proceedings of the 2007 symposium on Computer human interaction for the management of information technology
Cube management system: a tangible interface for monitoring large scale systems
Proceedings of the 2007 symposium on Computer human interaction for the management of information technology
Activity-based management of IT service delivery
Proceedings of the 2007 symposium on Computer human interaction for the management of information technology
IT ecosystems: evolved complexity and unintelligent design
Proceedings of the 2007 symposium on Computer human interaction for the management of information technology
Proceedings of the 2007 ACM symposium on Applied computing
Improved error reporting for software that uses black-box components
Proceedings of the 2007 ACM SIGPLAN conference on Programming language design and implementation
A1: spreadsheet-based scripting for developing web tools
LISA '05 Proceedings of the 19th conference on Large Installation System Administration Conference - Volume 19
Global grid monitoring: the EGEE/WLCG case
Proceedings of the 2007 workshop on Grid monitoring
Towards understanding IT security professionals and their tools
Proceedings of the 3rd symposium on Usable privacy and security
The challenges of using an intrusion detection system: is it worth the effort?
Proceedings of the 4th symposium on Usable privacy and security
Work practices of system administrators: implications for tool design
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
Understanding and supporting personal activity management by IT service workers
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
Sysadmins and the need for verification information
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
Guidelines for designing IT security management tools
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
IT-management software deployment: field findings and design guidelines
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
Policy-based IT automation: the role of human judgment
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
System administrator teamwork: evidence from the SAGE salary survey
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
LISA'08 Proceedings of the 22nd conference on Large installation system administration conference
Sysman: a virtual file system for managing clusters
LISA'08 Proceedings of the 22nd conference on Large installation system administration conference
Server-Based Computing Solution Based on Open Source Software
Information Systems Management
Real life challenges in access-control management
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Generations in the Workplace: An Exploratory Study with Administrative Assistants
UAHCI '09 Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Part III: Applications and Services
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Part IV: Interacting in Various Application Domains
Usable autonomic computing systems: The system administrators' perspective
Advanced Engineering Informatics
System administrators as broker technicians
Proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for the Management of Information Technology
Scripting practices in complex systems management
Proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for the Management of Information Technology
Storage administration: field findings and software design guidelines
Proceedings of the Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for the Management of Information Technology
Sheepdog, parallel collaborative programming-by-demonstration
Knowledge-Based Systems
No Code Required: Giving Users Tools to Transform the Web
No Code Required: Giving Users Tools to Transform the Web
A service delivery platform for server management services
IBM Journal of Research and Development
Toward quantifying system manageability
HotDep'08 Proceedings of the Fourth conference on Hot topics in system dependability
Collaboration in system administration
Communications of the ACM
Collaboration in System Administration
Queue - System Administration
The state of the art in end-user software engineering
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
A survey of system configuration tools
LISA'10 Proceedings of the 24th international conference on Large installation system administration
The margrave tool for firewall analysis
LISA'10 Proceedings of the 24th international conference on Large installation system administration
A methodical procedure for designing consumer oriented on-demand IT service propositions
Information Systems and e-Business Management
Advanced tools for operators at amazon.com
HotACI'06 Proceedings of the First international conference on Hot topics in autonomic computing
On the roles of policies in computer systems management
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Characterizing the usability of interactive applications through query log analysis
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Dips and ceilings: understanding and supporting transitions to expertise in user interfaces
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Understanding and improving the diagnostic workflow of MapReduce users
CHIMIT '11 Proceedings of the 5th ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
Information needs of system administrators in information technology service factories
CHIMIT '11 Proceedings of the 5th ACM Symposium on Computer Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology
Large visualizations for system monitoring of complex, heterogeneous systems
INTERACT'05 Proceedings of the 2005 IFIP TC13 international conference on Human-Computer Interaction
Provenance for system troubleshooting
LISA'11 Proceedings of the 25th international conference on Large Installation System Administration
Knowledge and information and needs of system administrators in IT service factories
Proceedings of the 10th Brazilian Symposium on on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the 5th Latin American Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
GROUP workshop proposal: collaboration in managing computer systems
Proceedings of the 17th ACM international conference on Supporting group work
Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
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Computer system administrators are the unsung heroes of the information age, working behind the scenes to configure, maintain, and troubleshoot the computer infrastructure that underlies much of modern life. However, little can be found in the literature about the practices and problems of these highly specialized computer users. We conducted a series of field studies in large corporate data centers, observing organizations, work practices, tools, and problem-solving strategies of system administrators. We found system administrators operate within large-scale, complex environments that present significant technical, social, cognitive, and business challenges. In this paper, we describe system administrator tool use in critical, high-cost, labor-intensive work through observational, survey, and interview data. We discuss our findings concerning administrator needs for coordinating work, maintaining situation awareness, planning and rehearsing complex procedures, building tools, and supporting complicated interleaved workflows.