OPERATIONS SKILL MATRIX A

SCOPE Responsible for Self

LEVEL N-1 N-2 N-3
TITLE Entry/Intern Individual Contributor Senior Individual
Contributor
Work Ethic Gets things done: Works hard. Takes responsibility for their own actions: doesn't blameshift. When faced w

Customer Support Viewing everyone you interact with as a customer. Following through on commitments and taking the extra
Demonstrating the ability to make decisions in the best interest of both the consumer, NetOps, and our com
alternatives and information. Recognizes the need for and maintains confidentiality when necessary. View

Communication Has reasonable verbal Has reasonable written Good written and verbal
skills and verbal skills. skills; Ability to work well
with others.

Work Quality & Follows team processes Follows team processes. Improves existing team
Efficiency and reads documents. Documents work. processes. Creates
Digs in and makes Attention to detail. Digs effective documention
progress on work. in and makes progress used by others. Attention
on work. to detail. Digs in and
makes progress on
work. Stays focused
and isn't distracted by
irrelevant things.
Decision Making: Needs direction; Knows Can work independently Self-starting, able to
Creativity, when to ask questions. with minimal direction. work with minimal
Judgment, Takes initiative to tackle Takes initiative to tackle direction from
Initiative & tasks relevant to skill tasks relevant to skill management.
Flexibility level. level. Capable of and Understands need for
responsive to change. lateral thinking; Displays
willingness to adapt to
new ways of doing
business.

Teamwork & Strives to be a team Strives to be a team Effective team player.

Culture player. Does their best player. Fosters team by Fosters team by
to support the team and demonstrating trust, demonstrating trust,
extend trust and confidence, and confidence, and
confidence to others. commitment in others' commitment in others'
actions and decisions to actions and decisions to
create a supportive work create a supportive work
environment. environment. Is able to
detect when things aren't
working and works to
address problems.

Technical Able to scope out small Able to scope out small Able to scope out
Leadership projects; projects; build packages; medium sized projects;
do service deployment; service deployment; Able
to drive simple live
cutovers

TECHNICAL N-1 N-2 N-3

ABILITY
System Design n/a Appreciates basic trade- Understands basic
and Architecture offs for large scale components in service.
administration. Able to create
requirements which
reflect solid large scale
administrative principles.

Diagnosis & Able to follow basic
Troubleshooting diagnosis scripts and
resolve expected
problems.
Able to follow basic Uses causal reasoning
diagnosis scripts. Has to triage problems.
basic understanding of Demonstrated ability to
decomposing problems decompose complex
into smaller problems. problems. Able to
Knows when to pull in engage in lateral
someone to help. investigations.

Operations Understands the need Understands the need Able to clearly articulate
for operations-ready for operations-ready key operational
systems. systems, can articulate principles, able to
the need for automation; identify key items to be
has a "trust nothing" automated; able to
mindset. Detail oriented. estimate what is most
likely to break. Extremely
detail oriented. Always
has a plan B. Able to
perform capacity
planning.

Programming able to understand and able to write scripts; can program in an

Ability (Shift right write simple scripts. knowledge of 1-2 administrative language;
1 for NOC, scripting languages; can Can port & install C
networking, and read C. Understands programs and create
facilities; Level 5- code management. packages. Understands
8 applicable to code management.
technical track)
O/S Knowledge & Good users skills with Strong user skills in Expert user skills with
Diversity (shift one OS. primary OS; Basic admin one OS; Strong admin
right 1 for people experience Understands skills with one OS; User
not working on local OS environment knowledge of second
hosts day to day) OS; Basic performance
tuning skills;

LAN & Networking familiarity with hubs & basic understanding of Understands LAN
Experience (shift switches, routers LAN, UDP/TCP, ports routing protocols;
right 2 for people and services, Intermediate network
not in networking Nets/Subnets/Routing. equipment configuration
group and make Basic network gear skills and WAN circuit
3rd level ceiling) configuration experience management. Able to
examine packet traces to
debug problems.

Security (Levels Understands the need Understands the need Understands security
above 3 for security; knows to for security. Has basic theory. Can install and
applicable to ask for help with respect host security knowledge; configure basic firewalls.
security folks to security. understands the concept Understands VPN
only) of a firewall. Takes a technology and
defensive posture. implementation.
Understanding of
certification,
authentication and
intrusion detection.
Understands basic
intrusion response.
Databases (Shift Can write basic SQL Can write SQL and read
right by 2 for non queries; Understands PL/SQL. Can perform
DBA, and cap at basic database concept; basic database
1) able design a basic installation, creation, and
schema; can perform monitoring knowledge;
basic database Understands basic
monitoring. database concept;
Understands basic
replication. Can perform
basic database tuning.
Can be responsible for
basic database backup
and recovery.
Facilities (shift Understands need for, Can clearly articulate
right 2 for people and able to cleanly wire, data center standards.
who don't work in rack, and mount devices Basic electrical signalling
a data center, (ethernet length, how
Level 2 max for many pairs, etc).
not facilities team) Familiarity with
datacenter facilities
infrastructure (Power, Air
flow, cabling).
Can write complex SQL
and PL/SQL; can
perform database
installation, creation, and
monitoring knowledge
with basic trouble-
shooting skills; Can
establish backup
policies; Can tune
performance;
Understands database
internals; Understands
database networking;
Able to evaluate
replication strategies.
Can clearly articulate
data center standards
and can develop labeling
and basic layout plans.
Understands signal flows
on all media (and can
use test sets for those),
Understands power
(phases, ground, etc),
able to deal with vendors
to resolve technical
issues.
 Telco (N/A for Basic knowledge of
other Groups) transports types (digital
hierarchy) and basic
alarms. Can follow test
plans to verify
provisioning is correct.
NOC (N/A for Can tell the difference
other groups. between Red, Yellow,
Specific for the and Green; Perform
NOC) basic maintenance
functions such as push-
truth, Keyme, etc; Will
assist with diagnosis of
issues. Correctly
decides when to
escalate to more senior
personnel. Understands
the documentation
methods that are used
by the NOC; Able to
understand the material.
Relevant Work 0-3 year
Experience
Degree 2-years or equivalent
NOTE: The section on technical leadership, as well as many of the soft skills needs to be updated making use of insig
Mark Verber 2005, Some Rights Reserved
See Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License for terms
Can test transports and Detailed knowledge of
knowledge of carrier transport and
components used. advanced features and
Knowledge of specific understanding how
network advance those features are
features. Detailed implemented. Able to
understanding of guess what phone
provision and able to company has deployed.
debug provisioning Able to order circuits and
problems. Able to read specific all features. Able
and understand carrier to read and understand
billing. Able to decode carrier billing and
common signally understanding tariff
protocols. structures. Able to read
basic signally trace.
Tracks alerts as they Tracks alerts as they
arrive in the system and arrive in the system.
are able to take initial Able to correlate events
actions for remediation; as they pertain to other
Understands concepts activities. Able to
about marking hosts in remedy situations based
and out of service; can on alert information. Able
update load balancer to perform complex
configs; Perform pod upgrades of service
maintenance and groups, and confirm that
activations; can perform things are functioning
basic functionality and correctly when complete.
host level testing of the Will own issues with
maintenance that was medium complexity and
performed; Able to own will drive them to
and resolve simple resolution.
issues. Correctly
decides when to
escalate to more senior
personnel.
2-6 years 4+ years
BA/BS or equivalent BA/BS or equivalent
ERATIONS SKILL MATRIX AND LEVELING
Responsible for Team Responsible for Company and Community
N-4 N-5 N-6 N-7
Staff / Manager Sr Staff / Sr. Manager Architect / Director Senior Architect /
Senior Director
ctions: doesn't blameshift. When faced with difficulties, looks for solutions. Displays a sense of personal pride for their work.

ugh on commitments and taking the extra steps to show the consumer that they are important. Treating all consumers with respect.
both the consumer, NetOps, and our company Expressing professionalism, understanding, fairness, self-control and willingness to share
ains confidentiality when necessary. Viewing the client as your job rather than as an interruption of your job.

Strong verbal & written Very strong verbal & Very strong verbal & Very strong verbal &
skills; Works well with written skills; Works well written skills; Works well written skills; Improve
others; Can distill with others. Can bridge with others and bridges any team they are part
complex issue to a short communication gaps. communication gaps; of; Able to communicate
and simple explination. Understands the need to Able to communicate position even when
Can work with upper develop a listener cross cultures; Can work others have conflicting
management; oriented communication with executives; Able to viewpoints; Works well
strategy; Works with speak publicly; with executives;
upper managers; Accomplished speaker.

Understands quality Leads quality Can drive meta Drives meta processes;
improvement process. improvement process processes. Authors Authors organizational
Creates new processes and motivates others. organizational process. processes. Attention to
and documentation. Authors team processes Attention to detail. detail. Highly effective at
Stays focused on key and documents. Highly Highly effective at completed work on time.
issues and efficient in effective at completed completed work on time. Able to effectively
time use. Produces the work on time. Able to Able to effectively estimate schedules.
desired outcome with a effectively estimate estimate schedules. Is Has a proven track
minimum of effort. Able schedules. Finds ways able to improve record of improving the
to estimate schedules. to improve efficiency of efficiency across company's overall
team. organizations. efficiency.
Able to initiate projects; Able to initiate cross Initiates cross team Initiates cross team
Able to provide direction team projects; Able to projects; Provides out-of- projects; Provides out-of-
to management on provide direction to the-box solutions to the-box solutions to
technical matters. management on difficult problems. Able to difficult problems. Able to
Identifies what needs to technical matters. balance technical and balance technical and
be done and acts before Consistently anticipates business needs. business needs.
being asked to or and drives needed Consistently anticipates Consistently anticipates
required by the situation. changes. and drives needed and drives needed
changes. changes.

Effective team player. Improves any team they Improves any team they Improves any team they
Fosters team by are part of. Actively looks are part of; Actively looks are part of; Proven as a
demonstrating trust, to provide mentorship to provide mentorship transformational coach;
confidence, and and encouragement to and encouragement to Involvement with outside
commitment in others' team members; team members; community. Reaches out
actions and decisions to Involvement with outside Involvement with outside to other teams;
create a supportive work community. Reaches out community. Reaches out Regularly examines
environment. Is able to to other teams; to other teams; company culture looking
detect when things aren't Regularly examines Regularly examines for ways to improve it; Is
working and works to team culture looking for company culture looking able to separate
address problems. ways to improve team for ways to improve it; Is personal agenda from
Introduces new dynamics; able to separate company direction.
members to team personal agenda from
culture. Encourages company direction.
others to value team
culture.

Ability to mentor team Ability to plan and
members; plan and provide technical
provide technical leadership for large
leadership for medium sized projects; Ability to
sized projects. Able to provide mentorship &
create formal technical leadership to
requirements for a staff; Participates with
project. Able to own live the external technical
cutovers. community. Skilled at
formalizing requirements
for projects.
Ability to plan and
provide technical
leadership for large size
projects across
organizational structures
and anticipate needs;
Ability to provide
mentorship & technical
leadership to technical
staff; Provides
leadership to technical
community (published,
active committee
member, etc.)
Proven ability to plan
and provide technical
leadership for large size
projects across
organizational structures
and anticipate needs;
Ability to provide
mentorship & technical
leadership to technical
staff; Provides
leadership to technical
community (published,
active committee
member, etc.)

N-4 N-5 N-6 N-7

Solid understanding of Expert in large scale Ability to design complex Proven ability to
production services. administration. Able to systems trading off architect complex
Expert in large scale design complex services technical issues and systems which meet
administration. which have high other factors. Skilled at customers' needs even
Understands basic availability requirements; creating requirements when need isn't well
techniques and trade- from customer articulated.
offs for HA (High interviews.
Availability) systems.

Uses causal reasoning Uses causal reasoning Able to diagnose any Able to diagnose any
to triage problems. to triage problems. technical problem in a problem, even when it
Skilled at decomposing Skilled at decomposing timely fashion. Can crosses company
complex problems. complex problems. write a good client facing boundries.
Skilled at lateral Skilled at lateral RCA (Root Cause
investigations. Skilled at investigations. Able to Analysis).
weighting options and rapidly correlate
can reason from first problems against
principles. experience. Can write
good post mortem.

Able to clearly articulate Able to clearly articulate

key operational key operational
principles, able to principles, able to
identify key items to be identify key items to be
automated; able to automated; able to
estimate what is most estimate what is most
likely to break. Extremely likely to break. Extremely
detail oriented. Always detail oriented. Able to
has a plan B. plan for all normal and
Experiences at capacity abnormal situations.
planning

program in an fluent in Perl, C or other project level coding project level coding
administrative language; systems language; experience; know 3+ experience; know 3+
Can write simple C known system API and languages; able to languages; able to
programs. Able to scope can write networking decompose complex decompose complex
small size software code; able to design a systems and identify key systems and identify key
projects. good API APIs. APIs. Theory
background.
Expert user and admin Expert user and admin
skills primary OS; Strong skills primary OS; Strong
user and admin skills user and admin skills
with second OS and/or with second OS and/or
specialty systems; specialty systems;
Strong understanding of Expert understanding of
primary OS kernel. primary OS kernel; OS
theory background.

Deep WAN and LAN Deep WAN and LAN Understands complex
routing protocols protocols experience; site design. Experience
experience; Any to work Any to work to resolve dealing with Internet
to resolve problems from problems to application scale topology. Deep
hardware to application layer. Experience appreciate of trade-off
layer. Understands designing networks for for service availible.
Networking Theory. HA services. Network Understands QoS.
theory.

Strong security design Expert understanding of Expert understanding of Expert understanding of

and theory; Design and current security current security current security
configure complex technology, including technology, including technology, including
firewalls. Can build basic firewalls, VPNs, intrusion firewalls, VPNs, intrusion firewalls, VPNs, intrusion
certification, detection, certification detection, certification detection, certification
authentication and and authentication. and authentication. Can and authentication. Sr
intrusion detection Designs site-wide lead company wide Dir. has led company
systems. Basic security infrastructure. security program which wide security program
understanding of Can lead incident implements industry which implements
incident response and response. Solid standards. Skilled at industry standards. Sr
forensics acquisition. knowledge of forensics balancing technical and Arch: Has moved the
analysis, and legal business requirements. industry forward.
implications.
Extensive experience in Fully understand Fully understand Fully understand
daily database database internals and database internals and database internals and
administration; defines features; Expert in features; Expert in features; Expert in
policies within database; schema design; Has schema design; Can schema design; Can
Skilled at schema thorough system and devise complex devise complex
design; Performs database tuning strategies to meet strategies to meet
application and knowledge; Can devise availability and availability and
database tuning; complex strategies to performance metrics; performance metrics;
Defines data recovery meet data available and data warehousing and data warehousing and
strategy; Has good performance metrics. experience doing experience doing
knowledge of the information information
distributed database; management. management. advanced
Can develop database information processing
replication strategies; expertise (SLT, etc).

Can create a project Has built data centers in Facilities infrastructure

book. Understands the past. Outside plant engineering experience;
signal flows on all media experience with OC-X. able to develop
(and can use test sets Can model and resolve standards and best
for those). Can model cooling. Designs for practices across multiple
basic cooling. Can make workflow and reliablity. datacenter sites; plan for
tradeoff for power Establish specifications company growth and
distrubution. Can lay out for subcontractors and changing business
physical space designed can run geo-diverse needs.
for reliability. Can order work crews.
and manage all
materials for a build out.
Manage vendors and
subcontractors.
 Detailed knowledge of Detailed knowledge of Expert on transport,
carrier transport and carrier transport and signaling, switching,
advanced features and advanced features and provisioning. Command
understanding how understanding how of voice network
those features are those features are features, and how they
implemented with implemented with are build. Able to
specific knowledge of specific knowledge of formulate new services
carriers equipment. carriers equipment. using existing and new
Creates feature Deep understanding of protocols.
templates. carrier provisioning and
Understanding tariffs be able to effective
and how billing escalate problems.
integrates with carrier Understanding tariffs
equipment. and how billing
Understanding what integrates with carrier
networks can support equipment. Can design
what signaling. Able to and build a phone
debug complex signaling network.
issues.

All of the prior. Also All of the prior. Also

understands the understands the
infrastructure associated infrastructure associated
with the monitoring with the monitoring
system. Able to manage system. Able to manage
maintenance activities of maintenance activities of
others and keep tabs on others and keep tabs on
the relationships of what the relationships of what
is occurring and the is occurring and the
effects that are being effects that are being
seen. Will manage other seen. Will manage other
members of Netops and members of Netops and
drive issues to drive issues to
resolution. Owns and resolution. Owns and
resolves complex issues. resolves complex issues.
Involves senior Involves senior
management as management as
necessary. necessary.

6+ years 8+ years 12+ years 15+ years

BS in CS or equivalent MS or equivalent MS or equivalent MS or equivalent

eeds to be updated making use of insights from action research, orginizational learning, and leadership fields
pany and Community
N-8
Fellow/VP

pride for their work.

all consumers with respect.

f-control and willingness to share
b.

Very strong verbal &

written skills; Highly
effective at getting
consensus even with
others who have
conflicting agendas;
Works with executives
outside company
Accomplished speaker.

Drives meta processes;

Authors organizational
processes. Attention to
detail. Highly effective at
completed work on time.
Able to effectively
estimate schedules.
Has transformed
company's efficiency.
Fundamentally changes
what products and
services are offered;
Proven ability to
anticipate trends; Able to
spot discontinuities in
technical and business
landscape.

Creates a culture that

allows the team to
operate at peak
efficency and learn
together.

Proven ability to drive

cross company projects;
Ability to provide
mentorship/technical
leadership to technical
staff; Provides
leadership to technical
community (published,
active committee
member, etc.)

N-8
Has created completely
new or novel solutions to
exceptionally difficult
problems though
effective re-framing
changing what
constrains are applied

Can solve intractable

problems by moving the
industry or redefining the
problem space.
Expert understanding of
current security
technology, including
firewalls, VPNs, intrusion
detection, certification
and authentication. VP:
Has led company wide
security program which
implements industry
standards. Fellow: Has
made major advance in
state of the art.
 20+ years

MS or equivalent

ership fields
 RESOURCES FOR OPERATIONS CA
Help to move to the nex
LEVEL N-1 N-2

TITLE Entry Individual Contributor

Work Ethic Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Covey. Getting Things Done - David Allen

Customer Support Raving Fans

Communication Elements of Style - White

Work Quality & Efficiency Effective Executive -

Drucker

Decision Making: Creativity, Laderal Thinking - DeBono

Judgment, Initiative &
Flexibility

Teamwork & Culture Built to Last - Collins Effective Executive -

Drucker

TECHNICAL ABILITY N-1 N-2

Technical Leadership

System Design and Internal Architecture and

Architecture Design Documents

Diagnostic & de Bono's Thinking Course

Troubleshooting [[Work in
Progress]]

Operations
 Programming Ability The Perl Manual

O/S Knowledge & Diversity The UNIX Programming System Administration - Evi
Environment - Pike. Nemeth. Attend LISA
Tutorials at LISA Technical Sessions

LAN & Networking TCP/IP Illustationed -

Experience Stevens. Attend NANOG

Security Practical Unix and Internet Building Internet Firewalls -

Security - Spaf & Garfinkel Chapman & Zwicky,
Firewalls and Internet
Security - Cheswick &
Bellovin. SANS material

Databases Attend OracleWorld

Facilities

Mark Verber 2005, Some Rights Reserved

See Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License for terms
ESOURCES FOR OPERATIONS CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Help to move to the next level
N-3 N-4 N-5

Senior Individual Staff / Manager Sr Staff / Sr. Manager

Contributor

vey. Getting Things Done - David Allen

The Pyramid Principle Six Thinking Hats - De Divide or Conquer. Public

Logic in Writing & Thinking - Bono Speaking Seminars
Barbara Minto

What is Lean Six Sigma - The Goal - Goldratt. Six Software Cost - Bourne.
George, Rowlands, Kastle Sigma - Barrows The Fifth Dimension

Strategic Decision Making -

Kirkwood

Good to Great. Leadership Servant Leadership - The Courage to Teach,

is an Art - Max De Pree Greenleaf. First Break the
Rules - Buckingham.

N-3 N-4 N-5

One Minute Manager Software Requirements -
Wiegers

Systems Engineering and System Architecting -

Analysis - Blanchard & Rechtin. Attend USENIX
Fabrycky OSDI, SOSP

How to Solve It - Polya

 The Practice of Code Complete
Programming by Brian
Kerninghan & Rob Pike

Practice of System and Distributed Systems -

Network Admin -Hogan & Tanenbaum
Limoncelli. Solaris
Internals - Mauro &
McDougall

Routing the Internet -

Huitema. Introduction to
BGP4 - John Stewart III

Applied Cryptography - Computer Forensics

Schneier. USENIX Security Workshop
Workshop
 N-6 N-7

Architect / Director Senior Architect / Senior

Director

Sources of Power - Klein

Managing Innovation - HBS

N-6 N-7