Handling the Interruptive Nature of Operations

Thursday, November 02, 2017 - 9:00 am10:30 am

Carolyn Rowland, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Avleen Vig, Facebook

Abstract: 

The interrupt-driven nature of Operations can create a high-stress, low-productivity workplace, while providing the illusion of high-productivity. We come up with our own coping mechanisms that sometimes make the situation worse. Working remote creates additional challenges. We will discuss the nature of operations work and how engineers and managers can both work to manage interruptions and create a better environment. This will be an updated version of our LISA 2014 mini-tutorial.

Avleen Vig, Facebook

Avleen is a Production Engineer at Facebook, where he helps scale Facebook’s infrastructure. Before joining Facebook he worked at several large tech companies, including EarthLink, Google, and Etsy.

BibTeX
@conference {207243,
author = {Carolyn Rowland and Avleen Vig},
title = {Handling the Interruptive Nature of Operations},
year = {2017},
address = {San Francisco, CA},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = oct
}
Who should attend: 

Anyone who struggles with interruptions at work.

Take back to work: 

Attendees will be able to understand how to manage interruptions and increase their productivity.

Topics include: 
  • What are interruptions and why do we care
  • Interruption science!
  • The problems with common approaches
  • Coping strategies in general and those used by the speakers
  • Unique challenges of remote workers and teams
  • Details on how to use the tools and methods to maximum advantage