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  • How to set up Windows server 2008 to receive email?

    - by Saul
    First off apologies, I'm from a medical background not a networking one, but I've got roped into setting up a windows 2008 server. So far web server running, fixed IP address assigned (within a large private network of the National Health Service in the UK if that makes any difference) and the network team have assigned a DNS entry for me which works, so the server can be addressed as nww.myserver.nhs.uk I've only got ports open on the router for 80 and 443 (http and https) at the moment, so presume I need a different port to enable email services. My need is to be able to accept an email to the domain name like [email protected] in order to pick up a confirmation mail from an SSL issuer (Comodo) I guess to confirm that I control the domain. After that I don't actually need mail services on the server. I see lots of stuff about setting up SMTP services but thought that was about mail out and re-routing, but how do you get the server to "listen" for mail to the domain (assuming I open port xyz or whatever it is) ?

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  • Best solution for High Availability and SSRS on SQL Server 2008 R2?

    - by Chandra
    I have 2 Physical Servers with SQL Server 2008 R2. – SQL Server 1(Active) & SQL Server 2 (Passive) Web Application is developed using .Net 4.0 Framework. I want to know the best solution to have high availability and also have SSRS for reporting. Planned solution: Mirroring for Failover, and Transaction Replication for SSRS as the mirrored database can only be used for failover scenarios. SSRS will be on the Passive server, to reduce the load on the Active server. Let me know if the solution is correct. Also suggest alternate approaches.

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  • Server Cabinet/Room Cooling

    - by user37226
    Hello all. I currently have two desktops and three servers in my office sitting on the floor (I know this is bad). With that many servers the ambient temperature in the room goes up quickly. I am located in Dallas, TX so during the winter, if the heat is kept low, it is not a problem, but during the summer it easily jumps the room +10 degrees. I have decided and found a free 42U server cabinet that a hosting company was throwing away to house all of these systems in. One server is in a rack mount case while the other four servers are housed in mid-tower cases. I have purchased shelves for each computer and plan to lay the towers side ways on these shelves (as replacing the cases costs a heck of a lot of money). I like the idea of housing all of these systems in the cabinet because it will save a lot of room and clean up all of the cabling currently laying all over the office floor. When putting this setup together over the next couple of weeks, I want to address issues with dust and cooling. The server cabinet has a fan on top, front plexiglass door and a rear metal door with vent wholes on the bottom. First the cooling issues. I know I am going to want to have cool air enter the bottom of the cabinet and exit the top. I do not want the room heating up though as this will make my work area hot and then make the servers warmer as the air eventually reenters the cabinet. I had an idea to fix this problem, but am unsure if it will work. I was thinking of taking flexible piping and adapting it to the back fans of the computer having the other end of the pipe at the top close to the cabinet's top mounted fan. I was then thinking of creating a duct around the top fan into the attic. Now I am very concerned that the attic will cause issues with this type of setup because during July/August time frame, the attic is easily 120 degrees F. I could also use the flexible pipe to take it to an attic exhaust vent if it would be better to vent it into the 100 degree air outside (at least there may be wind. The other option would be to buy a small portable air conditioner. This may be a possibility, but do I want to spend the extra money on power? I bet this increases the noise. Plus they are around $250 on Amazon. What would you all recommend? Depending on the solution I end up running with above, I would also like to limit the dust that gets into the cabinet. If I were to cut a whole and mount a second cabinet fan on the bottom of the rear door, could I possibly mount a standard home air filter on the other side of that whole? Thanks in advance for your recommendations. I look forward to reading your interesting ideas.

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  • Hyperic HQ says the server is down, but it is not!

    - by Diego Jancic
    Hi, I've been using HQ for a couple months now, and everything worked fine. But since yesterday all resources go down for a couple hours, and then everything restores to normal, and then go down again without doing anything. The server of course is working, the HQ server and agent are both working, and the IPs were not modified. I've tried to re-run the setup in the HQ agent, and it did not change anything. Agent is in Windows 2008, and Server is in Windows 2003. I'm using HQ Version 4.1.2 (build #1053 - May 06, 2009 - Release Build) Any hint? Thanks! Update: I guess (although I'm not sure) it stopped working when the disk on the server went full, with 0 bytes of free space. Of course I've freed more than 15gbs and restarted the HQ server/database.

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  • Determining the required depth and specifications for a server cabinet

    - by Bingu Bingme
    I'm trying to understand the considerations ("why") that go into determining the specifications ("what") for a rackmount server cabinet, in order to determine what sort of rack I should purchase for my home use. Since this is for home use, I won't be following certain best practices (eg. hot/cold aisle, not even air conditioning) and may be willing to sacrifice in various areas in order to reduce cost and footprint - but please advise if there are safety concerns or other considerations to note. The most basic specs for a server cabinet are the dimensions (external width x external depth x usable height). Width: commonly 600mm or 800mm (if the use case requires extra clearance around the sides, such as if there is lots of cabling). In my case and most common cases, I'm going to stick with 600mm. Height: Select a sufficiently tall rack to fit my equipment. But how much may I stuff into it? Eg, if there is a 15U rack, can I really populate it with 15U of servers, or should I leave 1U at top and bottom for air circulation? Depth: Racks commonly have external depth of 600mm (network equipment), 800mm, 1000mm, or even longer. I'm trying to see how to fit into the 800mm depth. With reference to http://www.server-racks.com/rack-mount-depth.html, I'm hoping to have the front and rear posts mounted ~ 28.5" (72cm) apart, which would leave only 8cm for front space and rear space. How much rear space (from rear posts to back of rack) do I really need? I won't use cable management arms, so can I mount a 72cm depth server since the power, KVM, network cables won't take up much depth? My most important equipment are all < 60cm depth (4U chassis) and should comfortably fit within the 800mm cabinet. The rest of the equipment are very old 1U servers that range from 65-72cm depth. I might still want to make further use of them, or I might discard them since they are so old. Even if the 72cm servers cannot be powered on in an 800mm rack, I should be able to use them as 1U shelves. But, what server depth can I expect to be able to operate? Or am I forced to upgrade to 1000mm depth racks in order to use any servers deeper than 60cm? With reference to best practices for HP racks, some other specs and installation considerations: There aren't any minimum recommendations for clearance on the sides of the rack. It is recommended to leave 48" front clearance. The 48" front clearance is based on 32" chassis depth, 13" to extend the rack rails and mate the inner/outer rails, and 3" for movement. If I don't use such rails (eg, use shelves instead), it should be sufficient to leave front clearance of chassis depth + 3". It is recommended to leave 30" rear clearance "to provide space for servicing the rack". I'm planning to back the rack into a corner of the room, and wheel it slightly out when I need to access the rear. If the wheeling plan is ok, I still need to know how much rear clearance is required for air circulation and ventilation purposes. Castor wheels and stabilising feet. Since I'm backing the rack into a corner of the room, I'll only be able to set the stabilising feet on the front corners. Thoughts on safety? The rack that I'm considering has front glass doors with side ventilation slits and fully perforated rear doors. I'm hoping this will be a good balance between temperature and noise (only ventilation slits facing out the front, while the rear is facing the walls). Or is the sound of high-rpm fans going to escape through the front slits anyway and destroy my sanity?

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  • 12-24 rack, 10-32 server thumbscrew. How to mount?

    - by JJ.
    We have just purchased a APC rack (model AR204A) with 12-24 threaded holes. We couldn't get a "square hole" model in time for our setup deadline. Unfortunately our rack servers (Lenovo RD240) appear to have 10-32 thumbscrews for securing the server to the rack. We've successfully mounted the server rails to the rack using 12-24 screws however the 10-32 thumbscrews in the server front won't "grab" the 12-24 holes in the rack, thus there is nothing to stop the server from sliding right off the rack if pushed from the back. The thumb screws on the server don't seem to be removable, so we can't simply use 12-24 screws instead. Any suggestions on how to work around this problem? Is there any way to "convert" a 12-24 hole to a 10-32 thread (or similar approach)? Thanks in advance.

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  • Server 2008 locks me out when not using the machine for 10 minutes after installing SP2

    - by Daniel Magliola
    I have recently installed Service Pack 2 on my Windows Server 2008 machine (which I use actively for development, and i'm always logged on to). Now, after this installation, when I don't use the machine for some time (let's say, 10 minutes), it locks itself so I have to press Ctrl+Alt+Del and log back in. I have already checked the Screen Saver settings, and it's "None", as it always has been. I also looked into power settings and everything looks right (20 mins to turn off monitor, and i haven't found any settings regarding locking me in there). Do you have any idea what I can do so that it won't lock me out after not using the machine for a while? Thanks! Daniel

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  • How to install a "virtual" network card on a virtual server?

    - by vikp
    Hi, We have purchased an unmanaged VPS windows hosting solution from one of the UK based companies. We have Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition. We need to install certain third party applications on that server. Unfortunatelly, one of the applications requires a MAC address to be present at all times - this is their way of making sure that software is not pirated (which it isn't). We have tried installing a virtual loopback network card, but this has brought the server down - i.e. we couldn't connect using remote desktop any longer. At the moment we are limited with what we can try. This is an unmanaged solution, therefore any support including restarts is rather costly. Are you aware of any low-risk solutions? Thank you

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  • Can I create a DC without a DNS Server?

    - by onik
    So as the title says, I need to promote a standalone Win2008R2 server to a Domain Controller, and I don't a DNS Server (I think), as there will be no clients connected to the domain, it will be only used for Remote Desktop Services. Yes, I know, it's considered bad practice to install other roles on the DC, but in this case, it's necessary. Do I need to install the DNS Server, and if I do, how to make it as transparent as possible? EDIT: Seems that I need to install the DNS Server, so I can I configure it not to mess up my entire domain? For example: The server I need to promote is rdc.mydomain.com, and it has an A entry to it's IP in the current DNS, while other servers under mydomain.com are running Linux and don't need to know anything about this Windows box. The domain uses a third-party DNS and all edits and updates need to be done via a separate web page, our servers don't have write/update access.

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  • Something is spamming from my hMail server - how can I deal with this?

    - by joshcomley
    My Windows 2008 server is attempting to send out a lot of spam, I've just discovered, and I'm not sure how to see where the compromise is. For example: has someone hacked an account? Has someone hacked the server? Is there a virus on the server? What can I do to investigate this? Edit Thanks for the replies so far. I am running hMail server, and have spent so long investigating the correct configuration but still I end up with these emails being sent. Here is a screenshot of my Internet IP range settings on the server: (let me know what else I can provide to help)

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  • Server freeze restarted quickly so how do I fiond what went wrong?

    - by Charlie
    I have a SQL SERVER DB running on a windows server 2008 (VMWare) Yesterday I could not RDP to it so I ended some RDP sessions which were left logged in. This seemed to solve the problem. However last night I learned that the DB was inaccessible and unresponsive to customers. My colleague checked the server but again is unable to create an RDP connection. He then restarted the server and since it has been fine. Looking at the CPU Readings of the Server it spiked up to 100% before the original RDP problem .After I ended the extra seeions uit again dropped down to normal levels however before the time of the customer complaint it had rose to 100% again - before it had to be restarted. Is there anyway I can investigate which processes may have caused the problem in the first place. Would there be some kind of memory dump from when it was restarted. I would prefer to find out what is wrong now instead of waiting until it happens again.

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  • Windows Server 2012 is telling me it's not activated when it is

    - by LeonidasFett
    I have a Windows Server 2012 Machine were I need to do some development. The machine is a Hyper-V VM. I activated it with a valid key and restarted the VM. After it booted up again, I went into system properties and saw that it said that Windows is activated. However, there is still the message "Activate Windows" on the desktop wallpaper and if try to change something (for example, the look) it tells me that I need to activate first. Is there anybody who has experienced this? The host OS is Windows 8.1. I already installed all updates and tried to activate again using this CMD-Command: slmgr.vbs /ipk {product key, including dashes}

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  • freebsd dev server on virtualbox over windows

    - by g_kaya
    I need a unixy environment for development purposes. I hate doing things on windows but it is more stable for daily use and I don't have a mac, so I'm having to use windows (7). I want to run freebsd in a virtual machine, configure it to be the localhost server, be able to connect using ssh (within my home-network) and be able to install vbox guest addons. If guest additions aren't the best, I can use solaris or linux flavours. I need no gui. I don't know anything about network stuff, so I need a detailed explanation from vise people here, or a nice doc to read. Edit : To be more specific as requested, I use following on unices: *django 1.4 *apache *python (2.7) *emacs *mysql *probably node.js *bash scripting I use windows to be able to do daily things easily, like connecting to my tablet, browsing and learning java. And I don't want to use linux as my desktop os, beacuse it gets broken a lot, it's annoying to maintain wlan problems and some more.

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  • Unable to browse one server unless using FQDN all others work.

    - by Reg
    Hello - I installed 4 new Windows 2008 R2 Servers. All are joined to the domain. One out of the four will not browse to our DC without using a FQDN. I can ping the DC server and see it in Network neighborhood but when I click on it I get Windows cannot access \SERVER. BUT accessing it by using \server.domain works fine. It is only having problems with the one DC server. Able to browse every other server with UNC without using FQDN.This is the only machine on our domain that is experiencing the problem and have tried different user accounts.

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  • Something is spamming from my hMail server - how can I deal with this?

    - by joshcomley
    My Windows 2008 server is attempting to send out a lot of spam, I've just discovered, and I'm not sure how to see where the compromise is. For example: has someone hacked an account? Has someone hacked the server? Is there a virus on the server? What can I do to investigate this? Edit Thanks for the replies so far. I am running hMail server, and have spent so long investigating the correct configuration but still I end up with these emails being sent. Here is a screenshot of my Internet IP range settings on the server: (let me know what else I can provide to help)

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  • How to schedule a task X minutes after Windows Server 2003 starts?

    - by Joe Schmoe
    How to schedule a task X minutes after Windows Server 2003 starts? In "Scheduled Tasks" one can specify "When my computer starts" but I see no way to specify delay. What I am trying to achieve: there is a service (JIRA) that even though dependent on SQL Server service still doesn't wait long enough for SQL Server to become fully operational. So JIRA service fails to connect to the database and needs to be restarted manually after each server reboot. My plan is to add "SC stop" and "SC start" commands for JIRA service 3 minutes after server starts.

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  • How to record audio in Windows Server 2008 Web SP2?

    - by Aurelio De Rosa
    I face into this problem and before ask here I've searched and read a lot of question but no-one seems to fit to my problem. I have a server running Windows Server 2008 Web with the SP2 and a headset attached to it using audio jack. The server has audio driver since I can listen audio. This OS does not came with the built-in audio record tool (the one I have in Windows 7). I can access physically and remotely (using RDC) to this server with administration permission. My local pc has Windows 7 if it can help. All I want to do is to know if it's possible and how to record audio form the microphone (of the server) and store that file in the server from remote connection. I tried to install several software on the server but everyone fails with a different issues (missing DLL which if I put in the system the error doesn't go away).

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  • Trying to figure Windows 2008 Server and Active Directory - complete novice!

    - by Simon E
    I am a novice in networking and I want to learn more about Windows Server 2008 and Active Directory. Basically I have serveral Windows 7 PC's in my home and an IBM server with Win Server 2008 installed. I have enabled Active Directory and set the server to have a static IP. Thats as far as I have got and I feel a little overwhelmed at the moment as I am not sure what to do next. What I eventually want to do is have the Windows 7 PC's to be able to be authenticated by the server - basically a mock up of what most large or medium sized businesses/organisations run. Sorry if I sound a bit sketchy, but I understand some things but not the whole picture, I guess I just need confirmation that I am sort of on the right track :) Also what are some good resources out there you can point me to, what are the absolute basics I need to to get started so I can further my learning?

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  • Windows 2008 server and Redhat with only 1 ip address, can windows route the traffic?

    - by paulcap1
    I have a two home server VMs set up. Windows 2008 server on port 80 and Centos/Redhat on port 8080. Both have separate godaddy domain name A name records pointing to them. But I cant point both domain to the same IP I only have 1 wan ip address at home. So one of my domain is forward to my IP:8080. My question: Is it possible for my windows server to redirect a certain domain name to my Linux server on port 8080? So i Have mysite1.com going to windows and mysite2.com also going to the windows server but windows would redirect mysite2.com traffic to the linux ip address:8080. I want to access both sites at my work and my work firewall is strict and will not allow domain forwarding from godaddy.

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  • Restoring a backup SQL Server 2005 where is the data stored?

    - by sc_ray
    I have two Sql Server database instances on two different machines across the network. Lets call these servers A and B. Due to some infrastructural issues, I had to make a complete backup of the database on server A and robocopy the A.bak over to a shared drive accessible by both A and B. What I want is to restore the database on B. My first issue is to restore the backup on server B but the backup location does not display my shared drive. My next issue is that server B's C: drive has barely any space left and there are some additional partitions that have more space and can house my backup file but I am not sure what happens to the data after I restore the database on B. Would the backup data fill up all the available space on C:? It will be great if somebody explain how the data is laid out after the restore database is initiated on a target database server? Thanks

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  • Migrating SQL Server Databases – The DBA’s Checklist (Part 2)

    - by Sadequl Hussain
    Continuing from Part 1  , our Migration Checklist continues: Step 5: Update statistics It is always a good idea to update the statistics of the database that you have just installed or migrated. To do this, run the following command against the target database: sp_updatestats The sp_updatestats system stored procedure runs the UPDATE STATISTICS command against every user and system table in the database.  However, a word of caution: running the sp_updatestats against a database with a compatibility level below 90 (SQL Server 2005) will reset the automatic UPDATE STATISTICS settings for every index and statistics of every table in the database. You may therefore want to change the compatibility mode before you run the command. Another thing you should remember to do is to ensure the new database has its AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS and AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS properties set to ON. You can do so using the ALTER DATABASE command or from the SSMS. Step 6: Set database options You may have to change the state of a database after it has been restored. If the database was changed to single-user or read-only mode before backup, the restored copy will also retain these settings. This may not be an issue when you are manually restoring from Enterprise Manager or the Management Studio since you can change the properties. However, this is something to be mindful of if the restore process is invoked by an automated job or script and the database needs to be written to immediately after restore. You may want to check the database’s status programmatically in such cases. Another important option you may want to set for the newly restored / attached database is PAGE_VERIFY. This option specifies how you want SQL Server to ensure the physical integrity of the data. It is a new option from SQL Server 2005 and can have three values: CHECKSUM (default for SQL Server 2005 and latter databases), TORN_PAGE_DETECTION (default when restoring a pre-SQL Server 2005 database) or NONE. Torn page detection was itself an option for SQL Server 2000 databases. From SQL Server 2005, when PAGE_VERIFY is set to CHECKSUM, the database engine calculates the checksum for a page’s contents and writes it to the page header before storing it in disk. When the page is read from the disk, the checksum is computed again and compared with the checksum stored in the header.  Torn page detection works much like the same way in that it stores a bit in the page header for every 512 byte sector. When data is read from the page, the torn page bits stored in the header is compared with the respective sector contents. When PAGE_VERIFY is set to NONE, SQL Server does not perform any checking, even if torn page data or checksums are present in the page header.  This may not be something you would want to set unless there is a very specific reason.  Microsoft suggests using the CHECKSUM page verify option as this offers more protection. Step 7: Map database users to logins A common database migration issue is related to user access. Windows and SQL Server native logins that existed in the source instance and had access to the database may not be present in the destination. Even if the logins exist in the destination, the mapping between the user accounts and the logins will not be automatic. You can use a special system stored procedure called sp_change_users_login to address these situations. The procedure needs to be run against the newly attached or restored database and can accept four parameters. Depending on what you want to do, you may be using less than four though. The first parameter, @Action, can take three values. When you specify @Action = ‘Report’, the system will provide you with a list of database users which are not mapped to any login. If you want to map a database user to an existing SQL Server login, the value for @Action will be ‘Update_One’. In this case, you will only need to provide the database user name and the login it will map to. So if your newly restored database has a user account called “bob” and there is already a SQL Server login with the same name and you want to map the user to the login, you will execute a query like the following: sp_change_users_login         @Action = ‘Update_One’,         @UserNamePattern = ‘bob’,         @LoginName = ‘bob’ If the login does not exist, you can instruct SQL Server to create the login with the same name. In this case you will need to provide a password for the login and the value of the @Action parameter will be ‘Auto_Fix’. If the login already exists, it will be automatically mapped to the user account. Unfortunately sp_change_users_login system stored procedure cannot be used to map database users to trusted logins (Windows accounts) in SQL Server. You will need to follow a manual process to re-map the database user accounts.  Continues…

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  • Book Review: Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner's Guide

    - by Grant Ronald
    Packt Publishing asked me to review Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner's Guide by Vinod Krishnan, so on a couple of long flights I managed to get through the book in a couple of sittings. One point to make clear before I go into the review.  Having authored "The Quick Start Guide to Fusion Development: JDeveloper and Oracle ADF", I've written a book which covers the same topic/beginner level.  I also think that its worth stating up front that I applaud anyone who has gone  through the effort of writing a technical book. So well done Vinod.  But on to the review: The book itself is a good break down of topic areas.  Vinod starts with a quick tour around the IDE, which is an important step given all the work you do will be through the IDE.  The book then goes through the general path that I tend to always teach: a quick overview demo, ADF BC, validation, binding, UI, task flows and then the various "add on" topics like security, MDS and advanced topics.  So it covers the right topics in, IMO, the right order.  I also think the writing style flows nicely as well - Its a relatively easy book to read, it doesn't get too formal and the "Have a go hero" hands on sections will be useful for many. That said, I did pick out a number of styles/themes to the writing that I found went against the idea of a beginners guide.  For example, in writing my book, I tried to carefully avoid talking about topics not yet covered or not yet relevant at that point in someone's learning.  So, if I was a new ADF developer reading this book, did I really need to know about ADFBindingFilter and DataBindings.cpx file on page 58 - I've only just learned how to do a drag and drop simple application so showing me XML configuration files relevant to JSF/ADF lifecycle is probably going to scare me off! I found this in a couple of places, for example, the security chapter starts on page 219 but by page 222 (and most of the preceding pages are hands-on steps) we're diving into the web.xml, weblogic.xml, adf-config.xml, jsp-config.xml and jazn-data.xml.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't know this, but I feel you have to get people on a strong grounding of the concepts before showing them implementation files.  If having just learned what ADF Security is will "The initialization parameter remove.anonymous.role is set to false for the JpsFilter filter as this filter is the first filter defined in the file" really going to help me? The other theme I found which I felt didn't work was that a couple of the chapters descended into a reference guide.  For example page 159 onwards basically lists UI components and their properties.  And page 87 onwards list the attributes of ADF BC in pretty much the same way as the on line help or developer guide, and I've a personal aversion to any sort of help that says pretty much what the attribute name is e.g. "Precision Rule: this option is used to set a strict precision rule", or "Property Set: this is the property set that has to be applied to the attribute". Hmmm, I think I could have worked that out myself, what I would want to know in a beginners guide are what are these for, what might I use them for...and if I don't need to use them to create an emp/dept example them maybe it’s better to leave them out. All that said, would the book help me - yes it would.  It’s obvious that Vinod knows ADF and his style is relatively easy going and the book covers all that it has to, but I think the book could have done a better job in the educational side of guiding beginners.

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  • Hosting several HTTP servers on single domain name

    - by Nakilon
    Several people have got a single domain name server.company.com server, where they are now supposed to host their infrastructure or temporal projects, written in different ways even in different programming languages. How do they divide the domain? Split into subdomains: john.server.company.com, kate.server.company.com, etc. This would need a lot of admins' assistance, time, etc. -- there would be no way for John and Kate to do it themselves. Split into url namespaces: server.company.com/john/, server.company.com/kate/, etc. Pro: They now can make a single welcome page at root with any additional info (if they need?) Con: Each server would need to know their namespace string constant, and hrefs like / whould need patching. Split into ports: server.company.com:8080, server.company.com:8081, etc. and make a single :80 welcome page. Pro: They still can make a single welcome page at :80 Con: ??? I would like to know more pros and cons for 2 and 3 solution.

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  • Minimum team development sizes

    - by MarkPearl
    Disclaimer - these are observations that I have had, I am not sure if this follows the philosophy of scrum, agile or whatever, but most of these insights were gained while implementing a scrum scenario. Two is a partnership, three starts a team For a while I thought that a team was anything more than one and that scrum could be effective methodology with even two people. I have recently adjusted my thinking to a scrum team being a minimum of three, so what happened to two and what do you call it? For me I consider a group of two people working together a partnership - there is value in having a partnership, but some of the dynamics and value that you get from having a team is lost with a partnership. Avoidance of a one on one confrontation The first dynamic I see missing in a partnership is the team motivation to do better and how this is delivered to individuals that are not performing. Take two highly motivated individuals and put them together and you will typically see them continue to perform. Now take a situation where you have two individuals, one performing and one not and the behaviour is totally different compared to a team of three or more individuals. With two people, if one feels the other is not performing it becomes a one on one confrontation. Most people avoid confrontations and so nothing changes. Compare this to a situation where you have three people in a team, 2 performing and 1 not the dynamic is totally different, it is no longer a personal one on one confrontation but a team concern and people seem more willing to encourage the individual not performing and express their dissatisfaction as a team if they do not improve. Avoiding the effects of Tuckman’s Group Development Theory If you are not familiar with Tuckman’s group development theory give it a read (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman's_stages_of_group_development) In a nutshell with Tuckman’s theory teams go through these stages of Forming, Storming, Norming & Performing. You want your team to reach and remain in the Performing stage for as long as possible - this is where you get the most value. When you have a partnership of two and you change the individuals in the partnership you basically do a hard reset on the partnership and go back to the beginning of Tuckman’s model each time. This has a major effect on the performance of a team and what they can deliver. What I have seen is that you reduce the effects of Tuckman's theory the more individuals you have in the team (until you hit the maximum team size in which other problems kick in). While you will still experience Tuckman's theory with a team of three, the impact will be greatly reduced compared to two where it is guaranteed every time a change occurs. It's not just in the numbers, it's in the people One final comment - while the actual numbers of a team do play a role, the individuals in the team are even more important - ideally you want to keep individuals working together for an extended period. That doesn't mean that you never change the individuals in a team, or that once someone joins a team they are stuck there - there is value in an individual moving from team to team and getting cross pollination, but the period of time that an individual moves should be in month's or years, not days or weeks. Why? So why is it important to know this? Why is it important to know how a team works and what motivates them? I have been asking myself this question for a while and where I am at right now is this… the aim is to achieve the stage where the sum of the total (team) is greater than the sum of the parts (team members). This is why we form teams and why understanding how they work is a challenge and also extremely stimulating.

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  • Incentivizing Work with Development Teams

    - by MarkPearl
    Recently I saw someone on twitter asking about incentives and if anyone had past experience with incentivizing work. I promised to respond with some of the experiences I have had in the past so here goes... **Disclaimer** - these are my experiences with incentives, generally in software development - in some other industries this may not be applicable – this is also my thinking at this point in time, with more experience my opinion may change. Incentivize at the level that you want people to group at If you are wanting to promote a team mentality, incentivize teams. If you want to promote an individual mentality, incentivize individuals. There is nothing worse than mixing this up. Some organizations put a lot of effort in establishing teams and team mentalities but reward individuals. This has a counter effect on the resources they have put towards establishing a team mentality. In the software projects that I work with we want promote cross functional teams that collaborate. Personally, if I was on a team and knew that there was an opportunity to work on a critical component of the system, and that by doing so I would get a bigger bonus, then I would be hesitant to include other people in solving that problem. Thus, I would hinder the teams efforts in being cross functional and reduce collaboration levels. Does that mean everyone in the team should get an even share of an incentive? In most situations I would say yes - even though this may feel counter-intuitive. I have heard arguments put forward that if “person x contributed more than person Y then they should be rewarded more” – This may sound controversial but I would rather treat people how would you like them to perform, not where they currently are at. To add to this approach, if someone is free loading, you bet your bottom dollar that the team is going to make this a lot more transparent if they feel that individual is going to be rewarded at the same level that everyone else is. Bad incentives promote destructive work If you are going to incentivize people, pick you incentives very carefully. I had an experience once with a sales person who was told they would get a bonus provided that they met an ordering target with a particular supplier. What did this person do? They sold everything at cost for the next month or so. They reached the goal, but the company didn't gain anything from it. It was a bad incentive. Expect the same with development teams, if you incentivize zero bug levels, you will get zero code committed to the solution. If you incentivize lines of code, you will get many many lines of bad code. Is there such a thing as a good incentives? Monetary wise, I am not sure there is. I would much rather encourage organizations to pay their people what they are worth upfront. I would also advise against paying money to teams as an incentive or even a bonus or reward for reaching a milestone. Rather have a breakaway for the team that promotes team building as a reward if they reach a milestone than pay them more money. I would also advise against making the incentive the reason for them to reach the milestone. If this becomes the norm it promotes people to begin to only do their job if there is an incentive at the end of the line. This is not a behaviour one wants to encourage. If the team or individual is in the right mind-set, they should not work any harder than they are right now with normal pay.

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