November, 2009
by Denise P. Kalm, Managing Editor
Denise Kalm has 30 years experience in IT including application programming, enterprise systems management and performance management/capacity planning at Pacific Telephone and Bank of America. She moved to vendor land in 2000, spending 5 ½ years with BMC on the EPA product line, then recently became the senior product marketing manager for enterprise job scheduling products at CA, Inc., formerly Cybermation. She is a regional officer of CMG, has held many volunteer positions within that organization and is a frequent contributing author. Prior to entering the IT profession, she was a biochemical geneticist. Her hobbies include flying, Jazzercise, writing and scuba diving. Her book, Lifestorm, on the Oakland Hills fire, is available on Amazon. She is an executive and personal coach as well, offering phone and in-person coaching.
About the Author
Denise P. Kalm, CA, Inc. formerly Cybermation
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Ivan Gelb helps us keep up to date with all the critical system changes and tuning knobs in "z/OS Version 1.11 and CICS Version 4.1 News and "Oldies but Goodies" for Performance Managers and Capacity Planners." Learn what you need to know without digging through the manuals.
Adam Grummit has kindly provided us with another excerpt from his book, Capacity Management: A Practitioner Guide. This section is entitled "Variations on 'Three laws of Capacity Management' and how gremlins and grumlins affect them." Using a wonderful comparison to other "laws of three," Adam continues to give us great insights into the job of capacity planning.
Dr. Thomas Bell is back this month with another installment of "Preparing for Your Final Career: Retirement." This month, he talks about tax diversification. In this very comprehensive article, Dr. Bell explains options for holding your retirement assets and how these choices affect taxes, potential tax changes and diversification options you might want to consider. As always, he shares his personal experience in this area. As he often says, if you don't consider these things, you may find out that the cost of ignoring it is well in excess of the time it takes to look into these issues. Whether you are a current retiree, a soon-to-be retiree, or years from retirement, the time is now to start considering these issues.
Denise Kalm presents another edition of "Your Career Coach" with "Influence, Not Authority - the Science of Office Politics." As most of us do not have positional authority, it can be useful to learn how to step up your "influence game" to get things done.
Michael Hines is back with a review of "The Essential Series: Improving Application Performance Troubleshooting," by Don Jones. A great review helps us focus on just those books we need to do our job. Check it out.
Denise Kalm talked with author, speaker, consultant, Steve Samson in "Where are they Now? Measure IT Catches Up with Steve Samson, 2006 Michelson Award Winner." It's always exciting to catch up with old friends and these interviews are a great way to reconnect.
Tim Norton brings us "Is There A Model In Your Future?", an article about a panel he will be moderating at CMG 2009 this year. If you have been relying on modeling, or if you have only been considering it, this panel alone is a good justification for attending, as it will bring together people who really know the area and are willing to share their expertise with you.
Join us on the CMG Forum. Become a part of our new social network www.cmg.org/forum. It is open to everyone. We can also now be found on Facebook and you can follow us on Twitter
Sign up now - there is still time to attend CMG'09 in Dallas, TX from 12/6-12/11. For those of you living in the Dallas area, consider attending for a few days. The cost is relatively low and you don't have the added expense of hotel and air to consider. Check out why you should take another look at CMG'09, since it is in your area this year in CMG'09 in Dallas: The Conference to Attend in 2009.
And if you had a great paper idea and didn't make the deadline, send it to measureit@cmg.org. If you will be attending, please consider volunteering; Nell Owens, our Volunteer Coordinator is looking for help.
Inside the CMG Bulletin we have the following CMG News items:
Tom Kelman gives you the calendar for your local CMG in Upcoming CMG Regional Meetings. Mark your calendar with the regional meeting in your neighborhood and plan on attending and bringing a colleague. Both North American and International meetings are highlighted.
We have reviews of the Rocky Mountain, Northern California and Southern California CMG meetings. If you attend a local meeting, please consider writing it up -anyone can do it. This helps build your chapter and also shares information with those who couldn't make it.
We are always interested in receiving your comments, suggestions, and submitted articles. Help us make Measure IT even better in 2009.
This issue was made possible through the hard work and dedication of the Measure IT volunteer staff, and the contributions of willing authors. We're always looking for new editors and new writers. We have an international following so are particularly hoping for more participation from the rest of the world.
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