POLICY SURVEY (amended)

Tue Apr 16 09:41:20 AEST 1991

Sorry to bother the net again about this, BUT......

We are receiving responses (thanks!), and several obvious problems have
shown up, which this is designed to help fix. The only substantive change
has occurred on the item about what kind of systems you administer - this
was not well-constructed for people who work on several. Fixed - I think.

Also, it is apparent that I didn't sufficiently emphasize that only ONE
response to a question is one of "the rules". My oversight, below corrected.

There are also a number of slight wording changes and format changes in an
attempt to improve readability and clarity of meaning. We shall see. :-)

Someone didn't like the copyright. Changed.

Hope this is better for any who want to re-submit owing to confusion or
lack of sufficient choices. If your From:-line is the same as on the 1st
submission, we can sort out the old ones and kill them. If not, give us
a hint in the Subject:-line that you are re-submitting.

Thanks,

Bud Hovell
____________
policy at mtek.com
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could
only do a little" - Edmund Burke.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
$Id: Survey,v 5.1.1.5 91/04/15 14:57:25 policy Exp $

Copyright (c) 1991 by Bergen B. Hovell, Jr. You may electronically repro-
duce this form in full for public distribution, and any portion of this
form for email response to this survey. All other rights are reserved.
============================ 'POLICY' SURVEY ==============================
PURPOSE
This survey asks system administrators (including news administrators) for
brief feedback about local "policy" in their multi-user computing environ-
ments, un*x or other.

For this research, 'policy' is defined as all formal or informal rules of
use of - or access to - such computing resources.

PRIVACY OF INFORMATION PROVIDED
Your name and/or email address will *not* be released to - nor your indiv-
idual responses be shared with - any person, agency, or organization which
is not directly engaged in performing this research. You will not be solic-
ited by anyone nor be otherwise annoyed as a result of your decision to
respond or not respond.

INSTRUCTIONS
Those persons ONLY should respond who have some current responsibility for
system administration, or who supervise others who do. Such duty need not
be one's sole (or even primary) duty.

Under *each* header below, select your *one* best choice by *deleting* all
others under that header (and the header itself), then proceed on to the
next header. This is a forced-choice, multiple-choice, complete-the-state-
ment format. Just like in school: even if you think the question is perfect-
ly lousy, pick just one anyway. Please.

[ If you wish to supply comments, they are *most* welcome - but please send
them back by separate mail with "Subject: comments" (or suchlike) so we can
pick them out from survey-responses, which get automated (sorta) processing
on this end. ]

You should be able to work these in order from top to bottom, deleting as
you go. When you are done, you should have remaining a total of exactly 18
lines of actual responses. Other lines of text will be ignored.

FUNNY STUFF
It shouldn't matter if your mailer inserts ">" or other customary left-margin
marks when you reply - you send it, we'll parse it :-). If you have your own
dot-sigs or other stuff containing pipe-marks scattered about, however, it
just means someone here may have to hand edit them out. You *could* save
us that minor misery by doing this yourself. :-)

============================== BEGIN SURVEY ==============================

You can start by deleting everything above this line.

(Basic Info)

My *primary* job location is in:
================================
|AA| Africa
|AB| Australia
|AC| Canada
|AD| Europe, except Soviet Union
|AE| Far East, except Japan and Soviet Union
|AF| Indian Subcontinent
|AG| Japan
|AH| Mexico and Central America
|AI| South America
|AJ| Soviet Union
|AK| United States
|AZ| Other

My local organization is *primarily*:
=====================================
|BA| Commercial - Hardware or software manufacture
|BB| Commercial - Hardware or software sales or service
|BC| Commercial - Other manufacture
|BD| Commercial - Other sales or service
|BE| Educational (university or other)
|BF| Governmental, except military
|BG| Health-care
|BH| Military
|BI| Religious or fraternal
|BJ| Research, except educational
|BZ| Other

Multi-user facilities of some kind have been locally available:
===============================================================
|CA| Fewer than six months
|CB| More than six months
|CC| More than  1 year
|CD| More than  2 years
|CE| More than  3 years
|CF| More than  4 years
|CG| More than  5 years
|CH| More than 10 years

I have total system administration experience of:
=================================================
|DA| Fewer than six months
|DB| More than six months
|DC| More than  1 year
|DD| More than  2 years
|DE| More than  3 years
|DF| More than  4 years
|DG| More than  5 years
|DH| More than 10 years

I have total experience as a user (including sysadmin) of:
==========================================================
|EA| Fewer than six months
|EB| More than six months
|EC| More than  1 year
|ED| More than  2 years
|EE| More than  3 years
|EF| More than  4 years
|EG| More than  5 years
|EH| More than 10 years

Total users on all systems I currently administer:
==================================================
|FA| 1-5 users
|FB| 6-25 users
|FC| 26-50 users
|FD| 51-100 users
|FE| 101-500 users
|FF| More than 500 users
|FG| More than 1000 users

My primary administration activities are on systems which are:
==============================================================
|GA| Un*x (any flavor)
|GB| VMS
|GC| PC LAN
|GD| Combination - 2 or more of the above
|GZ| Other multi-user

(Historical Practice)

Historically, our policies (written or not) have included:
==========================================================
|HA| General guidelines
|HB| Specific "Dos & Don'ts"
|HC| Both of the above
|HD| None of the above
|HE| Don't know
|HZ| New site - no historical practice

Historically, actual policy has been *mainly* defined by:
=========================================================
|IA| Informal day-to-day user practices
|IB| User-committee decisions (or similar formal means)
|IC| Directions of user's immediate supervisor
|ID| Sysadmin or system manager decisions
|IE| Upper management decisions
|IF| Don't know
|IZ| New site - no historical practice

Historically, actual policy-enforcement authority came *mainly* from:
=====================================================================
|JA| No one - each user did what he needed to do
|JB| Users, through active peer pressure
|JC| User-committee decisions (or similar formal means)
|JD| User's immediate supervisor or manager
|JE| Sysadmin or system manager
|JF| Upper management
|JG| Don't know
|JZ| New site - no historical practice

Historically, policy information was presented to users *mainly* by:
====================================================================
|KA| Verbal info, primarily from other users
|KB| Verbal info from manager, supervisor, or sysadmin
|KC| On-paper-only written info from manager, supervisor, or sysadmin
|KD| On-line interactive displayed (as well as on-paper) written policies
|KE| Don't know
|KZ| New site - no historical practice

(Current Interest)

Recently, users raise policy questions:
=======================================
|LA| Virtually never
|LB| Probably about once a year
|LC| Probably about once a month
|LD| Probably about once a week
|LE| More frequently

Recently, middle and upper managers raise policy questions:
===========================================================
|MA| Virtually never
|MB| Probably about once a year
|MC| Probably about once a month
|MD| Probably about once a week
|ME| More frequently

(Future Expectations)

Future policies (written or not) will include:
==============================================
|NA| General guidelines
|NB| Specific "Dos & Don'ts"
|NC| Both of the above
|ND| None of the above
|NE| Don't know

Future actual policy will be *mainly* defined by:
=================================================
|OA| Informal day-to-day user practices
|OB| User-committee decisions (or similar formal means)
|OC| Directions of user's immediate supervisor
|OD| Sysadmin or system manager decisions
|OE| Upper management decisions
|OF| Don't know

Future actual policy-enforcement authority will *mainly* come from:
===================================================================
|PA| No one - each user will do what he needs to do
|PB| Users, through active peer pressure
|PC| User-committee decisions (or similar formal means)
|PD| User's immediate supervisor or manager
|PE| Sysadmin or system manager
|PF| Upper management
|PG| Don't know

Future policy information will be presented to users *mainly* by:
=================================================================
|QA| Verbal info, primarily from other users
|QB| Verbal info from manager, supervisor, or sysadmin
|QC| On-paper-only written info from manager, supervisor, or sysadmin
|QD| On-line interactive displayed (as well as on-paper) written policies
|QE| Don't know

Please include this next line:
==============================
|Z2| Usenet Survey

**************************************************************************
   Now delete all lines that are not responses to questions, and please
       email to "survey at mtek.com" or "tektronix!bucket!mtek!survey"
**************************************************************************
-- 
Bud Hovell
____________
policy at mtek.com
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."