FIRST Server Issues

[iyportne]

I know this is unfortunate, but as a continuous improvement professional I know none of us have gotten to where we are without backward steps, and I trust FIRST will fix and make good on this process as well.

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

Remember, everyone can predict something that just happened, and everyone can solve an isolated issue without the entire context.

Perhaps we can use this thread as a case study for Gracious Professionalism vs. Ungracious Pro-victimism...heaven known we have the evening news for the latter.

[mastachyra]

I just read it on Chief Delphi guys... Postponed until next week!

[mjenk72]

They transfer registration duties to me this year and what happens....https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=...74649774519171

[jgerstein]

Originally Posted by marshall

Why is this a free for all instead of a lottery system?

Either way, my hat is off to the FIRST IT staff handling the fire right now. I hope Frank and Dean sponsor a party for you after this is resolved.

Agreed. Some of my fellow mentors and I were talking about this yesterday. The high-pressure free for all isn't ideal, even without crashes, because it forces people to rearrange their schedule for the day around it. For some people that ranges from difficult to impossible.

Adding in crashes like this makes it so much worse, because instead of planning my day around something that will take a few minutes, I have to plan around something that will take a completely unknown amount of time.

[mjenk72]

aaaand that worked almost as well as registration did...

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by iyportne

I know this is unfortunate, but as a continuous improvement professional I know none of us have gotten to where we are without backward steps, and I trust FIRST will fix and make good on this process as well.

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

Remember, everyone can predict something that just happened, and everyone can solve an isolated issue without the entire context.

Perhaps we can use this thread as a case study for Gracious Professionalism vs. Ungracious Pro-victimism...heaven known we have the evening news for the latter.

Ok, here's one directed just for your students.


Absolutely, try new things. But when you launch what is effectively a product or service be sure to test it under expected load.

[Abrakadabra]

Originally Posted by iyportne

...
My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.
...

Or... perhaps they will learn that when you have a "mission critical" system (which I would argue is true in this case, with the large number of professional man-hours being wasted due to its non-functionality), and that system had been working just fine for the past two years, if you decide to change it for whatever reason, it might be a good idea to test the heck out of it before bringing it live.

[kmckay]

Originally Posted by bcampbell

Anyone else annoyed by the hastag on FRCTeams twitter.... #OMGROBOTS.... They should have said something like #SORRY or #MYBAD or #WHOOPS

#WeFiredTheGuysWhoUpdatedTheWebsite

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by iyportne

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

I agree name calling is pointless. But. First has data on resource loading registration takes. It happens every year. First choice crashed First Choice the first time up. I expect it has similar loading. You try new things, but you mitigate the risks and test for known issues.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Absolutely, try new things. But when you launch what is effectively a product or service be sure to test it under expected load.

And this isn't a new problem, HQ has been dealing with this for years. Registration used to have problems years ago and they worked through them. FIRST Choice used to have problems and they worked throw those as well. Even now they have testing sessions and things to make sure their servers were ready for that. They have done much better in the past and this is clearly a step backwards, we aren't expecting them to be perfect but they could also provide far better service to their customers and not wait 45 mins before making any public update.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by kmckay

#WeFiredTheGuysWhoUpdatedTheWebsite

I hope not. Screw ups are a part of life.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by iyportne

I know this is unfortunate, but as a continuous improvement professional I know none of us have gotten to where we are without backward steps, and I trust FIRST will fix and make good on this process as well.

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

Remember, everyone can predict something that just happened, and everyone can solve an isolated issue without the entire context.

Perhaps we can use this thread as a case study for Gracious Professionalism vs. Ungracious Pro-victimism...heaven known we have the evening news for the latter.

This is true however FIRST has had a long history of having teams use systems that just crash. FIRST Choice & Registration threads of old have had many issues with crashing & struggling to handle the load. The TIMs system was working just fine over the past few years and the decision was made to change it so yes teams are going to be upset that FIRST took a step backwards after finding something that was working fine.

Its a little disappointing but when it requires people to set aside time out of their work day to sit around and get nothing accomplished.

[SGK]

My source with contacts at FRC HQ has told me "Officially postponed until next week. Date and Times TBA"

[Banderoonies]

11 years doing this....registration has NEVER worked as it should. Even with this new and improved website... *sigh*. #highhopescrushed

[RoboTigers1796]

Well I can't say I'm actually surprised. I was actually kind of expecting it.
It was disappointing because after all the years of dealing with the madness of crashing webpages, the past 2 years we finally had seamless registration with a perfectly functioning TIMS but then the new site came and I knew we were in for an adventure.

A community stress test on a new site or software has been successfully run by much smaller communities than FIRST. They could easily run a mock opening with plenty willing to offer their help in logging in for a few minutes a day or two before the real show. Maybe something to consider in the coming week.

Good to hear they finally called it off and called a mulligan.

Welp, guess we will be reconvening next week!