IA Project Interviews Interview 1

Interview Notes #1

Table of Contents

• 1. Interview details
  • 1.1. Questions asked by interviewer
  • 1.2. Notes

1. Interview details

Interview was conducted via telephone on 5 October 2018, between Lana Brindley (LB), located in Australia, and Michael Brookhuis (MB), located in Germany. The interview lasted 22 mins, 53 seconds.

Michael Brookhuis is a SUSE Manager Consultant for the Europe region.

1.1. Questions asked by interviewer

These question were prepared ahead of time, and not all questions were asked with exactly this phrasing. However, they directed the conversation, and should be used to interview other participants to ensure consistency.

• Tell me about your main customer.

• What environment do they have?

• Who is your main contact at this customer?

• What is their background/training?

• What was their installation path? (For example, did they do a Proof of Concept install before installing the Production version)

• What challenges have they faced?

• Where do they turn for information or support?

• Have they given you feedback about the documentation?

• Have you personally used/read the documentation?

• What feedback do you have for me?

• Do you have any other comments?

1.2. Notes

• Most customers have SUSE Manager Server installed

• Internal security rules (such as network traffic, firewalls, etc) are the first hurdle to overcome - can they use SUMA within their environment?

• The first thing to do is to perform a pre-req check to ensure that SUMA can be installed and used.

• Main thing customers want is patching ability: they want control over systems and ability to maintain patches.

• Users either have good Linux experience, or have a UNIX background.

• Some users have a test installation before they install a production version.

• Some users have done their own production installation badly, and require help to fix it.

• When users come through Sales, it’s usually install from scratch (no PoC or DIY).

• A normal installation (performed by MB) takes 1-2 hours for install, but can be many hours (or even days) for configuration.

• Users don’t necessarily understand their own environment setup, which makes configuration more difficult/time consuming.

• Often, SLES is ignored within the organisation (MB referred to it as being an "orphaned child"). This results in only one or two people knowing/understanding the SLES servers, so they inevitably get messy as the number of systems grows. SLES is seen as the 'solution' to a messy/difficult to maintain installation.

• Configuration is the most difficult part, especially with large installations.

• Documentation should have more examples and use cases, especially on Staging.

• Users don’t understand what they need to do with SUMA when they have a maintenance window (such as installing new channels).

• Missing documentation on Salt (generally), and staging (specifically).

• Docs should focus more on configuration, less on installation, as many installations are assisted, and the installation is the easier part.