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Management Information Systems books:
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The best of Management Information Systems books by number of unique Reddit comments:
Top Reddit reviews mentioning Management Information Systems books:
>I can't go to the bathroom without missing atleast 1 phone call from someone about something breaking.
Don't worry about that. Hell, I straight up ignore my phone sometimes even when I'm right beside it. Priorities and such.
>if I need to start looking elsewhere for more pay to offset the stress
Not a bad idea. Always be cognizant of what's out there.
As others have said, bring it up professionally with your boss. His response will help sway the "should I look elsewhere" decision.
Another good suggestion is to work on time management skills. Here's a highly recommended book around here.
And you have vacation days for a reason. Use them. If you try to but they never approve it, then that's a big red flag.
Buy a decent book on pen testing using kali. A great starting point for beginners: https://www.amazon.com/Basics-Hacking-Penetration-Testing-Second/dp/0124116442
I'm 30 years old and currently working 30% in pen testing, and 70% with developing electronic warfare systems at the most reputable cyber security company in Scandinavia. I wish I had found this interest at your age! If you put some effort into it and have a genuine interest in the field, the possibilities are truly endless.
It might be a boring answer, but seriously.. Read! Don't get stuck playing around with tools, but read up on the subject as well. The book I linked is a very easy read, and will get you started with the practical aspects very quickly. Once you have the basics down you might also want to check out "The Hackers Playbook 2". If you find reading tedious I suggest enrolling in a course on udemy.com, that way you can alternate reading with video lectures.
Good luck! The industry needs more young and hungry minds :)
It’s really hard to get anything done if everything goes through management.
IDK if it’ll be of use but if you’re stuck going it alone, I remember this is good: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Management-System-Administrators-Working/dp/0596007833
Scott Duffey was our guest for this episode. He recently released a new book and is giving away 3 free copies. Comment on the video by June 30, 2021 to be entered to win. We will randomly select 3 winners from the comments.
His book: Learning Microsoft Endpoint Manager: Unified Endpoint Management with Intune and the Enterprise Mobility + Security Suite https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645127906
Also, check out the new Filters feature in Intune. It’s a game changer!
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/fundamentals/filters
Buy this book. Scott Duffey is a Microsoft employee and this is a great book. NOTE: I'm not him and I make no cash from this. I'm an M365 consultant who used this book and it's really easy to work through.
Start using sprints that run at least 2 but not more than 4 weeks, ~15 minute daily stand ups, and implement retrospectives. I highly recommend Agile Retrospectives
Read and embrace the agile manifesto.
If your dev teams are too large, split them up. What’s really important is team buy-in. So before you start selling agile, really get a good grasp on its concepts.
Personally, I’ll never go to waterfall! I love agile and I hope you will too.
This is an excellent book on the topic, covering how to balance a sysadmin's unique need for periods of laser-focus to solve deep and complex problems in an environment fraught with interruptions!
Time Management for System Administrators
Yes it is slightly old, as in 17 years, but as a process it describes it is very much still relevant and helpful. Just ignore any references to tech it mentions and concentrate on the process/methods.
It’s a bit old but newer than Gang of Four. I’d also add Enterprise integration Patterns too: https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Integration-Patterns-Designing-Deploying/dp/0321200683/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=117320807516&gclid=Cj0KCQiAj4ecBhD3ARIsAM4Q_jG3bNK54irXXzjN6IZANPhBVlqzE-9Af21PCdHFCfH8N-e9STNAm44aAnPJEALw_wcB&hvadid=49552640...
You don’t realize how wrong you are. Check out this book written by Martin fowler https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Integration-Patterns-Designing-Deploying/dp/0321200683 check out the section on message ques. When you are building sophisticated enterprise architecture every feature can act as que that listens for actions to come in similar to a message que as described in the book. There is great great power in this architecture
I feel like you may be getting at the heart of at least some of what I'm attempting to accomplish. One of the things I need to model is product data, and, at surface, that seems incredibly complex if not outright complicated. I've been thinking about purchasing a copy of a text containing contrived solutions to common data-modeling problems (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471380237/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), but I'm not sure it's worth it. I strongly suspect, just given what I've seen around the web, that the model for something like product data would be, for lack of a better term, deeply nested/dimensional. (A quick Google search on ER diagrams and dimensionality is teaching me to tread lightly so as to not conflate these things.)
This is how I manage mine. I was diagnosed at 40. I like Pomodoro apps like BFT (Bear Focus Timer) and analog to do lists.
Also, try picking up Time Management for System Administrators. https://www.amazon.com/Time-Management-System-Administrators-Working/dp/0596007833
There are some great books out there you should consider reading to up your retrospect game.
Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great https://www.amazon.com/dp/0977616649/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_60X6SV4GVJSTHDKN5T4F
Retrospectives Antipatterns https://www.amazon.com/dp/013682336X/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_S8WF48VBN16BKFNS59Z5
Two area for me:
- Management
- Finding a system that works for me to have visibility of projects but assign tasks to others. Using JIRA for that now. I assign the Epics to myself for the 'project' visibility and I use tasks to assign everyone to.
- Monthly 1:1 meetings to go over progress, expectations, etc.
- Quarterly planning meetings with each subteam to discuss upcoming projects
- Once a month 'state of the team' meeting to go over things going across teams, whispers from management, etc.
- Time Management
- This book helped me personally. Basically taking time each morning to organize all my tasks and schedule when to work on them.
- I'm confident saying this is the weak link in a lot of IT staff.
- Not knowing how long to spend on a problem before pivoting, escalating or rebuilding.
- Tunnel vision on a specific task or project to the detriment of 99% of other tasks.
Check out an O'Reilly book, Time Management for Systems Administrators (https://www.amazon.com/Time-Management-System-Administrators-Working/dp/0596007833/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2ERQ11V58G3NJ&keywords=time+management+for+system+administrators&qid=1650987575&sprefix=time+management+for%2Caps%2C369&sr=8-1).
It won't happen overnight, but steady changes will make it happen.
Not sure about a cheat sheet, understanding which tool to use when requires some understanding of distributed systems and their limitations, such as the CAP theorem. This book goes deep on how databases work, getting into the nitty gritty on things like b-trees and index implementation and eventually zooming out to distributed databases. It's a grind but it's an amazingly thorough walk through (at least for someone like me who only had working knowledge of databases prior):
Database Internals: A Deep Dive into How Distributed Data Systems Work https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492040347/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_BV61XFFBK9HS97W061HG
The canonical Designing Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppman is a bit easier to get through and gives a really great base understanding to work from with regards to distributed systems, and examines many different distributed technologies with discussions on their tradeoffs.
Mike's LinkedIn course is good but is designed to be used in conjunction with the OSG.
Thor's cissp videos are great, reasonably priced and can be used on their own (although as others stated I wouldn't)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/CISSP-Study-Guide-Eric-Conrad/dp/0128024372
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eleventh-Hour-CISSP%C2%AE-Study-Guide/dp/0128112484
The Eric Conrad books are great and easier reads than the osg (I believe I've linked the 2 latest versions but please do your due diligence and check)
Finally Larry Greenblatt on YouTube does some great stuff (his Kirk and Spock why you will pass the exam video really helps getting you in the mindset)
here are two books I found quite useful. both are written by current Program Managers at Microsoft. and I see people have already mentioned the Intune.Training YouTube channel - an absolute must for anyone gettint started with Intune.
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Microsoft-Endpoint-Manager-Management/dp/0645127906
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Microsoft-Endpoint-Manager-physical/dp/1801078998
database internals is my favorite on how dbs work, and can be a good base for branching your learning into different areas of DBing
Database Internals: A Deep Dive into How Distributed Data Systems Work https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492040347/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_G6TT6ZTK7WNKYEKA3FD0
Knowledge of internal workings of a Database is also helpful in design. Check these 2 books,
Just use a pen and a notebook, write your daily list, tick them off as you go. A whiteboard is also good for brain storming all the little things that you and you team need to do.
Sometimes, simple is best. Have a read of https://www.amazon.co.uk/Management-System-Administrators-Thomas-Limoncelli/dp/0596007833/ref=nodl_
Read the book Enterprise Integration Patterns or go through the website. Spring Integration is basically an implementation of the patterns in this book. If you understand when to use the patterns, you will understand how and when to use SI.
Others have mentioned Sec+ as a good starting place and I think I'd disagree. Sec+ is a very high level introduction to security as a whole while you have specified you are teaching a class on NETWORK security which is a bit more specific. In that spirit, I would recommend a book (or books) that is specifically related to networks rather than include other infosec domains. Important concepts here include (but are not limited to)..
- Network devices (e.g. hub, switch, router, etc...)
- VLANs
- TCP/IP
- Network protocols and concepts (e.g. RIP, OSPF, etc...)
- Application Protocols (e.g. HTTP, SMB, SNMP, etc...)
- Firewalls
- Network topologies
- Security tools (e.g. IDS, IPS, SIEM, etc..)
Though I'm sure there are some books out there that would cover all these things, I'm not sure of one specifically I would recommend. One book that does cover quite a few of these things is https://www.amazon.com/Network-Warrior-Everything-Need-Wasnt/dp/1449387861. This book leans a little more towards straight networking than "security" specifically but I think the best way to become a good security pro is to understand the actual technologies as best you can. Supplementing this book with other books that dive deeper into other security specific topics listed above would also be good though.
Time Management for System Administrators.
Practically: daily to-do list handwritten in a journal every morning. Whiteboard with weekly, monthly, yearly to-do wishlist. The daily/weekly list is fed by scheduled tasks on the calendar, tickets and the monthly list. Yearly projects feed the monthly list.
You should be able to justify hiring a desktop support tech. It sounds like you can probably put together stats on time you're spending doing tasks that could be completed by a cheaper employee, and stats on what you could accomplish if you had time to shut the door of your office and work. 60 employees in a tech company is a reasonable place to start this expansion and division of labor. If you weren't doing dev work it would be different.
I guess I'm saying free yourself some time. After you get a desktop tech, you'll be in a position to move toward either a devopsy sysadmin track or a manager track.
If your employer doesn't see value in what you think you could be contributing if you had more time, then you don't have much to do besides move on.
https://www.amazon.com/Network-Warrior-Everything-Need-Wasnt/dp/1449387861
Been an enterprise network admin for many years (no certs) - I love this book.....
I know these are books but they do have a significant focus on walking the reader through hands-on exercises to understand the concepts. highly recommend.
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Microsoft-Endpoint-Manager-Management/dp/0645127906
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Microsoft-Endpoint-Manager-physical/dp/1801078998
Yes. I have ADHD. I’m also an IT executive with teams totaling 50 people. The pandemic top ended all of the (extensive) time management schemes I had created (mix of getting things done methodology as well as things I learned from the book “Time Management for Systems Administrators… link below” by Thomas Limoncelli.)
Along with with the anxiety of life in March 2020, keeping head above water and staying organized and productive at work was rough, focus nearly impossible.
Then I found Todoist, Purchased late March 2020 and it’s become my “time management operating system” if you will.
For one thing, it let me maintain my GTD methodology, but it also let my organize reminders and plan my day in a fluid and dynamic way with the variations of tags, projects and views/filters. That book mentioned above says to write things down rather than try to remember them, having Todoist everywhere on all devices was key to maintaining that mantra.
I ended up displaying 3 windows of todoist vertically on my home office wall TV. “Work today”, “Home Today” and “General Reminders”. By the end of the day I wanted all 3 windows clear, either done, deferred, deleted or delegated.
With regards to ADHD and focus, I have tags like “Focus_120” that tell me to find a 120 minute timeslot, put on my headphones (usually listening to focus@will, the headphone equivalent to Adderall, it’s a brilliant focus app).
As of yesterday I hit Todoist Grand Master and my teams and I have had a great 6 quarters despite the pandemic, lots of credit to Todoist for keeping me straight, nearly 4700 completed tasks. Thanks to the developers for this one.
Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596007833/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_E8ZMWS04GP5DY6XPNH57
Focus@will focus app for people with ADHD https://home.focusatwill.com/