365x24x7

Sun Apr 17 15:00:43 UTC 2011

> If I were going to provide a 365x24x7 NOC, how many teams of personnel
> do I need to fully cover operations? I assume minimally you need 3 teams to
> cover the required 24 hr coverage, but there is off time and schedule rotation?
> 
> thoughts, experience?

It depends a lot on how you structure your shifts; the problem is getting
everyone 40 hours without unnecessary overlap.

The TV master control facility in which I'm working presently does it
by doing overlapping 10 hour shifts; it takes 10 people to have 2 on-shift
at all times.  You work 6 hours with one person, and 4 with the other.

Your 3 teams estimate is, I suspect, derived from dividing 24 hrs/day by
8/hrs shift... but that doesn't take weekends into account, and you don't
necessarily want to have 3 more teams who only work 2 days a week.

I don't think there's *any* way to do it that guarantees you'll always 
have the same people working together; fortunately, I also don't think
that's all that necessary in that environment.

Cheers,
-- jra