This month we get to know Brad Dayley. Mr. Dayley is the author of our NetWare test, and is also a Software Engineer in Novell's product development group.

The Spotlight is on Brad Dayley's book ZENworks Administrator's Handbook

RN: Please tell us a little about yourself.

Brad: I began working for Novell Inc. in 1993 in a pre-sales position. To become more technical I moved to technical support and worked first as a front-line, then as a back-line support engineer. From there I moved to a division called world-wide support which allowed me to share the expertise I had gained with front-line and back-line engineers all over the world. From there I moved to the current position I have as a software engineer in Novell's product development group. I enjoy writing and have written two books for Novell Press and am currently writing a third. In the little spare time that I have, I've been known to go hiking and golfing with a little time left over for some safer activities like scuba diving and sky diving.

RN: What interested you in writing ReviewNet tests?

Brad: While spending several years as a technical support engineer at Novell Inc., I was able to spend time on the phone and on-site with literally thousands of our customers who were dealing with issues ranging from design and setup to complex hardware or software problems. I was able to get a good feeling of the pain and frustration that IT professionals experience when their computer networks have problems. The problem resolution time was almost always effected by the experience and knowledge the IT professional had. When I moved to a critical issues team I found that problem resolution time was also effected by the knowledge that the front-line and back-line support engineers involved in helping resolve the issues. I've since written several training programs for Novell engineers to help prepare technical support engineers to handle issues quicker and more effectively. I hope that I can have the same effect on a few of Novell's customers by writing a ReviewNet test.

RN: How did you first get involved in writing technical articles?

Brad: While I was in the Technical Support department at Novell I wrote a lot of training materials, and got a good chance to share my knowledge and experiences with both Novell employees and customers through internal and external training. When I moved to development, I wanted to leave that experience available and so myself and a colleague who was also leaving decided to put our experience and knowledge into a book form.

RN: Tell us about your latest book.

Brad: The latest book I have co-authored is the "ZENworks Administrator's Handbook". Basically it covers how to get the most out of Novell's ZENworks product to more efficiently manage a Novell network.

RN: Tell us a little about your ReviewNet test.

Brad: I found it very difficult to really cover the entire NetWare product in one test. Instead I focused on several questions that, through my experience, will help a hiring manager know what kind of maintenance and troubleshooting skills a prospective NetWare administrator might have.

RN: What do you see as the future of NetWare? Where would you like to see it go?

Brad: Novell seems right on track to becoming not only the network operating platform of choice, but also network services with products such as Directory Services and ZENworks. I like that direction simply because it allows Novell to really drive the progress of the network side of the computer industry.

RN: How did you design your ReviewNet test to help eliminate IT hiring mistakes?

Brad: The idea of the test is not to see how many memorized processes the person has, but how well they can logically reason actions to take based on a given situation. The test should be able to demonstrate how well the person would perform in an actual production environment doing day to day tasks.