A survey of system administrator mental models and situation awareness

Little empirical research has been conducted on the mental models and situation awareness of system administrators. To begin addressing this deficiency, a short survey was prepared and broadcast to system administrators via Internet newsgroups. Fifty-four sysadmins responded. These respondents indicated that there is much about the systems they oversee that they don't understand, and the more they do not understand about their systems, the more likely they are to attribute this ignorance to hardware, and not software, unknowns. The respondents attribute little of the expertise they do possess to formal education or training. Further, when faced with a novel situation, the respondents were more likely to rely on themselves and their personal contacts than on the system's manufacturers, or on third party support. However, the more the sysadmins attributed their ignorance of their systems to hardware unknowns, the more likely they were to rely on manufacturer and third party support. Compared to Microsoft oriented sysadmins, Unix oriented sysadmins were more likely to attribute their expertise to working with others, and were more likely to attribute their ignorance to hardware unknowns. Finally, respondents who felt that their organizational superiors understood what is involved in system administration were more likely to perceive these superiors as providing the sysadmins with adequate support.