l for reinforcements. Troubleshooting in a Team Environment When there is a team of people troubleshooting the same problem, someone needs to be the leader. I could write an entire book on this subject alone. If you find your- self troubleshooting as part of a team, work only on the piece of the puzzle you've been assigned. If you try to fix someone else's piece, you're wasting your time as well as his. If someone else is trying to solve a problem, standing over his shoulder and yelling out ideas will not help. If you're sure of the answer, but no one is listening, find a way to prove your solution, and push to be heard. The Janitor Principle The Janitor Principle states that explaining your problem to someone who doesn't understand it will cause you to make connections you've previously missed. This is an amazingly powerful tool. To explain a complex problem to someone who doesn't understand it, you need to reduce the problem to its simplest elements. This action forces you to think about your problem from a different viewpoint. Looking at a problem differently is often all it takes to find a solution. Chapter 36: Failures CHAPTER 37 GAD's Maxims Maxim #1 Over the years I've been in the industry, it has become apparent to me that there are certain driving forces in the IT universe. These forces are evident in just about all aspects of life, but their application is never more evident than it is in IT. In every situation where an engineer does not get to do what she wants to do-or worse, in her eyes, to do what she believes is right-these forces come into play. I believe that if more people understood them, there would be less conflict between engineers and their superiors. The driving forces of network design are summarized here: Politics Money The right way to do it GAD's Maxim #1: Network designs are based on Politics, Money, and The right way to do it-in that order. Figure 37-1 shows it all in a nutshell. The idea is simple, really. Engineers want to "do it the right way," which is usually considered best pra