malfunctions, problems with production programs, and TIME itself (that 24-hour period in which you are to schedule as much production work as possible). THE  SCHEDULING  ENVIRONMENT How difficult is it to prepare a schedule? you might ask. That depends on the size and complexity of your data processing installation in terms of hardware, software, and support personnel. You must consider many things when preparing a schedule. As a start, you have to ask yourself the following questions: l o l l What types of jobs are to be processed? In  what  processing  environment  will  the  jobs run—real-time? online? batch? What special-handling requirements are there, if any? What  amount  of  work  is  to  be  processed (workload)? As scheduler, you will be responsible for: Preparing  and  maintaining  established  schedules for various time periods: daily, weekly, and monthly; Reviewing and acting on all types of AIS service requests as they are submitted to you; Distributing  production  schedules  to  various work areas within your AIS facility; Organizing data processing priorities for both scheduled and nonscheduled work; Entering jobs into the production job stream to achieve maximum use of computer resources; Tracking work in progress to ensure everything is running according to schedule; Analyzing  problems  in  connection  with production  jobs  and  adjusting  computer processing  schedules  to  use  whatever  time  is available until problems can be corrected and a rerun can be initiated; Maintaining  accurate  logs  and  adhering  to administrative reporting requirements; and Determining the accuracy of schedules based on reviewing production results. How  you  go  about  scheduling  work  on  the computer system will depend on two factors. The first factor deals with how the system is configured. You 1-9 must consider the number of processors and peripheral devices available and how they interconnect. The second factor deals with the operating mode of the computer. The operating mode may be batch, online, real-time,   time   sharing,   multiprogramming, multiprocessing,  teleprocessing,  networking,  or  any combination  of  these.  Having  knowledge  of  the different operating modes will help you understand the operating environment in which you will be working. This knowledge will help you understand how to go about scheduling work for the system. THE JOB OF SCHEDULER The  job  of  scheduler,  or  production  control coordinator as it is sometimes called, requires you to have  specific  knowledge  and  skills  if  you  are  to effectively schedule the computer and the other related activities that revolve around it. You must have a good working knowledge of AIS concepts and be thoroughly familiar with the operation of your facility’s computer system(s)—the   actual   hardware   components themselves. You also need to know how the operating system in use works, what applications and production jobs you are to schedule, the time it takes to run them, how to make up job streams using system control language (SCL) statements, and so on. One of your primary jobs will be to keep production schedules up-to-date and as accurate and complete as possible.  In  addition  to  making  up  production schedules for computer processing, you must be equally concerned  with  two  other  factors:  precomputer processing and postcomputer processing. Precomputer  processing  includes  ensuring  all inputs are received on time according to prearranged schedules. Postcomputer processing includes ensuring output products are complete, accurate, and delivered to the user when promised. Too often these areas are either overlooked or forgotten, because our interest is generally focused on the computer. We can easily overload or underload precomputer and postcomputer resources.  This  will  have  the  same  effect  as overloading  or  underloading  the  computer—either  user service deteriorates or AIS services are underused. For TOTAL AIS scheduling to be achieved, YOU must consider all of the fictional work areas in the assembly line, especially the end users. All are affected by the scheduling process, and because of this, you must give each work area proper consideration. Having working knowledge and experience in the fictional areas for which you will prepare schedules will also help you. As scheduler, you will be putting