Omelets and Hippocrates: Mixing Metaphors and Managing Risks
Omelets
You have probably heard the expression, “you’ve got to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.” This means that if you want to accomplish something, it is inevitable that some sacrifices or mistakes must occur.
In the world of enterprise technology, we often talk about cutting edge technology and agile practices. It’s often the new technology and practices that are less stable and proven than the legacy technologies and traditional practices.
Hippocrates
You have probably heard of the Hippocratic Oath that doctors swear to uphold upon graduating from medical school. One of the tenants of this oath is “first, do no harm.” This is meant to give the physician pause when considering action. It may be better to not act, then to act in a way that causes more harm than good.
In enterprise technology, we love Service Level Agreements (or SLA’s). This is a contract between the customer and IT that guarantees uptime, performance, and response times. When the SLA is king, IT embodies the Hippocratic Oath and scrutinizes every action to make sure it won’t harm the customer SLA.
The DevOps way
Enterprise technology is historically divided into two functions: development and operations. Traditionally, development is incented to ship new features, and operations is incented to protect production. These diametrically opposed objectives either create a healthy tension, or downright dysfunction depending on the organization.
About 18 months ago, I got the opportunity to lead a combined Development & Operations organization and attempt to align those objectives and implement DevOps practices across the teams.
How Hippocrates makes an omelet
Here’s my problem: I want it all. I want the speed, agility, high-tech, rock-solid stability, and predictable performance. I want to meet the SLA and I want to iterate fast, releasing features as frequently as possible in small batches with tight feedback loops. If we break eggs, I want them to be small, inconsequential eggs that the business isn’t counting on. If we do harm, I want it to be the life-saving surgery that makes the pain and recovery well worth it.
As technologists, we wield incredible power. We can transform entire industries. We can also make mistakes that bring entire cities to a screeching halt. As Uncle Ben always said, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Risk Management
For me, this always comes down to risk management. If we are unwilling to accept the operational risk associated with change, then we choose to accept the strategic risk of obsolescence. There is a real science behind risk management, but few use it formally in enterprise technology decision making. The real lesson here is to surface risks and talk about them. Understand possible mitigations. Realize that there is no such thing as a risk-free decision. Just like a doctor in an operating room, enterprise technology is a world where the risk of action and inaction both carry significant weight.
It’s Friday morning. While I’ve been mixing metaphors, you could be mixing up eggs for your omelet. Go ahead and break some eggs. The risk-reward trade-off on that one is easy to see.
2 thoughts on “Omelets and Hippocrates: Mixing Metaphors and Managing Risks”
I like the Hippocrates making an omelette ideology. It’s not always easy to find folks in leadership who are willing to let those few eggs break even if it means moving at a high velocity with positive development. I’d love to understand how you bring people to your side of thinking if their initial gut reaction is NO!
Thanks for your comment. I do run into plenty of people that initially react with a strong aversion. There are two mitigations for that: First, develop a history of changes that were made safely and show that the few incidents that did occur were contained and resolved quickly. The resistance may come from memories of major disasters. Second, I like to balance the risk discussion of action and inaction. There is no risk-free move. It’s just a matter of managing the risks.