When you’re putting plans together, sometimes it helps to take pause…
We’ve been talking a bit about lock in on tools and technologies, but today I wanted to bring up a recent experience putting together a system plan for a company… and the push to move faster.
In the dot com days, there was a saying that always bugged me. “Ready, Fire, Aim…” – and this project is trying to go head-long into that methodology. Deploy, find out where the chips fall, then pick up the pieces and fix the issues. They’re not doing it specifially to be reckless, but they’re sacrificing things that *seem* to be “phase 2” type things.
Their argument is that systems won’t fail now – we’re just getting started. Let’s worry about that in phase 2. Their argument is that security and access controls can be touhed up after the application environment is up and rolling.
It was a stunning approach that I’ve not actually had thrown around before. It’s one of those “well, it may be somehow logical if you’re considering a project implementation timeline/project type thing, but to roll production in those types of phases… ”
I let them talk, we went through their logic. We talked about the risks. I explained a few things.
Their drive to deploy and the need to find ways to phase in the deployment (“but isn’t this the agile approach anyway?”) and move things along and pick up the pieces afterward led to a no-decision ending to the meeting.
In the end, when you’re not in charge, when you’re the consultant, you consult. You suggest. Prod. Beg even. But you don’t decide. So for now, we’ll be beating the drum incessantly, pushing for protections and working to pull in protections along the way rather than necessarily as a planning point in the schedule. We’re weaving them into each step, rather than a specific deliverable.
Doing a function, have some data collection bit you’re addressing? Just in case something goes wrong, we’ll make sure that “what if” is covered.
This seems to be working well, and there have been a few lightbulb moments for them where they’re recognizing what’s happening. It’s not to say we’ve been so amazing in discussions or suggestions, just that the small bites keep them moving forward, but at the same time, keep it from becoming a show-slowing project point.
It’s been an interesting and very thought-intensive process for us in working with them, but we’re hopeful it will pay off for all…