We have been making a lot of changes to our internal systems and software over the past month or so. And, it isn't hyperbole to say that there have been quite a few unintended consequences. They have ranged in severity from minor to critical and we have had a lot of challenge to get back on top of them quickly before there was customer impact.
I'm not pretending our planning and execution couldn't be better in some areas, but these types of issues are hardly unheard of in the midst of complex systems. We've built, in one way or another, most of our systems over the 30 years we've been in business. During that time, a lot of business, design and technological decisions have been made. And, no single person has a full understanding of how everything works together. In fact, most groups within the company are now specialized to one degree or another and have limited visibility that happens to the downstream side.
So what's the solution? There isn't just one, but the primary approach that we're trying to use is to leverage the power of teams and the group mind to view these changes in their own particular way. These groups aren't just technical in nature, they are also functional, operational and executive. There are business reasons to push for a particular time-frame, even though that can be difficult on the development, testing and operational teams. Likewise, it's important for Tech or Ops to report back to the Execs as to limitations in resources, systems and the resulting risk for that time line.
As with most organizations, I'm finding ours to be a work in progress. There's nothing wrong with that at all though. It means that we keep reaching for continuous improvement, trying new and different things to get to where we need or want to be. At the end of the day, there's a lot worse situations to be in than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment