Processes, creative thought, and judgement

Posted by Michael Disabato

Back in September (yes, I’m catching up), Mike Rollings posted an entry about how our processes are removing our capacity for judgement and accountability for our actions (or inactions) by allowing us to rely on a cookbook that “handles everything.” Being the Process Guy (I write about ITIL), that struck home.

Processes provide a framework and guidance, but should not be relied on as a universal panacea. While processes must be executed to be effective, blind reliance on them in the face of changing requirements is a recipe for disaster. Likewise, metrics can be a trap for the unwary.

Managing to metrics is akin to “studying for the test”. While properly designed metrics assure that business requirements are being met, business requirements often change faster than the thresholds are updated. This requires human judgement to decide “this isn’t working” and that a change request needs to be filed.

Incident Management relies on quick fixes or the use of the Known Problem Database to restore services as quickly as possible. This requires Level 1 technicians to become creative in their problem solving. Triage and quick fix actions require fast thinking and a broad knowledge of the infrastructure (including applications). This is not a job for non-thinking automatons.

So do processes remove our capacity for thinking?

You tell me.

Michael

Comments

[Victor Brown]

Interesting question. For decades I’ve been a strong proponent of process (my focus is IT) as a means of ensuring quality and consistency. My experience has been that good processes, driven by and managed by effective (meaningful) metrics, are the panacea for variations in skill and experience.

It’s also important, of course, to build checkpoints and feedback into the processes that enable and encourage innovation, and keep the metrics accurate and relevant. It can be a tricky balance between ensuring that processes are followed – presumably their value is that they are a prescription for a predictable and desirable outcome – and ensuring that they aren’t followed blindly.

Unfortunately, processes often do stifle and even punish “thinking”, particularly when they’re a substitute for management and leadership. So I suppose that, over time, in an environment driven by blind processes, the organization may lose its ability (motivation) to think!

Good piece, Michael. Thanks.

Vic

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