CEO's Connection
Death to the Run Book
by Rob Gardos, CEO

Organizations invest massive amounts of resources to create and instill standards that enforce the best company practices. The thinking is that if everyone is doing a particular action the same “right” way the enterprise will be more efficient and predictable -- concepts any good manager craves. The net result of these efforts, more often than not, is the all-encompassing run book, a suite of documents that breaks down complex operations into a series of user-friendly steps. Think of it as a “cook book” for your operators. In theory, once these run books have been created, junior-level folks can perform complex tasks in a way that is inline with company standards. The problem, of course, is that in technology, the underlying environment is in a constant state of flux. There are simply too many variables to account for if you are trying to create a guide that handles all situations. So what happens in the end? The real “run book” is stored inside the heads of your technologists. Unfortunately this translates into steep learning curves, dependence on key people, and variation. Strangely enough, that doesn’t seem to stop companies from creating countless standard operation procedures. I suppose inaccurate SOPs that are not necessarily followed are still better than no SOPs at all.

This seems like a tremendous waste of time and talent; real thought has already gone into what the SOPs should be. It only makes sense that if your experts have documented the best way to do something you would want to leverage that knowledge throughout the organization. The missing link is automation. For the purposes of the complex IT organization, I am referring to management systems that can centrally administer and automate tasks. Automation allows a select group of experts to rapidly define standards and force operators to abide by those standards. Updates to SOPs are immediately pushed into the organization allowing for future tasks to follow new procedures. Legacy systems are quickly identified and remediated to ensure compliance.

Now, while all of this may sound great, the fact is that systems are highly specialized, which makes the process of automating tasks a challenging one. One key characteristic of an effective automation solution is the ability to rapidly define an evolving set of standards. If every new application requires countless hours of development then you’ve quickly mitigated some of the benefits of automation. The solution is pushing the best practices to the automation vendors themselves. Does it make more sense to invest countless hours defining Oracle RAC standards, or is that time better spent figuring out how to retain a customer? Unless you are in my business (database automation) I think the answer is quite clear.

So throw away your run books and empower your best and brightest to help grow your business. Otherwise, I’m not sure what value those books will give you (beyond kindling) when your best and brightest change jobs.

Robert Gardos
President and CEO

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