Flying Blind: Your Tech Instrument Panel - Squadron Weekly Email
Originally posted 14th November 2022
You never have to wonder whether your tech projects and processes are on course–-if you have the right instruments.
On 24 September 1929, James Doolittle put an opaque hood over the cockpit of his plane and took off completely “blind”. When he landed a few minutes later after an uneventful flight, he’d proven that pilots could safely fly in all weather conditions, no matter how fog or rain might obscure their vision. The key to doing this, of course, was the wide selection of sensitive instruments his plane carried, which told him at all times where he was and where he was going.
When clients start new technical projects or tell me about existing ones in trouble, I tell them they should be tracking progress with at least this set of instruments:
A radar system that shows the planned product path and compares it to actual progress. Example: a frequently-updated product roadmap, including a narrative describing current state.
A glidepath indicator that compares actual delivered value to what’s needed for completion. Example: weekly demos of working software in production. This is the one you shouldn’t take off without–it guarantees a safe landing.
A stall warning that tells you when you’re running dangerously close to the limits of your system, whether that’s an overloaded database or an out-of-memory webserver or something else. Example: A hosted-server monitoring system like AWS CloudWatch.
A ground proximity warning system that shouts “PULL UP” when you’re feet from the side of a mountain, with your system down and angry customers phoning. Example: An uptime monitor like PagerDuty.
Cabin CCTV that gives you high-bandwidth information about the people in your tech team and their morale. Example: A weekly in-person or Zoom check-in on risks and issues.
These are the important areas I consistently look at when assessing a team or a project or a company–and far too many aren’t monitoring one or more of these key indicators. Do you have all five? What’s missing and why?
This first appeared in my weekly Squirrel Squadron email, which goes out every Monday, and was originally posted on 14th November 2022. To get my provocative thoughts and tips direct to your inbox first, sign up here: https://squirrelsquadron.com