SREcon24 Americas - 20 Years of SRE: Highs and Lows
Summary
TLDRThe speaker reflects on the evolution of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) over 20 years, emphasizing its roots in startups and engineering solutions to operational challenges. They discuss the growth of SRE, its integration into various sectors, and the importance of its principles in preventing burnout and toil. The talk also addresses the challenges faced by SRE, including career pipeline issues, adoption failures, and the persistent perception of operations as a low-status function, advocating for a continued application of software techniques to operations.
Takeaways
- 📚 The script reflects on the evolution of the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) role over the past 20 years, emphasizing the importance of reliability in AI and the tech industry.
- 🎨 The speaker appreciates the artistic representation of '20 years of SRE' in the style of an ancient Irish medieval illuminated manuscript, highlighting the value of creativity in technical fields.
- 🗣️ The speaker identifies themselves as a key figure in popularizing SRE, with their book on the subject being widely recognized and available in commercial spaces.
- 🌟 The talk is dedicated to the speaker's stepmother, Helen Gray, who recently passed away, adding a personal touch to the professional discussion.
- 🔍 The speaker clarifies that their perspective on SRE is personal and may not cover all aspects or align with every professional's view, urging the audience to consider this limited viewpoint.
- 🐘 The 'Elephant in the Server Room' is identified as Google, indicating the company's significant influence on the SRE field and its practices.
- 🚀 The script challenges the narrative that SRE is incompatible with the fast-paced, resource-strapped environment of startups, suggesting that SRE principles can thrive in such conditions.
- 🛠️ SRE is portrayed as an engineering-driven field, where solutions are iteratively improved upon, rather than being seen as a static, large-scale operation.
- 🌐 The speaker discusses the widespread adoption of SRE principles across various sectors and company sizes, indicating the model's versatility and relevance.
- 📈 The growth of the SRE market is noted, with the speaker observing an increase in demand for SRE knowledge and practices, despite the availability of free resources.
- 🏆 The script highlights the impact of SRE on broader societal issues, with examples of SRE professionals making significant contributions to social causes and ethical considerations in technology.
Q & A
What is the significance of the '20 years of ESS' phrase mentioned in the script?
-The phrase '20 years of ESS' is used as a reflective opportunity rather than a precise timeline. It's meant to spark a discussion on the evolution and impact of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) over the past two decades.
What is the author's connection to the popularization of SRE?
-The author is responsible for popularizing SRE, largely through the publication of a book on the subject, which has been found on commercial shelves and has contributed to the widespread understanding of SRE principles.
Why is the talk dedicated to the author's stepmother, Helen Gray?
-The talk is dedicated to Helen Gray as a personal tribute, acknowledging her passing and the personal significance this event holds for the author.
What does the author mean by 'the Elephant in the server room'?
-The phrase 'the Elephant in the server room' is a metaphor for the obvious yet often ignored or unaddressed issue in the industry, which in this context refers to Google's influence and its relationship with SRE.
How does the author describe the evolution of Google's approach to system management?
-The author describes Google's evolution as moving from a simple list of machines to more complex systems like babysitter, Borg, and others, emphasizing the importance of incremental improvements and engineering solutions to manage system reliability.
What is the author's view on the relationship between SRE and startups?
-The author believes that SRE is often misunderstood as being incompatible with the fast-paced, resource-constrained environment of startups. However, he argues that SRE principles can be effectively applied in startups, where the focus is on incremental improvements and engineering solutions to problems.
What is the author's perspective on the adoption of SRE across different sectors?
-The author notes that SRE has permeated various sectors, including entertainment, food delivery, education, and government, indicating a broad acceptance and application of SRE principles beyond just large multinational corporations.
Why does the author mention the book 'Site Reliability Engineering' continues to sell well?
-The author points out that despite the content of the book being freely available, its continued sales indicate a demand for high-quality, curated information on SRE, suggesting that the model and practices it discusses are still relevant and sought after.
What does the author suggest about the impact of SRE on general engineering and business consciousness?
-The author suggests that SRE ideas have not only permeated general engineering practices but have also influenced business consciousness, as evidenced by references to SRE in business strategy reports from prominent organizations like Gartner and Forrester.
How does the author address the issue of SRE's role in social and ethical contexts?
-The author highlights instances where SRE professionals have used their skills to address broader social issues, such as the US healthcare system and the #MeToo movement, emphasizing that SRE is not just about technical solutions but also about ethical responsibility and societal impact.
What challenges does the author identify in the SRE career pipeline?
-The author identifies challenges in the SRE career pipeline, particularly for junior level professionals, suggesting that the field can be intimidating and that more needs to be done to encourage and facilitate entry-level participation in SRE roles.
What is the author's view on the need for quantitative models in SRE?
-The author believes there is a need for more quantitative models in SRE to provide a numeric framework for understanding the value of SRE work and to demonstrate the impact of SRE practices on organizational success.
What does the author consider the most urgent problem facing SRE today?
-The author considers the persistent idea that operations, and by extension SRE, is of low status as the most urgent problem. This perception can hinder investment in reliability and user experience, despite their proven value.
How does the author summarize the impact of SRE over the past 20 years?
-The author summarizes the impact of SRE as the radical idea that it is legitimate to apply software techniques and systems thinking to operations, an idea that has been revolutionary but remains surprisingly radical even in 2024.
Outlines
🎉 Reflecting on SRE's Evolution and Personal Dedication
The speaker begins by acknowledging the 20-year milestone of Error-Correcting Code (ECC), using it as a moment for reflection rather than focusing on the accuracy of the timeframe. They mention the importance of reliability in AI, as illustrated by a personal anecdote and a preference for a medieval manuscript style over a previous attempt. The talk is dedicated to the speaker's stepmother, Helen Gray, who passed away recently. The speaker clarifies that their perspective is personal and may not cover everyone's favorite aspects of SRE due to limited view. They introduce the concept of the 'Elephant in the Server Room,' a metaphor for an obvious issue that is being ignored, which in this case is Google's influence on SRE. The speaker also discusses the evolution of the SRE role and the perception changes, challenging the narrative that Google's size and influence make SRE inflexible and machine-like. Instead, they propose an alternative view, considering Google's startup origins and the SRE's adaptability and engineering mindset.
🔧 The Engineering Mindset Behind SRE's Growth
The speaker delves into the engineering mindset that has driven SRE's growth, emphasizing the iterative process of replacing 'slightly less terrible' solutions with better ones. They recount the early days at Google, where the need for managing clusters led to the creation of 'babysitter,' a system that, despite its flaws, was an improvement over the previous ad-hoc methods. The speaker argues that SRE's success is rooted in this engineering approach, which focuses on incremental improvements and adaptability, rather than being a static, large-scale operation. They also touch on the importance of storytelling in shaping the understanding of SRE's role and history, highlighting the need for accurate narratives that reflect the reality of SRE's dynamic and problem-solving nature.
🌐 SRE's Broad Impact and Integration into Various Sectors
The speaker highlights the widespread adoption of SRE principles across various sectors, from entertainment to government, indicating the model's versatility and relevance. They note the continued interest in SRE material, as evidenced by the ongoing sales of related books, despite the content being freely available. This suggests a demand for high-quality information on the subject. The speaker also observes that SRE concepts are not only permeating general engineering practices but also influencing business consciousness, as seen in the attention from prominent IT strategy organizations like Gartner and Forrester. They emphasize the importance of SRE's contribution to engineering and societal contexts, citing examples of SRE professionals making significant impacts beyond their roles, such as influencing healthcare systems and initiating social movements.
🛠️ SRE's Role in Engineering and Social Change
The speaker discusses the significant engineering contributions of SRE teams over the past two decades, noting their vital involvement in the development of successful Google systems that have had a broad impact, both internally and externally through citations in academic papers. They also reflect on SRE's social influence, with professionals from the field appearing on Time magazine covers for their roles in fixing broken systems and initiating change. The speaker ponders the reasons behind SRE's inclination towards positive social impact, suggesting it may be due to the profession's focus on user experience, a strong mission orientation, or the historical influence of early SRE professionals. They conclude that SRE's ability to prevent burnout and toil through its practices is a significant achievement in itself.
🚧 Challenges and Failures in SRE's Adoption and Identity
The speaker addresses the challenges faced by SRE, particularly concerning the career pipeline for junior level professionals and the intimidation factor for outsiders. They express concern over the failures in SRE program adoption within companies that should be prime candidates for such practices. The speaker regrets the lack of organizational post-mortems to understand these failures better. They also touch on the dilution of the SRE term and the potential overemphasis on identity within the profession. The speaker advocates for a focus on generating more models, especially quantitative ones, to understand and communicate the value of SRE work better. They highlight the need to counteract the idea that reliability no longer matters due to economic shifts and to continue investing in user experience.
🌟 The Radical Notion of Applying Software Techniques to Operations
In the concluding remarks, the speaker reflects on the past 20 years of SRE and the industry's current state. They reiterate the radical idea that it is entirely legitimate to apply software techniques and systems thinking to the operations domain. Despite the progress made, the speaker asserts that this concept remains radical in 2024. They encourage challenging the notion that operations are of low status and emphasize the societal bias against maintaining systems and executing patterns. The speaker ends on a reflective note, acknowledging the significant journey SRE has undertaken and the need to continue pushing for its recognition and integration in various domains.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡SRE (Site Reliability Engineering)
💡Reliability
💡Startups
💡Engineering
💡Toil
💡Burnout
💡Evolution
💡Postmortem
💡Career Pipeline
💡Quantitative Models
💡Operations
Highlights
20 years of ESS reflection without fixating on the exact phrase, using it as an opportunity to look back on the past.
The importance of reliability in AI illustrated by comparing two different renderings of '20 years of ESS'.
The speaker's role in popularizing SRE through his book, visible on commercial shelves.
Personal dedication of the talk to the speaker's stepmother Helen Gray, who passed away last month.
Clarification that the talk represents a personal view, not influenced by any multinational or department.
The 'Elephant in the server room' analogy for the often overlooked entity of Google in SRE discussions.
Contrasting the perception of Google as a relentless, infallible giant with the reality of its startup origins.
The misconception that SRE is incompatible with the fast-paced, chaotic nature of startups.
The narrative of SRE evolving from the need to engineer solutions to immediate problems in startups.
The story of 'babysitter', an early system at Google that, despite its flaws, was a step up from previous methods.
The role of SRE in the development of Google's production systems like Borg and work q.
The idea that SRE principles have permeated general engineering and business consciousness.
The observation that SRE practices are being adopted across various sectors and company sizes.
The ongoing success and demand for SRE material, despite it being available for free.
The contribution of SREs to significant Google systems and their wider industry impact through publications.
SRE's role in fixing broken systems and its connection to ethical considerations and social impact.
Concerns about the SRE career pipeline, particularly for junior level professionals.
The issue of SRE program adoption failures and the lack of industry post-mortems to learn from them.
The need for more quantitative models to understand the value and impact of SRE work.
The challenge of maintaining the relevance of SRE in a changing economic climate and the importance of user experience.
The persistent societal bias against operations work and the low status perception of operational roles.
The radical idea that software techniques and systems thinking can be applied to the operations domain, still considered radical after 20 years.
Transcripts
[Music]
so first things first starting with the
title 20 years of ESS long time let's
not fixate on the accuracy of that
particular phrase uh I think we should
use it as an opportunity to reflect on
the past and in the spirit of this and
also in the spirit of the fact that s
Recon Americas makes me miss my national
holiday St Patrick's Day March the 17th
every single year here is mid Journey's
rendering of 20 years of ESS in the
style of a ancient Irish medieval
illuminated manuscript which I greatly
prefer to the uh rendering of the first
attempt uh which I think nicely
illustrates the importance of
reliability in uh a I okay so uh we've
got a lot to cover 20 years in 20
minutes plus questions so by linear
extrapolation that's one year per minute
uh so I'll talk very quickly obviously
uh who am I and why should you care uh I
suppose I'm probably more responsible
than most for popularizing s in terms of
this uh this book which you can see in
the picture on the left I am very happy
to find on the commercial shelves of a
Bookshop somewhere down in the value
actually uh so seen a few things uh
there's a picture of me ripping it up
which is part of a previous s Recon
opening plary if I recall correctly
here's a picture of me writing another
one the other photo on a personal note
is my stepmother Helen Gray who passed
away last month and to whom this talk is
dedicated and on that personal note I
want to emphasize that this is a
personal view of a talk right so there's
no giant multinational there's no PE
Department P department is me so in
other words if I'm missing your favorite
thing it's because of my limited view
and limited perspective so just want to
make that clear but with all of those
preliminaries out of the way anyone take
a guess what this
is elephant in the server room it's the
elephant in the server room accid
waiting to
happen so popular English phrase meaning
the obvious thing known as talking B
and the Elephant in the server room is
of course
Google the uh image here is a internal
meme that got leaked to BuzzFeed if I
recall correctly so there's going to be
a certain amount to Google in this
presentation you are unfortunately going
to have to be okay with that but I began
my Reflections on 20 years by thinking
about the evolution of the role and the
change in perceptions of this role and I
realized that I kind of have an internal
story about what s is and how it's
changed which is different to many other
people and in fact I think there's one
key story which has grown up around
Google and relationship with s that I
think it's necessary to attack actually
um so I appreciate this may be shocking
to you but sometimes stories aren't
true or different sets of stories are
available depending on the evidence you
select from so I'll take one story to
start with which is that is Google is
smooth and Relentless and infallible and
gigantic and so on and so forth and S as
a result inherits those properties and
so we'd think of s as kind of having a
machine like quality right so giant
resources giant machine giant problems
so
on but other stories are
available to uh do so I'll have to talk
a little bit about startups so startups
what are startups like startups are like
eating glass as Shawn Parker and a
number of other people said various
other entrepreneurs have said uh
startups have a lot of characteristics
that make them kind of not really like
ordinary life so there isn't really a
steady state things are changing all the
time and if they aren't that's bad
Relentless pressure and so on the
shocking news or the different story is
that Google was a startup once as well
and so one thing that's kind of
developed over time is that people seem
to think that s is somehow in opposition
to or incompatible with constant change
fast moving startups in general and so
on I think there's a bunch of reasons
that people believe this but I want to
hone in on one for brevity's sake might
not be your favorite reason but it is
this that people seem to think that
startup chaos Relentless pressure and
not enough resources being
incompatible is function of I I
suppose Clarity or the the the the
pressure to produce means that you
output bad Solutions because you haven't
got the time to do better Solutions and
so now that I'm saying that finishing
your slides five minutes before you get
on stage produces your best work all of
the
time uh necessary short-term Clarity
around choices has produced some of my
best work although for the sake of
engineering uh coherence I feel I should
tell you it has also produced some of my
worst
work but there is this conflict right
and uh I
think it's curious to me to hear how the
story of ere has become for want of a
better term very big company because in
my experience one very real Loop that
drives work in startups is the
following which is putting the slightly
less terrible thing in place before
tomorrow's terrible thing
happens and so the way you get from one
of these things to another is by
engineering and in my opinion in my
story SRE grows from this not as a break
on progress not as a necessary component
of a planet spanning multinational not
as an infinitely large smoothly working
machine but you're doing things while
they're useful then when they're not you
stop doing them you start doing
different things
instead the story is really driven by
engineering and so let me tell you a
story about the early early days which I
was not present for all of uh to be
clear so I am relying on on research and
stories but there was a file at one
stage called cluster.
py Google production starts off very
very simply there's essentially a list
of machines and specific software runs
on specific machines so there's AR raay
defined in some python somewhere and
it's like okay the indexing is on
machine one comma machine 3 comma
whatever okay fine so it turns out
machines go down change rol so on and so
forth and how do people handle this well
they Fork the file and add their own
stuff until eventually there's one fork
for every
FTE or well not quite that bad but you
know close to that So eventually
something better is needed and can't buy
anything to do this right it's all
internal stuff so there's a system built
called I think babysitter that has been
talked about publicly uh and it's really
based around the astonishing realization
that if you can provide some mechanism
to change the arrays at runtime you
don't actually need to Fork the script
anyway very successful so this is the
key Point babysitter is terrible but
it's incrementally less terrible than
the thing that was before it and so in
due course it it buys us time to put in
other things work q and Borg and a bunch
of other kind of systems come along and
Sol
various uh components of the cluster
scheduling
workload and so I would say that
S as an organization would be centrally
involved in this but actually this is
too early like s doesn't even exist at
this point but s thinking
does there's a set of people who care
about production no matter what they're
called and their inclination is to
engineer their way out of problems often
engineering directly into more problems
but definitely engineering their way out
of
problems
okay so I've been talking a lot about
stories playing a role in how you
understand yourself obviously every good
superhero needs an origin story alas so
do the evil ones one uh is the one of a
better term official story so Ben
trainer sloth does a great job of
organizational alignment and
storytelling and so on uh following on
from the work uh I discovered my
research of ma Bloomfield who's manager
of the very earliest production teams in
Google wanted to mention her name
publicly but other stories are available
other selections from the evidence are
available item two is another story h i
it's not as well sourced right so it
basically says is that from very early
on there is a sense that Google doesn't
want to hire folks who are just going to
follow playbooks for the act of system
management want people who could
actually write software automate the
playbooks etc etc I can't verify this I
have been told it I think it does play
into the situational awareness for toil
that Google SRE in particular has uh and
that maybe not a lot of other places
have actually uh but three is kind of
what I've been talking about what I want
to surface which is I think Beyond any
confusion around naming or title or role
or any of that stuff is the core facts
that a when you get people who care
about production and B when they're
allowed to when they can engineer stuff
with to in production you get magic
happening and so when I reflect back on
the gigantic progress of SRE over the 20
years which is actually like it is
really something this thing we do from
the before the earliest days that it had
this name to this gigantic thing it's
become and how utterly bizarre that
seems in retrospect I try to hang on to
those two facts A and B to keep me
grounded okay uh prizing over let's move
on from history somewhat uh and earliest
days to themes and ideas highlights and
low lights we can pick out of the course
of
history uh so let's start out with the
obvious One S teams are everywhere this
set of logos that I stuck up there is
absolutely not a definitive list it is
the list of places that had jobs open
when on Saturday I opened the tab and
did the
search but it gives you a flavor of the
places that s has made its way into and
so from a sectoral point of view it's
like entertainment food delivery
education retail government trading
driverless
cards I also have reason to believe that
according to conference data at least s
is not the sole province of Planet
spanning multinationals but has made its
way into smmes mid-range companies and
so on the middle range having ticken Deb
sufficient uh significantly overtime
which I think is a good sign for the
profession so
s material continues to sell well I am
not looking happy because of this uh I
make no money from this book uh why is
S3 material continuing to sell well
actually the model is new and I know you
are sitting in your chair going well
actually it's 20 years old you just told
us of course the industry is large and
it takes a lot of time for ideas to
propagate and models in particular even
if it's only the top tier you care about
but I would say that if your world is
just devops or iil or platform or
whatever there is a genuine Gap into
which SRE can fit there is a legitimate
oh excellent will this collapse
underneath me no it won't I'll move over
here that'll make it better uh so if
your world is devops iil platform enge
Etc the SR model does have something to
say to you about how systems should be
managed how organizations should be run
or structured so on I think net net the
market continues to grow and people want
to continue to learn about it I mean
that's why you're here that's why
there's a huge proportion of new folks
which I was very interested to to
see uh but also and this is a bit weird
but it is true the content of these
books is available for free and yet yet
I know they still get bought they still
get read online in various ways that
actually cost money as opposed to not
costing money so that suggests to me
that there's still significant demand
for what's regarded as high quality
information so uh this book's title for
those who can't read it is okay let's do
your stupid idea which is the implicit
title of a number of engineering
conversations I have been in
the general point I am trying to make is
that there's a ton of ideas about how to
understand the problem of software and
systems management creation design and
so on outlined in our body of
knowledge and it would be one set of
consequences for the universe if that
knowledge was kind of scoped to us and
jealously guarded and so on so forth but
actually I don't think it's that way I
think it has
escaped and it's obviously hard to come
up with objective measures for this in
some sense but hey I've got 20 minutes
so we're on to anecdotes at the
frequency I have noticed of explaining
certain ESS ideas to kind of shall we
say generic software Engineers or
product Engineers uh has dropped so I
find that I don't have to Define for
example slos as often as I did several
years ago Etc the knowledge is permeated
getting out there another thing I see is
that cross referencing to ESS ideas
whether in the form of the book or
papers or talks or whatever is also
increasing over time I do think there's
room for science in uh in looking at
this but certainly my experience is that
these two effects are are definitely
ongoing but as well as s
ideas permeating General
engineering I think also some of them
have made their way into General
business Consciousness which is also
pretty weird so uh Gartner and farer for
those who don't know are kind of very
large and important uh it organizations
it strategy organizations kind of might
have heard of the Gartner magic qu
quadrant and a bunch of other things
anyway they tell other organizations
what to think about
it and one of the consequences of the
massive popularity the thing that we're
doing is that the Machinery of business
sat up and took notice and uh I won't
use the phrase churns out but writes a
lot of stuff about SRE and hence you see
articles like this from Forester and
claims like this from
Gartner uh as I say both well-known and
extremely Salient
organizations I think in particular I
suppose you you could query the number
numbers in the Gartner statement that by
2027 75% of enter Enterprises will use
ESS practices up from 10% in 22 but I
think whatever about the the state of
those numbers s has created that
conversation has revolutionized that
conversation like we're not having that
that sentence isn't written in a world
where s doesn't
happen and I think it's also interesting
to note that uh this Forest article from
2018 doesn't conclude 46% of them apply
of Google's s principles apply directly
to your Enterprise what about the rest
no they're terrible don't use them it
concludes that a bunch of the rest are
also applicable under different kind of
circumstances so in some sense the IT
industry has looked at this and has
picked the things that apply and has has
found that it it actually works for them
uh yeah I think another point I would
say just hammering on the engineering
piece again
is uh s teams over the past 20 years
have got a lot of engineering
done again this is my personal
experience my very limited view my
myopia but as an example here are two
papers describing Google systems that I
had sight of what the SRE contribution
was and it was vital to both of them and
both of those systems were very
successful internally I think might even
I'm I'm pretty sure the one on the right
is still working and if the one on the
left isn't working bad things are
happening right now um externally like
these papers have gone on to be cited
hundreds of times and like there's
there's huge impact from these things um
I highlight the SRE contributor names as
I remember them but of course I might
forget them etc etc
so again from my personal point of
view it's also been great to see so many
sres doing work that benefits others
aware of a wider kind of social context
um or again for want of a better term
ethical I'm actually fascinated by this
and I've thought about it a lot over the
years like why why is this is it because
that S as a
profession kind of thinks about the user
or is geared around the positive
experience of somebody else on a
day-to-day basis or is it because of the
strong sense of above and beyond or
Mission
orientation that Google s certainly had
early on or maybe the historical
accident of a bunch of people who joined
early on either way it is notable to me
at least that for such a young
profession we've already had two Time
magazine covers with s people on them on
the left the us Healthcare System such
as it was rescued by SES I think Mikey
Dickerson who you may hear from later on
uh goes on to lead a substantial
government Department to try and do more
of the same and on the right it's Susan
Fowler ESS at Uber whose memo helps to
kick off the me2 movement uh and I think
again for me for people who feel s has
nothing to do with this uh that actually
fixing broken systems and fixing broken
organiz ational systems and
organizational postmortem are very
definitely part of what s does I
surfaced these two examples because
they're convenient graphically I could
mention others uh Liz Fong Jones and
kiwi farms and a bunch of other stuff
prominently again for my limited
perspective uh I would also note that
when um generic software Engineers have
made it to the cover of time it's not
necessarily because of the benefit to
other
people
so continuing on that topic
uh I just want to explore a little bit
more in the context of this quote of a
review of the ESS book that Chris Jones
pointed me out
recently which is the ESS book has
granted me the cursed knowledge cursed
knowledge to see that the misery of toil
and burnout misery sorry is entirely
preventable and I think s at its best
has a long history of doing things
different L because it is the right
thing to do not because we did it that
way previously or we're always going to
do it this way or
whatever but here if the only thing we
did as a profession if literally the
only thing we accomplished was to help
the industry understand that
actually it might be cursed knowledge
but actually burn out and toil and so on
are preventable it would be worth it on
its
own now
okay low lights so uh in true Centrist
dad fashion time for the low lights uh
first thing I will start with is the
career
pipeline the career pipeline I think is
particularly problematic in SRE for
junior level folks uh in fact I'm aware
of one org where s it was suggested s
should only be defined for senior level
and up H and I've said elsewhere that
one close analog for S is Staff engineer
like those kind of crosscutting concerns
that you often see staff Engineers
blessed with uh are can resonate in the
S world as well but if we can't ingest
Folks at the bottom of the profession
and get them to the top and if we can't
take all of the folks who want to do
that then we have some trouble and S is
intimidating from the outside I mean
despite the wealth of educational
material available we should do more
about
that uh this was a ATM in New Orleans
where I refrained from pushing either of
those buttons though I was
tempted device initialize in particular
uh it is useful it's useful balance I
think to say that as well as the success
in adoption that we've outlined earlier
we've also seen plenty of failures in s
program adoption and in companies that
would normally be considered kind of
fertile ground for this kind kind of
thing so large well resourced
technically capable a lot at stake and
so on my personal regret from these is
not that the adoption failed but that
it's not in the nature of the industry
to write organizational post-mortems and
I would love to see uh love to see those
for the adoption
failures it is also kind of unpopular
puffing opinion of me uh but as well as
the genuine problems that are caused by
the mishandling of the term s dilution
of what it means problems with the
implementation and so on we worry about
that a lot in my opinion possibly worry
about it identity too much maybe we
should do less of
that in
particular I've I've spoken about this
in detail in other kind of talks uh
including other s Keynotes so I won't
labor this point um but I will say that
I I don't feel we're really generating
enough models about what it is that we
are doing or trying to do um I
specifically highlight mathematical
there uh because I do think we have a
lot of qualitative models we could
always use more and that's totally fine
um but I I think we need some more
quantitative models about what it is
we're doing and in particular
quantitative models about being able to
put generic numeric Frameworks on the
value of what it is we do on how much
our work matters and I think my personal
intuition is there's a lot of Runway for
this and we just aren't really getting
started uh it's our most urgent problem
in my
opinion uh you will be familiar with the
fact that zero interest rates have gone
away my mortgage certainly is very
familiar with that fact thank you uh it
has changed a bunch of behaviors in
companies aligning with layoffs
attitudes to expenditure for operations
keeping things going and so on again
I've spoken about this before won't
embellish it but I will say that that
attacking the ideas that reliability no
longer matters because growth is
unavailable which is an argument I've
heard and because we can't put a good
number on the worth of the user
experience we won't invest in it those
are kind of key ideas to attack and for
what it's worth I say abstract economic
bases there because I'm pretty sure the
customers still want their stuff to work
whatever the abstract economic rationale
is
is and I think also there are several
patterns which are pretty prevalent in
human behavior and one of those is the
tendency to confuse Doctrine with
identity and so it's particularly
natural if your world has been
significantly
disrupted uh you may end up clinging to
to Doctrine in some sense if you don't
have an easy replacement to
hand but my final low light and I do
think it's an important one is
underpinning some of the earlier low
lights at least at decision maker level
is the persistent idea that operations
is low
status so of course worth is socially
constructed to a large
extent and it's also true that we have a
societal bias against keeping things
going or kind of paying for keeping
things going a bias a kind of
intellectual viice in some sense against
good pattern execution rather than
creation of new patterns and so on and I
can stand here and say that I think we
need to fix this which is
true but in a talk which is mostly about
reflection I'm thinking about the
relationship with s and the past 20
years and all of that does Put Me In
Mind of one potential summary of the
past 20
years which is towi the radical idea
that it is legitimate to apply software
techniques and systems thinking to the
operations
domain and in 2024 I stand here and I
look at the past 20 years and I look at
the state of the industry in the state
of the world and I say that that idea is
still
radical thanks for your time come and
say up
boo thank you very much
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