Strategic IT Planning Blog » Temporary solutions http://blog.andresvivas.com A blog about Practical, Effective IT Strategy Planning, by Andres Vivas Tue, 11 Oct 2011 01:06:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Example of a Temporary Solution http://blog.andresvivas.com/example-temporary-solution/ http://blog.andresvivas.com/example-temporary-solution/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:48:57 +0000 Andres Vivas http://blog.andresvivas.com/?p=149 Post from: Strategic IT Planning Blog, by Andres Vivas.

Example of a Temporary Solution

]]> As I posted recently, Temporary Solutions are not a topic of my predilection. But, as Alec Satin mentioned in his comment, sometimes you need to patch up wounds on the battlefield and move on. I found an excellent example of that situation today in a Washington Post article. The new staff showed up at the White House only to find they couldn’t use the network or the phone system, as they have not been configured for them to use yet. What did they do? Apply a Temporary Solution, and in this case it won’t last three years as I affirmed that these solutions usually do.

Problem: No access to the email, network and phone system.
Temporary Solution: Use your personal cell phones and setup Gmail accounts for staff.

Of course, this procedure had to be cleared by the White House counsel, but they found a way to keep moving forward. For sure, there are ways to approach this problem in a more proactive way, but it was too late for that, so a Temporary Solution was needed. Good move, in my opinion.

Post from: Strategic IT Planning Blog, by Andres Vivas.

Example of a Temporary Solution

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]]> http://blog.andresvivas.com/example-temporary-solution/feed/ 0 Beware of Temporary Solutions http://blog.andresvivas.com/beware-of-temporary-solutions/ http://blog.andresvivas.com/beware-of-temporary-solutions/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:16:37 +0000 Andres Vivas http://blog.andresvivas.com/?p=141 Post from: Strategic IT Planning Blog, by Andres Vivas.

Beware of Temporary Solutions

]]> Any IT worker has experienced this situation: “Let’s deploy Widgets ABC as a temporary solution. When we have time, we will fix/develop/procure/correct it and do it right, it will be OK“.

And we all know it will never happen. Or, actually, it will. Next time it breaks, or next time we need to make an update (which will happen precisely at the same time of another crisis, so we won’t have time to do it right that time either). There is a reason why duct tape is so popular, right?

What have you noticed about temporary solutions?

Here are a few points I can think of:

  1. They are applied with agreement from management –either implicit or explicit
  2. Everybody knows we won’t fix it until it breaks again –an we all agree to that
  3. They last three years (This is what I call the Andres Vivas rule of Temporary solutions)
  4. They get deployed at the last minute, just when the deadline is here, so we use that as justification of why we had to do it
  5. We won’t document it, do next time it breaks we will have to sit down and think, trying to remember why and how we deployed it –and that is IF the same staff is still there three years after it was deployed, otherwise the newer staff will have to guess and then think that the people that were there before them were not competent at all

What else have you noticed about Temporary Solutions?

I am sure that better planning should minimize these situations, but how can we avoid these situations completely? Any ideas?

Meanwhile, as a temporary solution, I will leave the discussion open, I’ll come back to revisit this topic when I have more time.

Post from: Strategic IT Planning Blog, by Andres Vivas.

Beware of Temporary Solutions

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