ROB ENGLAND Dead Cat Syndrome
DEAD CAT SYNDROME Rob England (The IT Skeptic)
v9
Operational Readiness
Organisational Readiness
A reduction in:
• incidents
• support calls
• problems and errors
• …and hence costs
• reputational damage
• other losses and consequences
And an increase in
• usage
• customer satisfaction
• staff morale
• return on investment
Without proper operational readiness:
• IP is lost
• operations carries a cost
• services are less stable
• support unable to respond
• changes are a higher risk
• operational failures
• risk of data loss
Four Strategies for Preventing Dead
Cat Syndrome
Warranty period
Operational robustness
Organisational change
Communication
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Testing
Utility
Warranty
Operational
Acceptance
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Warranty period
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Who owns it in the warranty period?
Operational robustness
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Operational Acceptance Criteria
Non-Functional Requirements
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Organisational change
• Transfer of IP
• SLAs, OLAs and UCs
• Administration roles and
procedures
• Escalation paths
Communication
Liaison
Service design
Project support
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Gate-keeping
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Liaison
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Service
design
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Project support
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Project persuasion
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Four Strategies for Preventing Dead
Cat Syndrome
Warranty period
Operational robustness
Organisational change
Communication
image © Canstockphoto.com
Nobody deserves a
dead cat
Rob England
www.itskeptic.org
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