Opinion Post: Don’t Forget your Eyesight

When so much effort and pressure are put on designing and implementing strong technology solutions, in my opinion, it’s easy to neglect having visibility into those solutions once they are implemented. While competent design and implementation are important, having access to insight and analytics into the system once the design is in production is just as important. Having a competent design to reduce issues is ideal, but what do you do when the system is not working properly or someone is accusing the system of not functioning properly? Visibility and analytics are important for many reasons, but to me, a big one is troubleshooting. I want to be able to help people resolve issues in the quickest way possible and if I have that deep visibility at the ready, there is a better chance that I can do just that. A more selfish way to put it is “mean time to innocence”. How do I quickly prove or disprove that an issue is my fault so that I can move onto the next task or project? Having visibility, analytics, insight, evidence, etc is key. Whether the system you are designing and implementing has built-in visibility, there is a product out there that can provide that visibility, or you can develop a home-grown solution, leveraging that insight is important. Once the design/solution has been implemented, someone has to support it, and having proper tools can help greatly.