The IT Skeptic - Comments for "Doubting that automation really reduces errors"

Cost of testing

skeptic — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:58:28 +0000

You raise the issue of testing. Testing software - whether it be automation or anything else - far exceeds the cost of coding and (often? usually/ always?) exceeds the cost of planning and design. This is frequently overlooked by IT Operations staff automating IT systems, who think that banging another rule or script into Tivoli, Patrol or Unicenter is a few hours work. Likewise Service Desk tool admins adding workflow.

if the business is automating a core process, then the system is usually properly design and built.. and tested. If security staff want to automate access provisioning, someone bangs up a "self-documenting" Perl script, give it a quick unit test on the bench, then release it into the wild

It depends upon the procedure

James R Grinter — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:41:16 +0000

One thing's for sure - if even (especially) technical staff are given a checklist to follow for a regularly performed operation then they will miss or skip bits, based upon what they think the instructions say, what they remember from previously doing it, etc.

Whereas an automated procedure can be tested just as much as the software it may be managing or configuring.

Hi Skep, My first comment on

Smi — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:07:16 +0000

Hi Skep,
My first comment on your blog.
Thanks for sharing your ideas with the community.

Automation reducing errors, in terms of ?

Frequency... you're right, reducing human actions will reduce the potential 'human deviation' to perform a none required/ inappropriate action in the process.

Impact... sure not !!!
My understanding is that automation is about configuring a 'system' in a specified context that handle (repeating) required task. If something happens in a context not initially identified and addressed during the 'system' design, this system is failing by applying inappropriate actions that could lead to Bigger Impact.

To reduce this, we need to implement appropriate controls to identify theses 'context deviation' and may stop the process.

We could consider also that a 'bad system design', is still due to humans. Doh! (Homer Simpson Style)
To Reduce/ prevent errors, please eliminate Humans (See "2001, a space odyssey" 1968).

Smi.