The IT Skeptic - risk

Who owns the risk of an IT change?

skeptic — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 02:11:25 +0000

Stuart Rance posted an interesting blog about What Is Change Management For?. Then we had an excellent discussion about it on Google+, where some great stuff came up that I want to capture here in my IP repository (or "blog" for short). Tell me what you think:

Risk taking

skeptic — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 09:35:02 +0000

In the last few decades it has become fashionable to adopt a higher risk profile in pursuit of flexibility, agility, competitiveness and ultimately higher profits. We are told by the experts that risk can be managed, mitigated, hedged. We all know how well that turned out for the financial industry in the 1980s, again in the 1990s, and again in the 2000s. Are we learning yet?

The hard fact about a higher risk profile is that sooner or later you will crash. Just because you got away with it last time doesn't mean you will next time.

We all tut tut about those evil bankers, and then we go and do it in IT.

Note to devops; smaller changes do not equate to less risk

skeptic — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:39:38 +0000

To say smaller frequent changes are less risky is a dangerous fallacy. Tweet this

Knight Capital makes the point about the risks of automation

skeptic — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 06:55:05 +0000

Knight Capital's disaster is a warning to us all in IT

ITIL Problem versus Risk

skeptic — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:44:45 +0000

It was one of the great ITSM philosophers, Jan van Bon who first explained to me that Problem Management is but a special case of Risk Management.

In a purist theoretical sense he is right, but on a practical level I think the distinction is useful. It is certainly entrenched.

Contingency planning

skeptic — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:04:24 +0000

As the recession deepens, perhaps we need to lighten up some and make sure we don't over-spend on risk mitigation.

Risk Management - the lost process of ITIL V3

skeptic — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:29:32 +0000

Is Risk Management the "lost process" of ITIL V3?