Action is King

Nothing happens without action.  Change produces benefits.  Only action produces change.

You can spend years studying how the stock market works, but unless you take action, you will not reap the benefits.  You can spend a lifetime studying how to swim, but without diving into the water, you would not acquire the skill.  You can spend a lifetime thinking about a decision, but without taking the decision, and acting upon the decision, nothing will happen.

There are a few exceptions. You might receive a rich inheritance from a relative who passes away.  You might be born into a rich and wonderful family.  Another exception. but for most other things, if we want improvement in our life, we need to take action.

Why don’t we take more action?  There are two reasons.  First, deciding the right act is hard, for action can bring benefits, but it can also bring disaster.  This fear prevents many people from taking action.  I think buying stocks of ABC will increase my money, but it can also lead to losses, so I will not act for now and think more about it.   I think this more senior role will give me more satisfaction in my work, but I might fail and lose my job, so I will remain content in my current position.

That is why thinking behind an action is important.  What are my options?  Which one should I choose?  What are the rewards?  What are the possible consequences?  Can I survive these consequences?  What are my options if the consequences occur?  Is it worth it?  These are questions for which thinking and information gathering is required in order to set the right course of action. 

But without the action, knowing the right course of action produces nothing.  It is no different from not knowing the right course of action.  So, only study the right course of action if you will take the next step to act on it. Otherwise, it is all just a waste.

The other reason is that it is hard to take action. You want to write a book, but it takes a lot of effort and sacrifice, so you don’t do it. You want to get a better job, but it takes a lot of rejection, so you don’t do it.  There is no shortcut here. You just have to do it.  These most successful inventors worked very hard.  Many of the most successful people work very hard.  The top employees at Goldman Sachs are famous for being wealthy and for having to work very very hard and for very very long hours.  Why should you be an exception? 

But here you can get some help with tools.  Tools like computers and software and reduce the tediousness of work.  Writers from an earlier generation had to write their books using typewriters, and do their research from libraries.  You can write your book using your word processor, and do your research through Google.  The work require is not as hard as before.  It could be that you are just lazy.

Mission Requirements

Clarity in Mission Requirements is critical concept to successful solutions.

People in the solution delivery profession are generally informed about requirements.  Business Analysts, Software Developers, Solution Architects, Project Managers, know about the terms business requirements and system requirements, as well as functional requirements and non-functional requirements.

But seldom heard is the term ‘mission requirements’, which is interesting because it is the most essential of all the requirements of a system. Mission requirements are the raison d’etre of the system, its reason for being, the purpose for which the system is being produced.  All other requirements are subordinate to the mission requirements, and are derived from the mission requirements. 

The reason for the total absence of mission requirements in enterprises is undoubtedly because the word ‘mission’ itself is not part of the business vernacular.  One hears of the ‘vision’ for the enterprise, and its ‘mission’ but that is something quite different.

The phrase ‘mission requirements’ comes from the military and aerospace community.  A mission refers to the intention of the system, often a weapons system.  For example, a fighter plane’s mission is to shoot down enemy aircraft.  A Patriot missile battery’s mission is to shoot down incoming missiles. 

A system is assigned a mission because the super-system (the system which contains the system of interest), has objectives, and they perceive that to achieve the objectives, the system must be able to meet the mission requirements.

Mission requirements focus on the external system, not the system being built.  It is no surprise that mission requirements are measured using metrics called ‘Measure of Effectiveness’ .  This is about how well the solution is impacting the super-system and helping it achieve its objectives.

Think about a car.  A car with a top speed of 100mph.  It is impossible to say whether such a car is suitable or not without considering the mission for which it will be used, the part it will play.  If the car is to be used for transporting kids to and from school, then it’s perfectly suitable.  If it’s to be used to win a race, then it’s probably inadequate.

There is a hierarchy of requirements, and not the simple categorisation into just two: business,  and system requirements, is not rigorous enough. 

At the top of the hierarchy is the mission requirements.  All other requirements are derived from it, or in support of it.  These requirements must be set out very clearly.

Modern Tools for Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery

Today’s world provides so many enabling technologies for enabling an efficient and effective BC / DR plan in place.  Enterprises can no longer justify not having a working and effective BC / DR plans in place.

The coming of the Cloud is a tremendous help for BC/DR planning. You have a safe repository of all your important information physically separate from your physical operations. Even if your whole building becomes inaccessible through fire, flood, or terrorism, the data, applications, and knowledge stored in the cloud remain untouched, completely unaware that something has occurred. It is just there waiting for you to access it from wherever you are. No time or effort or cost need to be spend recreating hardware and infrastructure.

The BC / DR plans themselves that used to be kept in physical paper files can now be stored in electronic format, immediately accessible and available through different channels and devices. In electronic format, it becomes easy to update and keep current, easy to disseminate and and ensure that everyone has the latest version, and very importantly, easy to access when needed.

Copies of the plans can be kept in secure thumb drives at the homes of key employees.

When disaster strikes, the ubiquity of handheld smart devices allow employees to be easily advised, easily contacted, and potentially able to work from anywhere. 

For a web-based central platform for reporting and keeping track of what’s going on, you can also put up a wiki platform that key personnel can readily update as information and progress occur.  A wiki software you can use is Mediawiki.  This is the same software that Wikipedia runs on.

Tools for automating the DR testing make coming up with working plans far easier.  Solutions like VirtualSharp or Sanovi can help here.

BC / DR solutions need to go all the way to recovery.  Many cloud solutions merely back up your data and applications.  This is much better than nothing, but it is not enough.  You also need to restore the data and applications into a state suitable to continue doing business.  Plain backups do not help in adhering to RPOs (Recovery Point Objectives) and RTOs (Recovery Time Objectives) set for critical processes and data.

A lot of these tools were not around ten years ago.  Failure to take advantage of them is almost criminal.