Fixing Problems That Never Happened
Executive Summary:
- Preventive maintenance is often overlooked and underappreciated.
- Non-technical management may not understand the value of proactive problem-solving.
- Technical leaders can help bridge the gap between engineering and management.
The Internet’s Verdict: 70% Hyped, 30% Skeptical
The Problem
Many companies struggle to recognize the importance of preventive maintenance. As one forum user noted:
I’ve been in those companies where ‘struggling departments’ ended up getting all the praises and raise in budgets the following quarter because of the heroic saves they did, and raising awareness on how important they are… For stuff they totally caused on themselves.
Causes and Consequences
The disconnect between non-technical management and engineering can lead to a lack of appreciation for proactive problem-solving. Another user observed:
Its really hard to measure effectiveness, problem becomes even harder when a non-engineering person has the job to measure effectiveness of a engineering person.
Solutions and Strategies
Technical leaders can play a key role in educating management about the value of preventive maintenance. One approach is to use metrics such as on-call requirements and team burnout to measure effectiveness. As a user suggested:
A well written software should not require on-calls from the dev team
Focus Keyword: Preventive Maintenance
