No, last week has not been a demo reel week. Today is the first I've been able to resurface for any amount of time.
Now that I have some quiet time, I can look back and not only take a look at what was going on system-wise, but what else was going on, people-wise. The code and hardware can change, but reactions and roles seem to fall across some fairly well defined categories:
1. "Staunch the bleeding, open the airways and get the drip started"--there are people who will jump right in and start putting the fixes in. When you have an acute situation, these are great people to have. The goal at that moment is to get the situation stabilized, so the next group can get in and work:
2. "How the heck did this happen, and what can we do to make sure this doesn't happen again?!?"-- These are the forensic experts, and you have to love them. They're working on a parallel track to the first group, pouring through all the data, doing the analysis, and finding the root causes (does anyone ever have a system go south with only one problem? really?). They're going to put in the permanent fix after the crisis passes.
3. The Ombudsman, or "Hi, I'll be your Swiss Embassy today"--this may be a program or engineering manager, but this is the person who handles all the groups, does the translation from engineering to english to marketing to sales to IS and back again. They know enough about how each area does its work to be able to attend all the meetings, synthesize the information, and tell each group what they need to know. Note I said "need to know"--too much information can be just as bad as not enough information. And that information had better be timely and kept in sync.
4. "Concerned Party" or "Are we going to survive this?"--the client or clients--this is the face you see, even though they're playing their own part elsewhere. That's something you always need to be aware of--they may be the ombudsman for another concerned party.
....and some types I'd be just as happy to not have around
5. "Missing in Action"--when the going get tough, these guys submerge. If you know they're going to do this, and if you're paying attention during minor oopsies, you can usually predict that they're going to go incommunicado during the crisis, to return just in time to be part of the group doing the final communication with the client. If the client has figured this out, it's perfectly okay to allow them to asking probing questions of the invisible man--it's grand fun, and likely the "man who wasn't there" will be oblivious to the skewering.
6. "Shrieeeeeekkkkkk!!!!" Or, our friend the hysteric has come to call. Nope, we're not all gonna die, but they may make it sound like a viable alternative. These people are a special case where you have to be very careful about the timing, type, and amount of information. If you handle it correctly, they'll quiet down. If not, they always seem to have the "reply all" key warmed up and ready to go. The trouble is, while you can make a good guess at some who will fall into this pattern, one will come screaming out of the woodwork at the wost possible time. Unfortunately, these people can drain energy at the worst possible time during the crisis.
7. "Who can I blame for this", along with their little friends "How can I make sure I'm not blamed", and "Can I use this to make a political rival look bad?"--I'd rather have a dozen "missing in action" than someone who's attempting to make hay from a bad situation. They are most easily identified by their refrain "who's at fault for this?" in the first criss meeting. Luckily, these people have usually identified themselves in a previous bad patch, and you can mitigate the situation by choosing your information sharing wisely. It never hurts to have pre-emptive meetings with the boys in the carpeted wing before Iago shows up with the interpretation.
Moral of the story? Not only do you need to manage the situation, you need to manage the situation going on around the situation. With any luck, what got your here will be fixed, but you'll still have to deal with the people around you after the crisis is a hopefully dimming memory.
Posted by lsefton at October 5, 2003 09:14 PM