I was hugely impressed by your article We had problems with bank transfers on 30th May. Here’s what happened and how we’re fixing it for the future. I’m a software engineering management consultant, and I’m always telling my clients (sometimes banks!) to not just fix problems, but spend lots of time figuring out how to prevent them (or anything like them) happening in future. Great work!
I have a meta-suggestion, if you like.
I have often seen small and new companies behave brilliantly. They do things just like you have — implement good process, take the time to work on prevention — and they are often flexible enough to do process improvement in a ad-hoc fashion.
The problems start to come with growth. Their systems grow more rigid and entrenched. The process improvement slows and stops. Eventually, everything is codified except the means to improve the process itself. People get too busy and “efficient” to spend time on process improvement. Eventually, a small, young company comes along and eats your lunch.
I think you’re eating the dinosaur banks’ lunch right now. That’s good.
So what I want is for you to think about how you can never become like them. Do the work now to put in place the process improvement processes that will mean you never stop doing what you’re doing so well now, even if you have tens of thousands of workers.