Epistemology of Incidents & Problem Solving

Описание: Abstract

When the pager goes off, when the alarms start, when the "hey, I think something just went down" comes, the difference between panicked wheel-spinning and smooth incident response depends on the patterns of thought, action, and communication we apply when we work a problem. These critical fundamentals are straightforward to understand, yet challenging to execute under pressure. This talk gives concrete criteria and examples of how to think, talk, write, and react during incidents, drawn from nearly a decade of experience in Site Reliability Engineering, from small startup to publicly traded SaaS firm.

Part 1 covers the theory of problem solving and epistemology: what fundamental decision making loops should we orient ourselves in when disaster strikes? How do we reason about trapping the location and cause of unknown issues? What specific qualities make a hypothesis good or worthwhile, and how do we construct effective tests to prove or disprove them? How can we structure notes and progress updates to provide the most signal and the least noise in fast-paced situations?

Part 2 discusses interpersonal communication practices as we work through incidents: what techniques and tricks keep information flowing effectively, directly, and in ways that make it safe for people to speak up and get things done.

With these methodologies made explicit, you'll be enabled to reason more practically, communicate effectively, and come back with a basic curriculum for teaching these concepts to others.

Jack Kingsman:
Jack Kingsman is a Site Reliability Engineer at Atlassian, EMT, scuba diver, and serial hobbyist. He draws on his unique blend of experiences in infrastructure engineering, incident command, and emergency medical care and instruction to provide practical, battle-tested, people-oriented tools for operations and infrastructure. Jack believes that the most important part of any technical system is the people who build and tend to it, and that excellence in engineering begins with excellence in people, and providing them the tools and methods to rise to that excellence.

https://nanog.org/events/nanog-96/con...