Prevent your production issues from ever happening again

This is a scenario that’s all too common: The product gets released and then a serious problem is discovered.  You think, “That couldn’t have been caused by me”, but then you realize that it was.  After you’re done beating yourself up about the mistake you should ask yourself this question next:  How can I prevent this problem from ever occurring again?

If your answer is, “be more diligent in the future” or “don’t do that”, bzzz, wrong answer.  That’s not good enough.  It allows other employees to make the same mistake in the future.  If your answer is, “update the documentation to say ‘don’t do this'”, bzzz, wrong answer.  If this mistake can take down an environment, it’s too risky to assume someone will read the documentation to avoid this in the future.  Don’t give someone the opportunity to miss this information.

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