Maps, Context, and Tribal Knowledge: On the Structure and Use of Post-Incident Analysis Artifacts in Software Development and Operations
(2018) FLMU06 20172Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
- Abstract
- The role, functions, and mechanisms of post-incident and post-accident learning within organizations has been widely studied in various industries. With the increasing role software plays in society, large-scale software development and operations practices and organizations are having a larger impact on day-to-day life; despite this, organizational learning has not been widely examined within this context.
This research involves a two-pronged methodology to investigate organizational learning within, specifically, the software development and operations industry: first, an industry survey collected broad industry data regarding post-incident analysis language, usage, and template artifacts; second, this survey served as a basis for a... (More) - The role, functions, and mechanisms of post-incident and post-accident learning within organizations has been widely studied in various industries. With the increasing role software plays in society, large-scale software development and operations practices and organizations are having a larger impact on day-to-day life; despite this, organizational learning has not been widely examined within this context.
This research involves a two-pronged methodology to investigate organizational learning within, specifically, the software development and operations industry: first, an industry survey collected broad industry data regarding post-incident analysis language, usage, and template artifacts; second, this survey served as a basis for a deep organizational case-study involving three distinct teams at a well-known Internet software development and operations company.
The survey identifies some post-incident analysis behavioral and artifact-usage trends, including three specific archetypes of post-incident analysis templates: the ‘Record-Keeper,’ the ‘Facilitator,’ and the ‘Sign-Post.’
The organizational case study examines the specific mechanisms of post-incident organizational learning, including use of template artifacts to map the company’s complex, emergent socio-technical system, share intra- and inter-team context in lieu of static lists of incident remediation items, and use post-incident artifacts to curate organizational culture and transmit tribal knowledge between organizational actors. Other uses are also identified.
Together, these uses provide a set of existence proofs for various methods and mechanisms for how a high-performing software development and operations organization uses, at least in part, its post-incident artifacts to aid in and sustain organizational learning. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8966930
- author
- Reed, J Paul LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- FLMU06 20172
- year
- 2018
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Incident analysis, incident artifacts, incident retrospectives, Internet operations, organizational learning, post-incident reviews, postmortems, tribal knowledge, software development, software operations, FLMU06
- language
- English
- id
- 8966930
- date added to LUP
- 2019-02-06 11:20:38
- date last changed
- 2019-02-06 11:20:38
@misc{8966930,
abstract = {{The role, functions, and mechanisms of post-incident and post-accident learning within organizations has been widely studied in various industries. With the increasing role software plays in society, large-scale software development and operations practices and organizations are having a larger impact on day-to-day life; despite this, organizational learning has not been widely examined within this context.
This research involves a two-pronged methodology to investigate organizational learning within, specifically, the software development and operations industry: first, an industry survey collected broad industry data regarding post-incident analysis language, usage, and template artifacts; second, this survey served as a basis for a deep organizational case-study involving three distinct teams at a well-known Internet software development and operations company.
The survey identifies some post-incident analysis behavioral and artifact-usage trends, including three specific archetypes of post-incident analysis templates: the ‘Record-Keeper,’ the ‘Facilitator,’ and the ‘Sign-Post.’
The organizational case study examines the specific mechanisms of post-incident organizational learning, including use of template artifacts to map the company’s complex, emergent socio-technical system, share intra- and inter-team context in lieu of static lists of incident remediation items, and use post-incident artifacts to curate organizational culture and transmit tribal knowledge between organizational actors. Other uses are also identified.
Together, these uses provide a set of existence proofs for various methods and mechanisms for how a high-performing software development and operations organization uses, at least in part, its post-incident artifacts to aid in and sustain organizational learning.}},
author = {{Reed, J Paul}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Maps, Context, and Tribal Knowledge: On the Structure and Use of Post-Incident Analysis Artifacts in Software Development and Operations}},
year = {{2018}},
}