This is the fourth part of my series about development principles for embedded biotech data teams. The theme of the first three was that data teams should plan their work around a broader scope than just the technical results that we often default to. This week is about the hard decisions that we need to begin making once we understand this broader scope:
“Industry standard” is sometimes determined by industry marketing rather user ROI. The Internet is a good example. The "industry standard" was a formal proposal was a seven layer stack developed by the Telecom industry and ISO/ANSI. TCP/IP was created bottom up via RFC by the IETF. TCP/IP was simpler, faster, and much cheaper to implement and deploy.
Standards can be 'de jure' or 'de facto'. The best standards get tried out. Operations groups in industry have a very different perspective. a) if it works don't break it. b) tweaking is better than replacement c) if a new shiny new technology is that wonderful, let the CFO pay for it. d) always be able to roll back to tried and true when disaster strikes.
Premature adoption can be fatal to the bottom line.
“Industry standard” is sometimes determined by industry marketing rather user ROI. The Internet is a good example. The "industry standard" was a formal proposal was a seven layer stack developed by the Telecom industry and ISO/ANSI. TCP/IP was created bottom up via RFC by the IETF. TCP/IP was simpler, faster, and much cheaper to implement and deploy.
Standards can be 'de jure' or 'de facto'. The best standards get tried out. Operations groups in industry have a very different perspective. a) if it works don't break it. b) tweaking is better than replacement c) if a new shiny new technology is that wonderful, let the CFO pay for it. d) always be able to roll back to tried and true when disaster strikes.
Premature adoption can be fatal to the bottom line.