Self-assessment
The operational decay assessment
Six questions to help you understand how easily your team can operate, change and recover your system.
Works for hardware deployments, software platforms, automation systems, or any combination — and equally for systems you're operating today, inheriting, or about to build. You'll get a clear read on where your operating layer stands and a recommended next step — with the option to talk it through on a free 25-minute Fit Call.
What it measures
What this assessment is looking for
Operational decay is the slow gap that opens between a system as it was built and the operation as it runs today. Nothing breaks on the day of handover. The documentation ages, the person who understood the dependencies changes roles, workarounds accumulate, and one day a question gets asked that the system can no longer answer.
The six questions look at the things that decide whether that gap stays manageable: whether your team can explain how the system works, whether they can change it without waiting on someone external, whether a failure would be noticed before a customer noticed it, and whether the knowledge needed to run it exists anywhere other than in somebody's head.
It applies to hardware in the field, software your team logs into every day, and automation running quietly between the two. It is equally useful for a system you already operate, one you are about to inherit, and one that has not been built yet — in that last case it reads as a specification for what to insist on.
Your answers stay in your browser until you choose to send them. You will get a band, the reasoning behind it, and a recommended next step. If you would rather read about the underlying idea first, that is what the operational decay page covers.