Lorin Hochstein 
If you don’t understand how the system works, your interventions are unlikely to lead to your desired results.
Corollary: If your intervention did not lead to your desired results, you don’t understand how the system works.
Amy Toebeans@norootcause corollary: if you don't understand the system, you need to observe it. sometimes you need to try interventions and observe the results to understand the system better
@renice Yes! Diagnostic interventions!
Jenniferplusplus@norootcause @renice I worked on this story for a year (well, like 3 days) and he just tooted it out
https://jenniferplusplus.com/mental-maps/
Which is to say diagnostic intervention is my new favorite term.
@jenniferplusplus @renice That’s a great post!
Wizard Bear (💉x8 + 😷)@jenniferplusplus @norootcause @renice Terrific article @jenniferplusplus . TY so much for sharing. This is the absolute truth and very well stated. Complex systems in general have these same concerns, not just software systems. Not everything is known up front. Changes can lead to unintended consequences. A wise person taught me to look for those. All the best to you. Following you now as well.
Chris Bohn@norootcause @renice
Pronunciation rules are so quirky. For example, I usually pronounce "diagnostic intervention" as
ˈtrə-bəl-ˌshüt-iŋ
Pronunciation rules are so quirky. For example, I usually pronounce "diagnostic intervention" as
ˈtrə-bəl-ˌshüt-iŋ
@DocBohn @renice Things get interesting during an incident, where you need to keep the system healthy (or get the system back to healthy) in addition to understanding what the problem is. So there’s a distinction between “diagnostic intervention” (intervening to understand more) and “therapeutic intervention” (intervening to ‘stabilize the patient’).
Jordan Sissel@renice @norootcause cautionary: attempting this intervention-observation method on humans in an effort to understand said humans… upsets those humans 🫠
@whack @renice To quote the late Dr. Richard Cook: “all practitioner actions are gambles.”
https://www.adaptivecapacitylabs.com/HowComplexSystemsFail.pdf
Alex Gordienko@norootcause sometimes it depends on how eager and stubborn you are 😜
James Lees@norootcause applicable in so many circumstances that this is basically philosophical
Rebecca Wirfs-Brock@norootcause And even then...