Like many families, we were seriously affected by the IT meltdown this week that caused chaos in the travel industry, panic in the banking sector and anxiety in the NHS. The botched CrowdStrike update has once again put our reliance on modern technology in the spotlight, but there are many ways to ensure the effects of such a collapse do not lead to total systematic paralysis.
In 2001, I was part of the original programme that identified the risks associated with globalisation and this scenario was high up on the list of possible events that we considered. In designing any software programme, the requirements manager should always ensure that the intellectual property that went into the project is maintained safely and that there is a reversionary mode incorporated in the platform.
We are very good at ensuring our aircraft do not drop out of the sky when there is a glitch, so why do we not put the same effort into human processes? It is not all about imagination and costs; there has to be well-established protocols that are familiar and practised on a regular basis. Time, as ever, is the key resource, but this was NOT an act of nature, so there are no excuses for poor preparation.
Rupert Wieloch 