Constant system performance issues created a reactive, firefighting culture that completely eroded stakeholder trust in the IT team and the system.
The three S's framework combines Scrum for structure, Stoicism for managing responses under pressure, and Systems Thinking for seeing the bigger picture.
A single job queue created a system-wide bottleneck, and the solution required challenging expert advice to split the queue for immediate performance gains.
Unstable SQL server performance was traced not to deep configuration issues, but to a reporting database on the same instance competing for memory resources.
Technical fixes are not enough; rebuilding trust requires creating visibility with monitoring dashboards and addressing stakeholder fears to enable process changes.
Scrum provides structure and visibility, Stoicism enables disciplined decision-making, and Systems Thinking shifts the focus from isolated incidents to systemic improvements.
Actionable advice includes pausing before reacting, making invisible dependencies visible, challenging the status quo, and understanding stakeholder fears.
The ultimate goal is not a perfect system, but one that is understandable, observable, and less chaotic, which in turn rebuilds stakeholder trust.
Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.