Firefighting

The members of the fire service do a great job often in hazardous conditions, but in the computer community 'firefighting' has a somewhat different meaning. To a computer person, 'firefighting' is the activity of spending a lot of time fixing systems which have broken. It usually implies a feeling of frustration because of the almost certain knowledge that it will break again, either through a lack of maintenance, or because of much heavier usage than it was originally designed to handle. The problem is of course self-perpetuating because those staff who would be working on building a better replacement are spending their time 'fixing' the old system.

Firefighting comes about because of a lack of planning, resources or both. Maybe managers are reluctant to set aside money for additional machines to cope with future growth, or the growth comes faster or sooner than expected, or maybe it is having insufficient number of trained staff who can plan ahead. Whatever the cause, once in a firefighting situation, the only way out is to have more staff (even if only temporarily) so that some can keep fixing the current system whilst others design and build the replacement. A word of advice, however - do not leave all the existing staff to firefight whilst new staff are brought in to build the replacement. This will only lead to resentment. The existing staff must be given the opportunity to take some part of building the new system. If they are not experienced enough, then it should be seen as a training opportunity for them.