7 Specifics for a Great System
These items come to mind the more systems I’ve reviewed over the years. That golden mark of “how do you assess the quality of a system.” These are the 7 items I keep coming back to time after time.
1. Well Defined Purpose
Does everyone know what the system is for, what it’s about, and where it’s going? If not, the ecosystem can’t help it succeed. If not, there are most likely various little things built into the system that don’t make sense. Plus, the purpose should help establish the value the system brings.
2. Speed of Change
While there is still plenty of work to be done to make changes, being able to make course corrections and improvements quickly can make all the difference in providing value. You should be able to look back and say that it didn’t take more time than it should have, often due to technical debt.
3. Normalized Cost
Spikes in costs can result in unpredictability. Some systems can be changed quickly if you throw enough money at it. It can also show a lack of internal quality of a system as technical debt actualizes to real money.
4. Time between user support
A great user experience and user interface is a sight to see. You know it when you use one. Things just make sense. Explanations are minimal. If you get a lot of user support requests it can be indicative of system issues or training issues. Often if it’s training issues, it still comes back to the design of the system.
5. Time between system support
How long can you go between doing anything to keep a system going? A day, week, month, year, career? With today’s ever progressing technology it can seem hard. This can also surface with expectations. If your system dependencies (ex. cloud provider, 3rd party service) goes down…does your system automatically recover at some point when those dependencies come back online?
6. User Interface
Many systems overlook building out, or fully vetting, a UI in favor of their API. Often this is in an API-first mindset. API’s a good for automation. UI’s are good for “users.” The tech industry is more tolerant of API’s as a UI, but it’s still often still lacking.
7. API
The reverse of UI is true. Many systems build out a great UI/UX, but lack in any API capabilities or depth. This restricts the integration capabilities. It can often also be an indicator that internal designs are in flux and if an api was available those people would be stuck supporting an incomplete/flawed design.
