If Only the Number Changes, Stop
Cost challenge can improve engineering. The harder judgement is knowing when further pressure is only changing the number.
Read Engineering StoryWAYPOINTHQ KNOWLEDGE
Engineering knowledge intended to be used, challenged and improved.
WaypointHQ standards and insights explain the approach to resilience, recovery, security, operational risk and engineering assurance.
ENGINEERING PHILOSOPHY
Technology changes. Engineering principles endure.
Good engineering makes risk visible, understandable and manageable. It supports deliberate decisions rather than comfortable assumptions.
PUBLISHED STORIES
Engineering Stories
How Do You Engineer a System That Doesn't Exist?
Aviation behaves like a system, but nobody owns the whole thing. Follow operational margin across the boundaries to see what keeps it working.
Read Engineering StoryThe Engineering Was Easy. Getting Permission Was Hard.
Knowing what needs to be done is only half the job. The other half is getting the organisation to act on it.
Read Engineering StoryThe Fault Was Fixed. The System Wasn't.
The technical fault is gone, but the disruption continues. Why restoring a component is not the same as recovering the system.
Read Engineering StoryWhen Green and Red Are Both Right
One indication is green. Another is red. Both are valid. Why evidence only makes sense when you know which claim it supports.
Read Engineering StoryWhen Green Stops Meaning Healthy
Everything was green. That was the problem. Why monitoring evidence needs an expiry date.
Read Engineering StoryENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE
Foundations and Papers
The WaypointHQ Engineering Philosophy
The foundation for how WaypointHQ approaches engineering, operational risk, investment, resilience and residual risk.
Read Engineering InsightBackups Are Not Recovery
Why possessing a copy of data does not prove that a service can be restored safely, completely or within the required time.
Monitoring Should Prove Health
Why the absence of an alarm is not evidence that a service is healthy or capable of performing its intended function.
OUR POSITION
Good engineering does not promise a risk-free system.
It provides a clear understanding of the risks reduced, the risks remaining, and the reasoning behind those decisions.