Environments
Described by the conditions, not by the industry
Industry labels group companies that have little in common and separate ones that face identical problems. What decides the work is the condition you operate under — whether someone outside sets your requirements, or whether anyone still owns what you have already built.
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- 01
Regulated product software
Three conditions usually travel together. Where they hold, the same engineering discipline applies — regardless of which industry the company is in.
- The software is the product, not a tool supporting one.
- External parties impose requirements on it — customers, auditors, or law.
- A mistake has consequences outside the bug tracker.
- 02
Infrastructure nobody owns
Three conditions usually travel together. Where they hold, the problem is not that anyone was careless — it is that creating something takes a minute and retiring it takes an argument nobody is authorised to win.
- Nobody can say what a given machine, service or subscription is for, or who owns it.
- New things appear faster than old things are retired, so spend grows by default.
- There is no regulator to answer to. The pressure is the budget and the complexity behind it.
Another route
Then start from the problem instead
If that is not your situation, the way in is the one you arrived with — a decision without criteria, findings without owners, a system blocking delivery.
Start with the problem↗