Foreword

Glitch might be too kind a word for too big a problem. In the technology industry, a glitch can be a simple, short, unnoticed interruption in a network connection or a file that gets saved in the wrong place. However, a glitch can also be as serious as life and death. The question isn’t whether we need a new word to cover the span from short annoyances to major technology meltdowns, but how to avoid the glitch that can put you and your company in peril. That is the issue Jeff Papows, Ph.D., sets out to solve in this book.

The list of glitches Papows covers in this book is truly staggering. A driver in a serious car accident is able to dial 911, but a glitch prevents the nearest fire department from being alerted to the emergency. A motorist stops to buy a pack of cigarettes and finds a charge for $23 quadrillion and change on his bank statement. What started as a simple software upgrade at a nuclear power plant spirals into an automatic, unplanned shutdown.

These and many other glitch stories are part of this book, but a simple list of glitches would not help solve this very big problem. Where Papows distinguishes himself is in writing a book that does not simply accept computer and technology problems as an unalterable happenstance, but as the end result of a faulty set of business and technology practices. It was the idea that computer shutdowns and other assorted malfunctions are not just part of doing business that attracted me to Papows’ manuscript and why I was happy to be asked to write this Foreword.

In my course of covering the technology industry as a journalist for over twenty years, I’ve had the opportunity to write a lot about computer glitches, bugs, and major melt-downs, from the ILOVEYYOU worm in 2000 that coursed through Windows systems via email to the cascade of business process and technology failures that prevented BP from detecting and preventing the disastrous oil rig blow-out currently devastating the Gulf of Mexico. Too often, in my opinion, these and other technology meltdowns are seen as an act of inevitable happenstance at best or a dire, but acceptable, consequence of technology advance, which is a regrettable but necessary part of scientific progress. Papows shows both those scenarios to be wrongheaded and a result of faulty thinking rather than faulty electronic widgets or software programs.

What this book accomplishes is to provide a guide to business and technology managers wanting not only to root out and prevent glitches before they strangle a company’s financial life, but also allowing technology advances to improve our society. Creating a society without the fear of a technology-based disaster unfolding just one glitch away would be a remarkable and noble achievement.

Although, as Papows explains in detail, there is not a simple “anti-glitch” piece of electronic wizardry to prevent future technology malfunctions, there are a set of predefined skills and business processes a company can wield to protect itself against headline-grabbing technology meltdowns. One of the greatest contributions of this book is to call on technology educators and industry to think big and redefine the roles of the software engineer, restructure information technology governance, and create business processes where technology is used to accelerate an idea into a product or service offered to the public without a company killing lurking glitches unseen. One of the strongest pieces of advice that Papows offers is to embrace mistakes early and often in the technology development process as a way to squash those minor bugs before they grow to the size of business-killing problems. The steps he offers in killing those minor bugs before they become major issues don’t require advanced technology degrees or enormous capital investments, but do require that all parties speak a common business language, have a common set of goals, and discard finger-pointing blame sessions in favor of producing a bug-free product or service. It is in explaining how to create that bug-free environment that Papows offers a unique and important contribution to business and government leaders.

The timing of this book could not be more important. As a society, we sit aghast as we watch a digital video feed of spilled oil fouling major fisheries and pristine beaches. Meanwhile, as our personal and business lives become ever more intertwined in online social networks, and vital business operations now take place in a computing cloud, business and individual life depend on technology operations to run flawlessly 24 hours a day. Preventing glitches from disrupting or destroying our digital-dependent society is what this book is all about, and it’s worth your time to read and understand Papows prescription to keep those nasty computer bugs at bay.

Eric Lundquist
Vice President, Strategic Content
Ziff Davis Enterprise