3 Principles of a Successful IT Break/Fix Operation

• This article is for IT Executives who handle day-to-day IT Break/Fix operations, normally in conjunction with the carrying out of the fundamental mandate of any organization's IT Department, which is to maintain business continuity.
• In layman's terms, this highlights the very core principles/philosophies that will help optimize operations in both the IT hardware and software space.
• Speaking as an I.T professional who's worked in both IT MSPs(where we endeavor to optimize everything/every step/process until we have almost nothing to do) and also in different companies' internal IT Departments(whereas, having nothing to do can be a problem, inadvertently imploring us to create a network/system unnecessary complexity, to justify our existence). I have realized that notwithstanding all the cultural/political/interpersonal distractions within an IT workspace, you will only need to operate within the below three principles to maintain a constant day-to-day peace of mind in the workplace.

1. Clean-cut Principle - sometimes to troubleshoot an IT issue tactically, you must rollback an update or you might even have to straight out-circumvent a vital process, this might be because a decision-maker was not available or a crucial server/device was offline/unreachable if you do this you must document or more importantly timestamp.

Any professional should operate from a mission-critical standpoint, if he proverbially gets hit by a bus on the way home, he doesn't want a legacy of creating problems in the workplace as the person who replaces him the next day might follow what could've been what he/she assumes to be the right process due to the apparent absence of clean-cut notes laying out why something was done outside the normal standard operating procedures.

2. Clear-cut Principle - this principle works alongside the first principle, they're most effectively practiced hand-in-hand, that is making sure that every IT issue/ticket is handled in a clean-cut/clear-cut manner.

This clear-cut principle means "those who only need to know, has to know", or simply making sure that you inform the not more/fewer people of not more/less information than they need to know.

This principle is most important in the IT MSP industry as these IT companies sometimes cater to client companies who are competitors in the same industry, whereas a simple slip-of-the-tongue can lead to lawsuits due to NDAs, Trade secrets, or even compromised investigations.

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In military/security terms, this principle can be most compared to the concept of Operational Security, where the "loose lips sink ships" adage was coined.

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This principle is not of absolute importance in all situations, say you're an internal IT person caught up in a management dispute in the office, and you were instructed to withhold information by your direct supervisor, fortunately, if this was the case you are then technically their "Colleague" working in the same company just doing your job, it's different when you're an IT MSP, as you are looked at as third-party that if you make a mistake, they're all at the end of the day "Colleagues", except you.

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To sum this up, this principle is about "Informing the only right people the only right amount of information, nothing less/more"

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3. Standard/Standardized Operation - I will begin by saying, that we all have standards, standards in most cases can be considered just vain attempts to achieve uniformity.

If all standards are universally adopted(by hardware/software companies), we(IT people) will be unemployed.

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In the military/police/security space, standards define everything(what they wear(uniform), what they eat/use(standard-issue), even how decisions/people are respected(standards of field promotion)),? having developed a unique appreciation for this concept, and it has helped them organize our world, all the while also maintaining order amongst themselves/their-ranks.

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On a personal note, having spent some time being a Network Engineer(Mikrotik), I have developed my troubleshooting procedure/standard, mostly centered around the Networking OSI Model(7 Layers), a sort of SOP that has helped me in all circumstances be able to the very least fully diagnose technical issues.

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Conclusion:

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So there you have it, as long as you maintain a work culture where every staff member practice making clean-cut and clear-cut decisions on their delegated tasks, that is they don't accidentally spill the beans on paying clients, nor forget to note important details(i.e. timestamps) on entries/records/notes, follow predictable preset standards, and make optimal decisions oriented to reinforcing the business continuity of their employer/clients, then you can consider the profitability/importance of your IT Business model almost guaranteed.