It is what it is.

Oh how I despise that phrase.

I also despise its close cousin, 'where are where we are'.

I know what they mean. I know they take tension out of situations and allow energy, time, and resources to be allocated to fixing whatever has gone wrong.

Note: Neither phrase is ever used when things are going well.

I despise them because they usually mean something has gone wrong that could have been avoided. And in the moving forward no one tends to examine and learn from what went wrong to cause the 'we are where we are; it is what it is'.

We doom ourselves to repeating the same errors.

For example: If testing isn't done sufficiently, and the wheels run off, remediation is needed and should happen. But please, please, please, go back and examine why it wasn't done. Here are some answers I got this week (which prompted this article/post).

• All the test scripts were completed successfully (my brain boils at this)
• We don't have an environment for full testing on actual data (so you'll test in real life, ok)
• We assumed the peak capacity required would be the same as last year's peak (but last's year's was higher than the year before and again higher than the previous one)
• We ran out of time so we did some key scripts (but you've now got time for a crisis)
• The unit testing all passed. (Oh good, pity we need the units to integrate)

In each case I asked 'who signed off on the risk these answers gave rise to?'. In each case the answer was the project leader/manager/insert other title for person who should be accountable. Not one went to the sponsor, explained the situation, and got the risk approved. Yet the risks were real and all realised.

Recovery has happened, but with more drama and stress than was needed.

Don't just say 'it is what it is" or 'we are where we are'. Act to recover but then explore the why it was what it was. And insist on change next time. Or don't.