{"id":2902,"date":"2021-02-26T12:34:51","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T12:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uptime.com\/blog\/?p=2902"},"modified":"2024-02-16T02:22:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T02:22:56","slug":"fail-fast-web-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uptime.com\/blog\/fail-fast-web-monitoring","title":{"rendered":"Preparing to Fail Fast so You can Recover Faster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The principle of fail fast<\/i> is either the best thing since the transistor or nothing but hot air. It depends on the size of your organization and the cohesiveness of your teams. If your team members have a strong working relationship, and dev is well integrated with everyday work company-wide, you already have a good foundation for this particular agile thinking.<\/p>\n

Most companies that have grown beyond startup-size, and even some startups, may find this idea a bit jarring. It is hard not to interfere when a test comes with risk. And nearly every test comes with some form of risk. Conversely, so does every deployment.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why today we want to look at methodologies that help us fail fast, recover faster, and learn fastest.<\/p>\n

What is Fail Fast?<\/h2>\n

Fail fast is an agile principle that encourages experimentation in order to reach a desired outcome. What is experimentation? Well, it\u2019s not throwing stuff at the server to see what causes a short; it is a thoughtful examination of a problem, with a solution that leans more on experimentation than proven methodologies.<\/p>\n

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Fail fast relies on near-immediate reporting of errors, and so requires some level of testing and oversight built into the process.<\/p>\n

Fail fast works because of backups, website monitoring, and general awareness. When you deploy, you load test and adjust. When you\u2019re small, failing fast is a very attractive policy. Facebook, Reddit, and lots of other tech companies have hacked their way to the top of their respective industries on fail fast methodologies.<\/p>\n

Fail Fast Shortcomings<\/h3>\n

The challenges of fail fast tend to arise as you scale. Infrastructure is expensive, people and resources are expensive. Mistakes become very costly, and the benefits of learning and education tend to feel less important by comparison.<\/p>\n

Fail fast also requires that teams can get a decision maker\u2019s attention, and also work with other team members as needed. That can be a big ask.<\/p>\n

As teams and management grow, coordination can become a difficult task. It\u2019s hard to get the attention of a decision maker from another department, and even more challenging to ask for resources as needed to accomplish your goals. The ability to reach out to others and get what you need, is necessary for fail fast to work.<\/p>\n

Failing Fast and Visibly<\/h2>\n

So what needs to happen in your organization to make fail fast work for you?<\/p>\n

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Thoughtful Implementation<\/h3>\n

CI\/CD provides a methodology with some of the same principles that fail fast thrives on:<\/p>\n