Scalpels and Servers: What Grey’s Anatomy Can Teach Us About Application Migration
See One
Do One
Teach One…
Have you ever watched Grey’s Anatomy?
It starts focusing on a young surgical intern Dr. Meredith Grey, daughter of the fictional world renowned general surgeon Dr. Ellis Grey.
According to Dr. Webber, Chief of Medicine at the then Seattle Grace Hospital, this method is the most effective way they’ve found to teach surgeons new procedures.
See One
Watch an experienced surgeon do the procedure in the operating room. Not from the gallery. In the operating room. Close enough to smell the iron in the blood. To witness the size of incisions being made. To count the number of stitches. To feel the frenetic anxiety, when something doesn’t go quite right.
Do One
Now is your time to shine as a young surgeon. You get to perform the procedure yourself under the supervision of the more experienced surgeon. Every incision, every stitch done by your hands. This patient is counting on you to see them through. Of course, the more experienced surgeon is close at hand should things get too out of control.
Teach One
Here is where you fully realize your understanding. You teach the same procedure to one of your cohorts. Now both the patient and your teammate rely on you, and your understanding of the procedure for a successful outcome. At this point you have seen the challenges with the procedure, and then personally overcome them. Now it is time to coach someone else to cement your knowledge, while passing it on to a colleague. And of course, Dr. Webber or another attending is there if things go awry.
I’ve spent a good portion of my career on on-premise-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud migrations. Several questions that always get asked in sales conversations are….
“You aren’t just going to move our stuff and then leave us in the lurch are you?”
“Is knowledge transfer included in your estimate?”
Now why any good consultant wouldn’t consider knowledge transfer or training up the folks who have to maintain these migrated systems after the project is done is beyond me. Clearly some consultants don’t because these questions repeatedly come up in my conversations with potential clients.
This is when I present my framework for knowledge transfer. I’m not ashamed to say I stole this from Grey’s Anatomy. If it works it works. And it’s catchy.
My goal is that these software surgeons will not need me when the initiative is complete.
See One
I set up a 2-3 hour session in front of the entire development team to migrate an app from the source to the target platform SIGHT UNSEEN. Assuming it is in a framework I’m vaguely familiar with.
Sorry Rails folks, I can’t help you.
The team watches my keystrokes, my configuration changes and witnesses the frenetic anxiety when I’m momentarily stumped on a particular challenge.
Not only does the team get to see how the application migration is done. It proves that even going in blind it can be done. If I can do it blind surely you can do it with an application you know inside and out. It humanizes the process. It is OK to make mistakes. To struggle with it a little bit. Eventually you come out victorious. Just put one foot in front of the other.
Do One
Next, I set up a 2-3 hour session where the team development lead performs the same process with a similar application, with their entire team watching, if they are comfortable with it. I am there to help bridge any pitfalls should they arise.
For the team lead, this is a more in-depth pass at the same process. For the rest of the gallery, it is not only a chance to see the same process again, but to see how one of their own thinks through any hurdles.
This cements the team lead’s knowledge of the process and enables them to be yet another source of knowledge on the migration process. And again, everyone struggles from time to time and that is OK.
Teach One
Lastly, the team development lead schedules a session where they teach one of their own. Could be Junior Dev, Senior Dev, whoever. The point is the Team Lead is the coach now. They have to get their own teammate over the pitfalls.
And of course Dr. McDreamy is there if anything goes awry…
From there further sessions can be scheduled with development teams further disseminating the migration process. The client gets their applications migrated to their target platform as well as a fully qualified team that can maintain them.
And they don’t need me anymore….
Are your developers afraid to make a mistake?
Are you worried that a migration will take too long?
Do you not know where to start?
If you’re struggling to get your application migration started contact us.
