Comment by oldandtired

For all the war stories given here and the various comments about system doing what they should or needing to have human overrides, what are the actual take-homes for programmers here?

I have spent many years automating tasks out of existence or at least to the point where it takes minutes instead of hours or days to do something.

My own take-homes from my own experience and all the comments here are:

1). make systems that have an interrupt and roll-back facility.

2). make sure that permanent effect actions are authorised properly. Especially when actions are for removals of any kind.

3). don't automate without good cause - hiring and firing are not good cause areas, even if certain specific sequences of actions can benefit from it.

4). think carefully of all the edge cases, you don't really want to be bitten in the nether regions by systems that cannot be stopped.

5). just because it appears to be simple, it probably isn't. So take a step back and look at the unintended consequences of that automation.

6). think strategically about what should be automated and raise awareness if there are obvious flaws with what is being requested.

7). a follow on to 6). is to not be afraid of asking questions and giving opinions.

8). if nobody will listen, then leave and find something else better to do with your precious time and experience.

I am sure that there are more gems that can be added to this list. Feel free to add, discuss or dispute.