Observability Engineering

Chapter 19. The Business Case for Observability

Observability often starts within one particular team or business unit in an organization. To spread a culture of observability, teams need support from various stakeholders across the business.

In this chapter, we’ll start breaking down how that support comes together by laying out the business case for observability. Some organizations adopt observability practices in response to overcoming dire challenges that cannot be addressed by traditional approaches. Others may need a more proactive approach to changing traditional practices. Regardless of where in your observability journey you may be, this chapter will show you how to make a business case for observability within your own company.

We start by looking at both the reactive and proactive approaches to instituting change. We’ll examine nonemergency situations to identify a set of circumstances that can point to a critical need to adopt observability outside the context of catastrophic service outages. Then we’ll cover the steps needed to support creation of an observability practice, evaluate various tools, and know when your organization has achieved a state of observability that is “good enough” to shift your focus to other initiatives.

The Reactive Approach to Introducing Change

Change is hard. Many organizations tend to follow the path of least resistance. Why fix the things that aren’t broken (or perceived to be)? Historically, production systems have operated just fine ...