When it comes time to implement a new SRE team,
the main factor that contributes to the plan
is whether you are starting “fresh”—a “greenfield” project—or taking a “brownfield” approach and migrating an existing team.
In either scenario, the amount of cultural change needed
can be daunting.
Even before a team is formed,
one must prioritize the work to be done.
A guide for figuring out where to start is
the Hierarchy of Reliability.
Since this hierarchy is going to guide
the future changes,
let’s start by explaining what it is.
Hierarchy of Reliability
In late 2013, an SRE from Google,
Mikey Dickerson, was asked to help the struggling
HealthCare.gov.
(To demonstrate the previous terms, he stepped
into a situation that had a number of pieces in place,
but the site as a whole was not functioning as desired.
This is a great example of a “brownfield” scenario.)
There was some intense time pressure to get things working
quickly.
He needed a way to explain “reliability” in a simple
and straightforward way,
so he borrowed from a theory in psychology,
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The Hierarchy of Reliability that Dickerson used to help
HealthCare.gov is shown in Figure 3-1.
Figure 3-1. Hierarchy of Reliability
The idea is that topics at the bottom are more “basic,” and they gradually get more advanced as you progress up the pyramid. But each topic (or “level,” ...
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