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Is the Operational Flow Designed to Minimize Dev and Support Burden?

Type: Structure, DeepDive
Category: Non-functional
Audience: Developers, SREs, support leads, system architects

🔍 What This Perspective Covers

A well-designed system doesn’t just run—it heals, explains, and supports itself.

This perspective checks whether day-to-day operations are streamlined to avoid excessive burden on development and customer support teams.

🔍 Friction Points to Watch

  • Ops steps require manual DB queries or admin panels
  • Logs and alerts are too sparse or noisy for triage
  • Support needs engineering help for every user question
  • Recovery or retry requires full developer intervention
  • Feature flags or config changes require redeploys

⚠️ Failure Patterns

  • “Ask the dev” becomes standard ops process
  • No self-serve tools for CS or QA teams
  • Observability exists but doesn’t explain user-facing issues
  • On-call fatigue due to repetitive low-impact alerts
  • Config drift due to manual toggle or DB edits

âś… Smarter Ops Flow Design

  • Document what ops must do, not just how code works
  • Design admin/ops interfaces for non-engineers
  • Include observability for intent, not just error
  • Automate recovery where safe: retries, restores, rollbacks
  • Separate config from deploy: use remote toggles or control panels

🧠 Principle

You’re not done designing
until the system supports itself.

âť“ FAQ

  • Q: Isn’t some ops always manual?
    A: Yes. But repeatable actions should be automated or self-served.

  • Q: Who owns operational UX?
    A: The same team that owns the feature. Ownership includes usability—for humans.