Root Cause, You're Probably Doing It Wrong

Tuesday, March 14, 2017 - 11:25am11:50am

TJ Gibson, PayPal

Abstract: 

It's not very difficult to find a misbehaving application or a frozen computer; it's a lot of what SRE does either manually or using automated means. All too often, SRE is quick to call the bad software or hardware the root cause of a particular issue.

The problem is, this thinking doesn't really get to the heart of the problem. Since identifying the root cause of a problem is the primary starting point to identifying a solution to solve the problem, getting it wrong (even slightly) can lead to dire consequences and even bigger problems down the road. 

I want to challenge SRE to think differently and more critically about how they identify the root cause of the problems they encounter.

TJ Gibson, PayPal

A technologist with more than 20 years experience ranging from the USAF writing code, network engineering and system administration across Europe, to a stint with a boutique security services provider, and onto leadership positions with InfoSec and Professional Services at PayPal. I am currently settling into a new role within PayPal's SRE organization.

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BibTeX
@conference {201806,
author = {TJ Gibson},
title = {Root Cause, You{\textquoteright}re Probably Doing It Wrong},
year = {2017},
address = {San Francisco, CA},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = mar
}

Presentation Video 

Presentation Audio