It’s the last Friday of the year and I’ve been struggling to think of a good way to close things out. So here’s a thought for you as we cross into the next glorious year of the 2020’s.
You don’t have to make big changes. In fact, I will go so far as to say don’t make big changes. Make small ones. Baby Steps. Not only are the easier to complete, but easier to maintain. And in the end, enough baby steps and you’ll get where you wanted to be anyway.
Sometimes you’ll look back over the last month (or year) and wonder where it went. But can you say it, whatever it is to you, is better now? Are things improving? Then to me, that’s the win!
I’m trying to lose weight, and it’s a struggle. And in fact I’ve gained a couple of pounds over the holidays. But not as much as in the past, and in fact in the last year I’ve lost close to 20 pounds over all. Not a huge amount, but if I can keep it up, eventually I’ll get where I want to be.
When trying to improve an application’s performance, do you want to try to do everything at once? I mean you can try, but I’ve found it works best if you keep hitting the lowest-hanging fruit. Is there a server setting I can change? How about a couple of the worst-performing queries? Any tools (query store for example) that I can put in place to help me? Now go back and start again. Some of the changes you’ve made may invalidate that server setting, or suggest a new one, new queries will pop up as the worst performing etc. There’s always going to be something to improve.
Security is another good example. Security is one of those things you always have to keep an eye on. Always try to reduce the surface area where you can be attacked, remove unnecessary permissions (note the word unnecessary!), etc. It’s extremely hard to completely redo your security setup and if you do the chances of mistakes are high. Instead, make small continuous improvements.
It may not always work, but personally, I’m going with baby steps and continuous improvement for the new year.