We need to have processes and rules. They are important to any business. That said, exceptions are also going to be a universal constant. Without exceptions to the rules you can’t deal with the unexpected/unforeseen. So what’s the problem? Ever heard one of these?
- We’re only going to do this the one time.
- We’ll just do it the easy way, this application will be going away soon anyway.
- Just do it this way in dev. It will be fixed before we get to production.
- It’s just a POC (proof of concept).
Do you ever believe it? I don’t. I mean it’s nice when it actually works out that way but more often than not if you make that exception just this once it’s going in all over the place. So what should we do? I mean I did say we have to have exceptions right?
Have an exception process. Stick to it religiously. And don’t make it an easy process. Make it work. Make it more work than just doing things the easy way. This is probably the one time I’ll ever say that a process should be harder than absolutely necessary. The minute exceptions are common they become the rule and your rules become the exception.