To me risk assessment, even though I know it's important, will always be something MBAs force on developers because they are jealous of people who might actually have fun doing their job.
My experience is business-type people see risk assessment as one of those duh things that doesn't need all this overhead. They then ask for inane, stupid shit, and parrot whatever they heard this week. Middle managers then just go by feel--what gives them the willies is unacceptable, and what they're comfortable about seems acceptable.
This is a sick and dysfunctional atmosphere; as an engineer, I find it appalling that you would build anything--software, business processes, machines--without a strong risk management plan.
If you're installing a TV transmitter, you have a device at 2000 feet that, if broken open and unshielded, produces enough energy to melt people's faces off at ground level 500 meters away from the tower base. This means all installation considerations must involve reflection on how the integrity of the transmitter is protected or put at-risk, and anything which threatens its integrity requires further examination.
If you're installing computer server software, you open yourself up for any number of cyber security risks, and may open yourself up to legal risks. Before building a cluster on a public Web server that uses VMware fencing and thus logs into vSphere on a server farm that also holds HIPPA or SOX regulated data, If you go ahead and do that, knowing that a compromise of the server and a new VMware vulnerability could allow access to or destruction of these legally-protected data, you *personally* could go to prison.
New business processes run the risk of incurring legal liabilities, process slow-downs, costs, or even injury. Business processes include things like operation of a sheet metal producer (how often is it inspected? This temporarily pauses production, and is costly; but going out of tolerance could result in non-uniform sheets or injury to workers), the stocking of shelves (giant double-door refrigerators on the top shelf in a customer aisle?), and so on. Bed, Bath, and Beyond institutes a business process for using a ladder on store shelves, such that another floor employee must check the other side of the shelf; occasionally, the employee operating the ladder will bump the shelf and cause an item to fall, which can and has involved in injury (and death!).
Risk Management is a trivial topic. Kepner-Tregoe Potential Problem/Opportunity Analysis is nothing more than Operational Risk Management in a long-winded manner (what could happen? What is the probability? What is the severity? What should we do about it?). Project Management involves Project Risk Management, which starts with identifying risks (what could go wrong? What could happen that we could take advantage of?), then performing qualitative risk analysis (which of these does our experience tell us is most likely and most important?), then performing quantitative risk analysis on those most important things (how likely, what impact?), and then planning what actions to take. Many business studies follow a similar risk analysis methodology.
None of these things is particularly complex; the complex methodologies are long-winded, redundant expansions of simple, well-established methods. These are things which should be done.
If you're installing a TV transmitter, you have a device at 2000 feet that, if broken open and unshielded, produces enough energy to melt people's faces off at ground level 500 meters away from the tower base. This means all installation considerations must involve reflection on how the integrity of the transmitter is protected or put at-risk, and anything which threatens its integrity requires further examination.
Yeah, I would like to see how you could accidentally break a TV transmitter, and heavily focus it so as to be harmful at 2000 ft. Dipole transmitters don't just beam energy like a laser beam. Even if you had a ~1 m vertical focus on a 5000 kW ERP transmitter, and it some how fell loose to point at a ground, the already contrived situation would produce less than 100 W per square m^2, something like being a foot away from an incandescent bulb. This is out of regulation, but not melting a person's face. Y
If you're installing a TV transmitter, you have a device at 2000 feet that, if broken open and unshielded, produces enough energy to melt people's faces off at ground level 500 meters away from the tower base.
These transmitters are 500,000 watts. I did the math once and figured the transmitter 3 miles from my house would expose people to 2000W of microwave radiation on the ground for several blocks. This would ignite trees and houses, and melt people.
Helicopters aren't legally allowed near the tower.
Learn what ERP is, as no TV station uses anywhere near an actual 500 kW for a 500 kW ERP station. A crappy antenna means they would be using at most about 100 kW. But lets assume it is 500 kW, and go with the original 2000 ft instead of the three miles you say now. If you wanted to get 2000 W, you would need a collection area of nearly 20000 m^2, or about the area of three football fields. If you wanted to concentrate that into a square meter, something closer to the size of a person, you would need a 4
Computers can figure out all kinds of problems, except the things in
the world that just don't add up.
Risk assessment (Score:2)
To me risk assessment, even though I know it's important, will always be something MBAs force on developers because they are jealous of people who might actually have fun doing their job.
Re:Risk assessment (Score:2)
My experience is business-type people see risk assessment as one of those duh things that doesn't need all this overhead. They then ask for inane, stupid shit, and parrot whatever they heard this week. Middle managers then just go by feel--what gives them the willies is unacceptable, and what they're comfortable about seems acceptable.
This is a sick and dysfunctional atmosphere; as an engineer, I find it appalling that you would build anything--software, business processes, machines--without a strong risk management plan.
If you're installing a TV transmitter, you have a device at 2000 feet that, if broken open and unshielded, produces enough energy to melt people's faces off at ground level 500 meters away from the tower base. This means all installation considerations must involve reflection on how the integrity of the transmitter is protected or put at-risk, and anything which threatens its integrity requires further examination.
If you're installing computer server software, you open yourself up for any number of cyber security risks, and may open yourself up to legal risks. Before building a cluster on a public Web server that uses VMware fencing and thus logs into vSphere on a server farm that also holds HIPPA or SOX regulated data, If you go ahead and do that, knowing that a compromise of the server and a new VMware vulnerability could allow access to or destruction of these legally-protected data, you *personally* could go to prison.
New business processes run the risk of incurring legal liabilities, process slow-downs, costs, or even injury. Business processes include things like operation of a sheet metal producer (how often is it inspected? This temporarily pauses production, and is costly; but going out of tolerance could result in non-uniform sheets or injury to workers), the stocking of shelves (giant double-door refrigerators on the top shelf in a customer aisle?), and so on. Bed, Bath, and Beyond institutes a business process for using a ladder on store shelves, such that another floor employee must check the other side of the shelf; occasionally, the employee operating the ladder will bump the shelf and cause an item to fall, which can and has involved in injury (and death!).
Risk Management is a trivial topic. Kepner-Tregoe Potential Problem/Opportunity Analysis is nothing more than Operational Risk Management in a long-winded manner (what could happen? What is the probability? What is the severity? What should we do about it?). Project Management involves Project Risk Management, which starts with identifying risks (what could go wrong? What could happen that we could take advantage of?), then performing qualitative risk analysis (which of these does our experience tell us is most likely and most important?), then performing quantitative risk analysis on those most important things (how likely, what impact?), and then planning what actions to take. Many business studies follow a similar risk analysis methodology.
None of these things is particularly complex; the complex methodologies are long-winded, redundant expansions of simple, well-established methods. These are things which should be done.
Re: (Score:0)
If you're installing a TV transmitter, you have a device at 2000 feet that, if broken open and unshielded, produces enough energy to melt people's faces off at ground level 500 meters away from the tower base. This means all installation considerations must involve reflection on how the integrity of the transmitter is protected or put at-risk, and anything which threatens its integrity requires further examination.
Yeah, I would like to see how you could accidentally break a TV transmitter, and heavily focus it so as to be harmful at 2000 ft. Dipole transmitters don't just beam energy like a laser beam. Even if you had a ~1 m vertical focus on a 5000 kW ERP transmitter, and it some how fell loose to point at a ground, the already contrived situation would produce less than 100 W per square m^2, something like being a foot away from an incandescent bulb. This is out of regulation, but not melting a person's face. Y
Re: (Score:2)
If you're installing a TV transmitter, you have a device at 2000 feet that, if broken open and unshielded, produces enough energy to melt people's faces off at ground level 500 meters away from the tower base.
I call bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
These transmitters are 500,000 watts. I did the math once and figured the transmitter 3 miles from my house would expose people to 2000W of microwave radiation on the ground for several blocks. This would ignite trees and houses, and melt people.
Helicopters aren't legally allowed near the tower.
Re: (Score:0)
These transmitters are 500,000 watts.
Learn what ERP is, as no TV station uses anywhere near an actual 500 kW for a 500 kW ERP station. A crappy antenna means they would be using at most about 100 kW. But lets assume it is 500 kW, and go with the original 2000 ft instead of the three miles you say now. If you wanted to get 2000 W, you would need a collection area of nearly 20000 m^2, or about the area of three football fields. If you wanted to concentrate that into a square meter, something closer to the size of a person, you would need a 4