Risk vs Progress

Last week I had to get my hands dirty setting up proprietary physical servers using a serial port connection and terminal interface.  It was an fun diversion and an important step in a long-running project.  I also thought it was interesting that on a 150k+ piece of hardware I was forced to trim plastic from the included serial port connector to fit the server.

It was not particularly difficult to complete, but it took a lot of work and effort to get that far; the subsequent data center installation this week will be an important milestone in the overall project.  It will also highlight the dichotomy between risk and progress, with a further 4 week wait until the equipment can be configured by the vendor.  Despite being arguably greater risk, the lack of alternatives meant that approval to physically configure the device could be granted (including hacking away at the connector), but because the software configuration elements can be performed by the vendor remotely it was considered prudent to ensure the vendor performed these activities despite the extended timeframe involved.

There's obviously a fine line between risk and progress, and I'm not one to advocate not following appropriate procedures, but when a process is well documented and really quite straight forward, it's hard not to get frustrated by overly risk averse engagements.