10 Ops Murphy’s Laws Every Engineer Should Read Daily

Operations Murphy’s Law – read the following points every day to reflect on your work.

Nothing is as simple as it appears.

All tasks take longer than you estimate.

Things that can go wrong will go wrong.

If you worry something will happen, it becomes more likely.

If you succeed on the first try, you probably missed something.

When everything moves in one direction, take a deep look in the opposite direction.

Problems that disappear automatically will return automatically.

If everyone’s ideas are similar, no one is thinking seriously.

A good start does not guarantee a good result; a bad start often leads to worse outcomes.

Always assume your assumptions are invalid.

Education alone cannot acquire true intelligence.

This piece does not discuss specific technologies or procedures; it focuses on reducing human accidents, mitigating unknown risks, and establishing practical processes. In operations, a small mistake can cause massive loss, so meticulousness is essential.

Reputation is the foundation for an ops professional. Facing sudden failures, cross‑department support, and large server costs makes achieving visible results challenging.

Brand yourself like a product: communicate effectively, track outcomes, and ensure every task has a clear start and finish.

Operations Goals: Safety, Stability, Efficiency, Cost‑Saving

Safety is paramount—security breaches and data leaks can threaten a company’s survival and require huge remediation costs.

Stability, built on safety, ensures reliable service and a good user experience.

Efficiency means making the best use of all resources.

Cost‑saving focuses on reducing hardware expenses, which are a major part of company spend.

Process Management

Processes are necessary, yet few are followed strictly. Many exist only for post‑mortem blame. Since we often draft our own processes, they must be feasible and acceptable to leadership.

A good process is illustrated by a story of a famous architect who let a Disney park open early, letting grass grow and visitors create informal paths. Those paths later guided the final walkway design, earning the architect an award.

Daily Operations

Frequent server maintenance requires detailed operation records. Repetitive tasks should be templated; procedural tasks should be automated to reduce error probability.

Special operations need written step‑by‑step instructions, never rely on memory. Clear objectives and pre‑visualization lower mistake rates, and screenshots should document results.

Monitoring & Alerts

Rather than debating monitoring tools, focus on handling thousands of alerts efficiently. Aggregate alerts of the same type, classify by severity, and present them via large screens, speakers, or dedicated chat groups to prevent missed notifications.

Incident Handling

Resolving incidents quickly reflects an ops engineer’s capability. Experience and search‑engine skills accelerate diagnosis, while intuition—sharpened by continuous learning—helps when logs are ambiguous.

After solving a problem, treat the response as a product: include the resolution, cause, steps taken, potential future issues, and recommendations.

Using Technology to Reduce Human Errors

Human error is inevitable; mitigate it with technology—replace manual CLI commands with selectable actions, add approval workflows, and build an automated ops platform where every step is audited, fault‑tolerant, and recorded.

Original article by duxuefeng: https://blog.51cto.com/491970/1783820