Health check !

My friends often ask me how we can be prepared for responding well to changes, as emphasized in the Agile manifesto. Obviously, that requires a lot of homework in every possible area. One of those could be a health check. 

I am sure most of us would agree that in these difficult times, filled with stress and anxiety, we need to take extra care of our health. Any small issue could grow into a bigger problem, without us even realizing its existence. So what should we do ? Yoga, Pranayam or exercise ? Ya, answers could be many, but what matters is whether we are asking the right question. We may ask ourselves : -

• Am I free of pain ?
• Do I have high and sustained energy ?
• Do I rarely get sick ?
• Do I have low healthcare costs?
• Do I heal easily?
• Do I sleep soundly ?
• Is my immune system strong?
• Am I at my optimum weight ?

If we are able to say “Yes” to all these questions, then we certainly would call ourselves healthy and would be ready to respond to any change in the environment, affecting our health.

In a similar way, we need to keep our IT systems up and running i.e. healthy all the time. So I request you to go back to the first question and answer them with respect to your IT systems. Now If you are able to say “Yes” to all these questions, then you would certainly be prepared to respond to any big change coming your way. 

Ideally, at such times we only need to worry about creating the new planes, as such questions would ensure that the runway is functional, all the time.