Kevin Behr > Quotes

“As Stephen Katz, former CISO of Citibank, once said, "Controls don't slow the business down; like brakes on a car, controls allow you to go faster.”
― Kevin Behr, The Visible Ops Handbook: Starting ITIL in 4 Practical Steps

“Often, there may be a culture of a hidden reward system that encourages heroics and a "cowboy culture". For instance, one person may work throughout the night for an entire weekend fighting a fire and get rewarded as the hero who saved the day. What is overlooked is that if one person can save the entire boat, one person can probably sink it, too.”
― Kevin Behr, The Visible Ops Handbook: Starting ITIL in 4 Practical Steps

“I’ve come across otherwise smart people who are of the mistaken belief that if they hold on to a task, something only they know how to do, it’ll ensure job security. These people are knowledge hoarders. This doesn't work. Everyone is replaceable. No matter how talented they are. Sure it may take longer at first to find out how to do that special task, but it will happen without them.”
― Kevin Behr, The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

“The notion that "those who built the airplane are not allowed to fly it" is called "separation of duty" and is required for security reasons to ensure that no single person can introduce uncontrolled production changes.”
― Kevin Behr, The Visible Ops Handbook: Starting ITIL in 4 Practical Steps

“When it comes to automation, IT process consultants usually warn organization not to automate a new process before you have had practice running it with pencil and paper.”
― Kevin Behr, The Visible Ops Handbook: Starting ITIL in 4 Practical Steps

“Unplanned work is not free. Quite the opposite. It's very expensive, because unplanned work comes at the expense of...planned work!”
― Kevin Behr, The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

“ To err is human. To really screw up requires the root password."—UNKNOWN”
― Kevin Behr, The Visible Ops Handbook: Starting ITIL in 4 Practical Steps