Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Tactical vs Strategic

One of the first set of new terms that I came across in banking are the terms Tactical vs Strategic.

  • Tactical solution - is a euphemism for 'hack' or short term fix. However 'short term' might end up lasting 3+ years. As one team member said: "Nothing is as permanent as temporary"
  • Strategic solution - this is the correct long term way to fix the problem. Often however this takes much longer and requires a lot more resources than a tactical fix.
The standard use of these terms in the bank have several advantages:
  • A lot of time is saved when discussing a solution - Manager can ask 'Is that the tactical solution?' and developer says 'yes' - everyone knows what they means.
  • It encourages a mental model of seperating short term and 'correct long term' solutions to a problem
  • Its avoids having to use words like 'hack' in public 
   

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