Believe me, I know how it goes. You get a new toy, find a new show, buy a new book, and that’s it. You’re obsessed with it—at least, if it’s any good, or it’s something you’ve actually wanted. If not, you take it out and play with it for exactly 5 minutes, and it either a) breaks or b) you get bored with it, and into the discard pile it goes, never to be touched again.
In terms of our 7 deadly sins of security architecture, that’s right. I’m talking about…
Gluttony.
If you haven’t really thought about it much, you might think there’s a lot of overlap between gluttony and some of the other 7 deadly architecture sins. However, if you put it as simple as possible:
Gluttony is when a lack of self control leads to excessive consumption.
Anything else is…well…something else.
And the architecture sin of gluttony is probably one of the biggest reasons architecture efforts fail, and, this goes in spades for most SABSA architecture efforts I’ve seen (except those that play the pick-a-mix game to just add a little seasoning to their existing architecture practice, which is about as effective as a fly swatter in a swamp).
Because one of the first things that happens when you finally “see the light” about the true purpose of architecture is…
…you realize how completely and overwhelmingly screwed you are.
And you’re screwed because you now start to realize just how much you don’t know about the things you probably should know. And because of this realization, it makes you shake like a dog pooping peach seeds because your confidence levels in your security program suddenly plummet into the deepest, darkest depths of Hell.
Followed shortly by the severely misguided thought:
“I have to fix…EVERYTHING!”
Which is promptly rear-ended by the follow-up thought:
“And I have to do it…RIGHT…NOW!!”
So, you do your best to get in shape…you polish your teeth…you sharpen your knives…and, let’s face it, you probably haven’t really eaten any architecture for a long time…so you’re very, very…very…
HUNGRY!
When you feel you’re about to explode from both hunger and the creeping anxiety that you aren’t as safe as you thought you were, you set the table…
…open wide…
…and try to eat the whole elephant of the enterprise in one bite.
Now, if you’re somehow successful in getting that whole elephant in your mouth, the next thing you quickly realize is that it’s going to take you quite a while to chew the damn thing.
And during that time, you’re jaws are probably going to start hurting…you may bite yourself…you’ll likely get kinda tired…and you’re going to be pretty preoccupied with chewing on that elephant…
…so it’s gonna be really, really…REALLY hard for you to do much else in the interim.
Which….probably won’t go over very well with the people outside the restaurant, waiting their turn to eat. I mean, after all, you’ve taken over the whole place and have your cheeks full of elephant, so there’s really no room at all for anyone else.
And if you make other hungry people (your security customers) wait too long, they’re going to get mighty pissed off…and then they’re going to question your effectiveness…
…and THEN they’re gonna wonder what the hell you’re doing other than trying to help them get their business projects approved
…and THEN they’re going to point out how much money they’re not being able to make for the organization…how much extra costs these delays are causing…
And you’ll be rather strongly urged to spit out the architecture elephant you’ve been trying to eat, let out a big, hearty belch for whatever you did manage to eat –
like maybe it’s left testicle or something suitably irrelevant for the majority of the problems everyone else is trying to solve –
and get back to the backlog of pending security approvals you’re supposed to have rubber-stamp into production over 6 months ago.
Gluttony.
It’s a bitch.
But it’s OUR bitch we bring on ourselves.
And we do that because we don’t have the self discipline to prioritize and focus on what matters…and we don’t have the knowledge and wisdom to know how to eat an architecture elephant in pieces.
Now, it’s true that this is something you can potentially figure out on your own—provided you’re given enough time, space and support to do it.
Or, you can – in just mere minutes – make sure you’re subscribed to the print Security Sanity™ newsletter in time to ensure the March issue is delivered to your doorstep with some practical advice and examples for how to avoid getting choked on the security architecture elephant and do something far more agile…and far more practical instead.
The choice is yours.
If you choose easy and quick, this is the link you need:
Stay safe,
ast
—
Andrew S. Townley
Archistry Chief Executive
