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Seven whiteboard questions for network automation
Before deciding whether automation should be a separate team or part of the network team, take these to your leadership team. They come fromYour Network Automation Problem Is an Interface Problem, which explains the reasoning behind each one.
- 1
Plot your ten most senior network people on the two axes: software practice and networking depth.
How many are past the software-engineering gap? Not "knows Python," but tests, review, and failure-at-scale.
The answer sets your build-versus-buy ratio.
- 2
Take your last ten routine network changes.
How many teams had to agree to each?
That number is your measured coordination headwind. Judge every structural decision by whether it goes down.
- 3
For each seam in your current structure:
What can each side change without asking the other?
If nobody can answer, your contracts are implicit, and implicit contracts get renegotiated during every incident.
- 4
Pick three teams that depend on the network.
Could they define "site," "device role," and "decommissioned" identically, in writing, today?
If not, that comes earlier in your sequence than any workflow or any hire.
- 5
Find the most junior engineer on the team.
Can they state what the business gains from this program?
If not, assume fear is filling that vacuum right now.
- 6
For the next automation role you fill:
What three outcomes must this person have produced by month twelve?
If you can't write the outcomes, you're not ready to hire. (Smart and Street's Who is the reference for this scorecard method.)
- 7
Listen to how the program is described from the top.
Is your sponsor describing destinations or prescribing routes?
One of these scales. The other becomes the program's ceiling.
How to read your answers
Answer all seven crisply and you don't need us. You need six months of execution. Most organizations can answer three or four, and the unanswerable ones point at where the real work is.
solvesight.com/resources/whiteboard-questions