Fail-Safe

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What is a “Fail-Safe”?

“‘Always’ and ‘never’ are two words that you should always remember never to use.” — Wendell Johnson, psychologist and pioneer of speech pathology

Key Points:

• A Fail-Safe is a backup system designed to prevent or allow recovery from a primary system failure.
• Fail-safes are not efficient if you think you’ll never need them. The thing is, if you ever need one, it’ll be too late to develop it. Fail-safes must be developed before they are needed.
• Separate your Fail-safe from your primary system as much as possible to prevent one tragedy ruining everything.
• Never make the backup system part of the system you’re trying to protect. Interdependence is not good when it comes to Fail-safes.
• Try never to have a single critical point of failure. If the system relies on critical inputs to function, you should plan for when those inputs aren’t available.

Questions for Consideration:

• Have you developed fail-safes you can rely on if critical systems fail?
• Are your backups reliable, and accessible if you need them?

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