A real world story explained in authentication and transaction protocol semantics to provide some insight into the relationships between real world information flow and failure demand that is so important when managing IT dependent service organizations.
A couple of years ago me and my family went on a trip to Mallorca. In the confusion of the arrival terminal baggage area we left one backpack on the pickup trail. The backpack contained artifacts of high value, but not critical to our stay. A human error started an obscure process enduring the our whole stay on the island.
Note: As most histories of failure demand this one started with the customer making a mistake. In systems thinking terms, this is probably so frequent in the charter business that it should be considered as mere variation.
On the bus to the hotel I discovered we where missing the backpack and asked the guide what to do. The guide told me to contact the guides located at the hotel as he was just having responsibility for transport to and from the airport.
Note: this must be happening all the time, why doesn't charter operators have procedures for handling this immediately? This is in effect a redirection to another service (endpoint), much like a http code 303 See other. This is also an example of standardized work that drives costs and complexity up.
I attended to the guides on the hotel on a daily basis. This resulted in using estimated 30 minutes per day in waiting and talking to the guides. Each day they promised to look into it, they contacted the airport, waited for response from the lost property department.
Note: I was polling the guides, which was in a constant loop answering me and polling the lost property department. This consumed resources and was of course a source of irritation to us.
In the day we where leaving, the guide having responsibility for the returning bus transport followed me to the lost property department of the airport. When asking for the backsack the clerk just shaked his head. Nothing like my backpack was found. I pulled my passport to eliminate any doubt of who I was, and provide correct information. The clerk quickly disappeared and returned with my sack. Huh? It appeared the guides was not informed of the required authentication to pick up left property.
Note: The airport clerks pretended it did not exist until I showed up in person and provided proper authentication. Much like a properly invented security measure in IT, but remember to inform your users (guides) about it. Failing to inform results in failure demand in the flow and bad service seen from the customer (which in this case will associate the travelling destination with bad service (cognitive availability).
Since the time before checkin was nearing fast I did not have time to check the contents of the sack before later. It appeared that mobile chargers and iPods where missing.
Note: Almost no security measure can stop unloyal employees from taking what they want.
After returning I claimed the loss to my credit card company. Travels payed with the card automatically has travel insurance. They presented a bureaucratic and cumbersome process, and in general did not cover lost property. Huh? So much for travel insurance. Our house contents (NO: innbo) insurance though covered lost property during travel. The process was very straightforward and used average prices on artifacts calculated from real prices. I got a security token that I could use to "buy" the artifacts again from their webpage or get money refund. -> Happy travelling insurance customer. I will stick with these guys for a while, as my availablity heuristic brain tells me they provides good service.
Note: providing a simple process with clear semantics reduces pain and resource consumption and great service.
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