Wannop's Law

Getting Wannop's Law to be part of the standard IT lexicon has been a personal crusade of mine for over 15 years. It hasn't been getting much traction so I guess it is time to see what the blogosphere can do.

Wannop's Law states:

"For systems that must be operational over the weekend, do not work on the system after noon on Thursday"

I created Wannop's Law after an experience I had years ago. I was working for a company that produced hotel management software. One of our customers was the Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, Vermont (HIGHLY Recommended!!!). John Wannop was their comptroller I believe, and in charge of their IT systems. He always warned me not to work on their system after noon on Thursday, due to Friday afternoon being their big check-in time.

One Friday I called John with a small change I needed to make. I can't recall what it was, but it was as innocuous as changing a monitor cable. "No way could it affect the system," I told him. After some time I was able to convince John to let me make the change, which I did. Shortly thereafter a butterfly sneezed over the Indian Ocean, and Chaos theory kicked in. By 6:00 pm the system had crashed. I was on pager and got the call from John. It wasn't too serious and I was able to get the system back up rather quickly, but from that point forward I wouldn't even ask - it was Wannop's Law that nobody touches the system after noon on Thursday.

Wannop's Law should be liberally interpreted. If Friday is a holiday, then don't touch the system after noon on Wednesday. Basically, hands of important systems, unless there is an emergency of course, if you are within 28 hours of the close of business before a weekend or holiday. I have embraced Wannop's Law all these years, and it has kept me from having to do a lot of explaining, as well as kept me on the good side of many users, mangers and executives. I highly recommend adhering to it.