That sounds wonderful. Typically if a place has that little tech debt it means that they've overhired and there isn't enough work, but if you said they were on a limited budget, then maybe not. It does sound like the kind of place where I can imagine that happening though. A tech-focused workplace would probably find or create other work. For a hospital, the IT department is a random cost centre, and probably fairly cheap compared to doctors, medical equipment, insurance, etc. And, a hospital probably understands much better than most workplaces about why security is important (keeping patient records private), why a "move fast and break things" attitude is sometimes a terrible fit, why documentation and checklists matter, etc.

Did you ask them if there was any tech debt? Because, I wouldn't be surprised if they thought there were things they could improve. Like, the documentation probably looked complete to you, but maybe they knew that there were a few areas they could have done better. Like, with the "cleaning" analogy, I've been places I thought were spotless, but the people who cleaned it always thought there was more they could do.

[–] philpo@feddit.org 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Sadly the realities are different: I visit around one healthcare facility every other week in all of Europe, far more infrequently in Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Hospitals consistently have the worst IT departments I ever see - outdated technology, budget constraints (I literally saw a full IT loss due to "we don't pay for our firewall licences for over 3 years") and a fucking lack of care. One of the most well known clinical information systems has a hardcoded admin account with a single letter as PW in it Another popular system will try to install an ancient version of TeamViewer. In other words: It's a mess - btw often the budgets are huge and more than what nurses cost.

That's why this unicorn stuck with me. They were "relaxed" - because they all had a workload that was "manageable", there was someone to take over if shit hits the fan,etc. And they didn't feel like they would need to do this and this - I know and fear this myself, it's the bane of my existence as a project guy. They? They had a nice, lean but powerful project workflow and change management.

In the end it all came down to very very good management - a manager who knows their team that well is worth their weight iin gold.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 6 hours ago

Probably good support for that manager from the levels higher up too. Because, like you said, that sounds like a unicorn. That sort of thing just doesn't happen.