ZNDP 055 - The 3 HUGE Mistakes that break your Design Mindset! - Zigbits - Where Zigabytes are faster than Gigabytes

Today, We are going to highlight The 3 HUGE Mistakes that break your Design Mindset!

Zig Here, and I’m here to help you become the best Network Designer you can be!

Above all else, your mindset is the most important item in Network Design. Your Design Mindset!! Knowing technology is critical but it is the easy portion. We can put in the effort and time to learn what we don’t know from a technology perspective. A lot of people that create Network Designs do not have a proper Design Mindset. Most of us are not taught the proper design mindset until later in our careers.

1. Assumptions

In any design situation, we never want to assume anything. Don’t assume complexity is bad. Validate your Assumptions with questions to your customer, your team. Leverage and lead workshops to drive customer dialog but let them talk. Don’t feel like you need to talk the entire time. Take notes, and process what is being discussed so you can understand the customer better.

2. Best Practices

If I had been asked this question fifteen years ago when I was young and naive, I would have said Best Practice is the bible. I can hear myself stating “Because it’s best practice”! No way did I fully understanding the implications of what was being done.

I would have filled in the “Best Practice” variable with my own personal biased Design, Solution, or Architecture.

A lot of us in the network field make “best practice” calls without fully understanding the design implications of those decisions. I know I’ve been guilty of this, so when I say “us”, I’m totally including myself.

Let’s start with a simple example – Why do we enable an OSPF interface as a point-to-point interface? Is there a business requirement for it? Probably a better question to ask and answer; is there a business requirement that we are breaking because of this “best practice” decision?

Now, how about a more complex and realistic example. What about implementing sub-second failover for an IGP versus less than 5 seconds failover for an IGP? Are we implementing sub-second failover because it’s “best practice” or are we correlating this choice to a business need?

3. Preconceived Notions

We don’t want to bring in our own preconceived notions or opinions. Just because I like EIGRP does no mean it’s the correct IGP for every design situation. Just because MPLS L3VPN circuits are more expensive than MPLS L2VPN Circuits in your experience does not mean you can make decisions based on that information in a design situation.

The design should always be tied back to the customer’s business requirements!!

In my opinion, if there are not any relevant business requirements for a specific design situation and we are not violating another business requirement, then best practice is probably the way to go but we need to understand the full picture before making these decisions.

In the end, it really boils down to doing what is right for the specific situation that you are presented. I’ve seen a lot of people in this field looking for the “one fits all” solution or answer, but there isn’t one. A lot of these people take the “easy” way out and in the end, they are doing a disservice to the networks and customers they touch.

This is important information and yes it’s a different way of thinking all together but its highly valuable!

Check out this free resource to hear more about Design Mindset and these 3 HUGE Mistakes that break your Design Mindset! https://zigbits.tech/DesignMindset

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ZNDP 055 – The 3 HUGE Mistakes that break your Design Mindset!