{"id":547,"date":"2015-08-19T22:53:48","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T03:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/bearz\/?p=547"},"modified":"2016-01-01T16:28:19","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T21:28:19","slug":"guest-post-planning-for-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/bearz\/guest-post-planning-for-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: Planning for Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

[When I moved to New York City a year ago, Chase Culpon was one of the first judges I met — and I’m very glad I did. In addition to his expertise at events, Chase has taken a huge role in strengthening the judge community in the city, by coordinating social gatherings, organizing carpools to tournaments and conferences, and even starting a support group for judges interested in becoming more fit.<\/p>\n

I’ve always valued Chase’s insight into tricky topics, so when he approached me a few months ago with an idea for a guest post, I couldn’t have said yes faster. I’m very excited to share his expert perspective about ways we can better prepare ourselves for the challenges of running great tournaments. \u2014Bearz<\/em>]<\/p>\n

\"Chase<\/a>

Chase Culpon
New York, New York<\/em><\/p><\/div>Hi, I\u2019m Chase–a judge and audio engineer<\/a> in New York City. On the surface, my job is plugging in some good mics and pushing around some faders to make sure events sound great on a live broadcast. What that really means is that, well before the event begins, I design and implement good systems. Deciding what tools are right for each job, establishing best practices, and working with a team are all essential for making live events run smoothly. Great shows and concerts have great systems that keep rolling despite failures, and the same is true for Magic events. In the spirit of entwining experiences<\/a>, I\u2019d like to share how we might use some of the tools of my trade to make the best of every Magic event.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite frameworks for refining the systems I use professionally is the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis, or FMEA for short. It\u2019s an approach designed to pick apart systems where failures mean life and death. Originally developed by the military in World War II, it was also used extensively by NASA in the USA\u2019s race to the moon. Today, FMEAs are most often seen when designing systems for construction and manufacturing, but the methodology has been incredibly useful for me in both my professional and judging careers. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s a FMEA?<\/h2>\n

<\/p>FMEA might sound scary and complex, but the basics are very simple. The best way for us to understand it is to look at all the components.<\/p>\n

The first step of FMEA is analyzing each potential problem though the following lenses:<\/p>\n

System:<\/strong> What thing are we working with? Registration, scorekeeping, deck checks, etc. This can be listed by task, or by responsibility.<\/p>\n

Potential Failure Mode:<\/strong> A specific thing that can go wrong.<\/p>\n

Severity:<\/strong> A quantitative value of how much damage this failure will typically do. For magic I\u2019d suggest a scale of 0-5 based on the impact it has on the event and the player experience.<\/p>\n