In the fast-moving world of software development and operations, surprises are pretty much guaranteed. No matter how much effort we put into building resilient systems, things will break—often at the worst possible moment. And if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of one of those dreaded late-night alerts, you know that in those moments, you need to think fast, act precisely, and understand exactly what can bring even the strongest systems to their knees.
That’s where this blog series comes in. Think of it as your go-to guide for navigating the chaos. We’ll take a deep dive into some of the most common culprits behind software outages and performance hiccups—the usual suspects that can throw your application into turmoil and send you scrambling for a fix. From the notorious “Query of Death” that can grind your servers to a halt to those sneaky “Expired Certificates” that can take entire services offline, each post will walk you through real-world scenarios you’re bound to face at some point.
But we’re not just here to talk about problems—we’re here to help you solve them. Each post will give you clear, actionable steps to get things back on track fast. And beyond that, we’ll explore ways to strengthen your systems so you’re not just firefighting but actually fireproofing.
Please keep in mind: knowing these scenarios is not a replacement for well thought out playbooks specifically tailored to your services. However, they might help you recognize certain patterns and think on the fly if you have to.
Whether you’re new to being on-call or a seasoned pro, you’ll find insights and practical tips to help you stay cool under pressure and tackle issues with confidence. So let’s dive in, figure this stuff out together, and make sure the next unexpected crisis doesn’t catch you off guard—because in software, being prepared is half the battle.
We’re also eager to hear about your experiences! What patterns have you identified? Which outages keep you up at night? Feel free to reach out to us at hello@qualityminds.de or on LinkedIn.
This post is part of a larger series about typical outage patterns and how to short term mitigate them while on-call.
Here’s a list of all the posts we published so far:
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