Serverless Craic Ep75 How to Build a Problem Prevention Culture (AWS Well-Architected Explained)

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How to Build a Problem Prevention Culture (AWS Well-Architected Explained)
Stop firefighting — start preventing problems.
In this episode of Serverless Craic, Dave Anderson, Mark McCann, and Michael O’Reilly explore how engineering teams can create a problem prevention culture using the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
They unpack lessons from Chapter 17 of The Value Flywheel Effect, showing how high-performing cloud teams use SCORP reviews (Security, Cost, Operational Resilience, Performance) to operationalise engineering excellence.
Learn how to:
✅ Shift from reactive to proactive problem solving
✅ Build dashboards that actually drive team learning
✅ Scale architecture reviews across hundreds of teams
✅ Foster psychological safety and positive peer pressure
✅ Future-proof your organisation for the AI-driven cloud era
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 – Intro and setup
00:40 – What is a problem prevention culture?
02:20 – Recognising unseen engineering work
04:30 – Balancing delivery and engineering excellence
05:40 – Defining “good architecture”
07:00 – The AWS Well-Architected Framework
08:40 – From theory to practice: SCORP sessions
10:30 – Scaling Well-Architected reviews
13:50 – Using dashboards for insight and improvement
15:00 – Building trust and psychological safety
17:00 – Peer learning and positive pressure
19:00 – Continuous improvement in real teams
21:00 – Measuring long-term maturity
22:30 – Looking forward to AI-driven cloud operations
25:00 – Outro and what’s next
🔗 Resources
📘 The Value Flywheel Effect → https://theserverlessedge.com/the-value-flywheel-effect
🧭 AWS Well-Architected Framework → https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected
🧩 SCORP Process & Templates → https://theserverlessedge.com/scorp-process-cycle
🎙️ Serverless Craic Podcast → https://theserverlessedge.com/podcast
💡 Follow The Serverless Edge on LinkedIn and YouTube

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