*Undifferentiated heavy lifting* is a term commonly used in the context of advocating for [[Serverless MOC|Serverless]] systems, or "higher-in-the-stack" services generally. p Breaking it down, in reverse: - **"Heavy lifting"** — Tasks which require a significant amount of resources, usually in terms of engineering time. - **"Undifferentiated"** — The task being performed does not further the organisation's strategic goals. For those of us deeply immersed in the serverless community, the term is almost clichéd. Apparently it was initially used by [[@Jeff Bezos]] in 2006. [^fn1] [^fn1]: https://www.missioncloud.com/blog/the-problem-of-undifferentiated-heavy-lifting ## See also - [[A serverless service removes the need for managing servers]] - [[Engineers are probably your biggest cost]] - [[Wardley Mapping]] as a tool for identifying what tasks are "undifferentiated" --- ## References #### [Identifying Undifferentiated, Heavy Lifting](https://nodramadevops.com/2019/02/identifying-undifferentiated-heavy-lifting/) by [[@Stephen Kuenzli]] >Every product adopted by customers provides value in some way. That value is provided by a system of components and people (aka entities) that have responsibilities ranging from the application used directly by a customer to the object store where that customer’s data is persisted. Each of those entities must fulfill their current responsibilities or delivery of customer value is impacted. --- tags: #Serverless #TermOfArt