I was talking to jtzl the other day. He said something post worthy.
I see systems engineering as essential to keep as simple and transparent as possible because that allows the app developers to make mistakes
If system configuration issues are unpredictable, it slows down app development and makes it unclear where bugs are being introduced
and so we (System Engineers) have to be thorough so they (Developers) can mess up
which is why we should keep everything totally simple and automated
because each ad hoc configuration is actually interference in application development and deployment
I really like this mentality. A simple consistent subsystem forming a foundation to a complex application.