There was a recent HN submission about how distributed message queues are a bad design from history, with a lot of problems, and request/response is much better.
This calls to me as a problem with email - we dump information into email and then expect a response, while trying to forget about the email. Then with no response, the system breaks down - we have no clue what happened; do we requeue the email? Wait more? Ask if the email system is down? Chase every email with a phonecall?
We need some replacement (like a ticketing system, for more than just tickets) for tracking work, and where the system will chase it up until it's done - or close it once it's no longer needed. For at least part of things, a centralised work queue that isn't duplicated in inboxes and relying on individual's organizational skills.
This calls to me as a problem with email - we dump information into email and then expect a response, while trying to forget about the email. Then with no response, the system breaks down - we have no clue what happened; do we requeue the email? Wait more? Ask if the email system is down? Chase every email with a phonecall?
We need some replacement (like a ticketing system, for more than just tickets) for tracking work, and where the system will chase it up until it's done - or close it once it's no longer needed. For at least part of things, a centralised work queue that isn't duplicated in inboxes and relying on individual's organizational skills.