Here's the systematic process for testing any system's brittleness in 15 minutes or less:
Minutes 1-3: Component Mapping List all major components of the system being tested. For a business: revenue sources, key operations, critical resources. For a career: skills, relationships, income sources. Keep it high-level—details come later.
Minutes 4-6: Dependency Tracing For each component, identify what it depends on to function. Push beyond obvious dependencies to underlying requirements. A consulting business doesn't just depend on clients—it depends on clients having budgets, problems needing solutions, and ability to pay.
Minutes 7-9: Single Point Identification Look for dependencies that appear multiple times. These repetitions reveal single points of failure—elements that would break multiple components if they failed. The more components depending on a single point, the more brittle the system.
Minutes 10-12: Cascade Scenario Building For each single point of failure, quickly sketch what would happen if it failed. How would failure cascade through the system? Which dominoes would fall in which order? This reveals both brittleness magnitude and opportunity areas.
Minutes 13-15: Brittleness Scoring Rate each single point of failure on two dimensions: likelihood of failure (1-5) and impact if failed (1-5). Multiply for brittleness score. Scores above 15 indicate critical brittleness requiring immediate attention.