Going cowboy is when engineers bypass established processes, guardrails, or compliance gates to push code or infrastructure changes directly — often under pressure, urgency, or just to "get it done."
While it might seem faster in the moment, in a regulated environment (like finance) this creates high risk, including:
- ❌ Bypassing required reviews (e.g., four-eyes principle).
- ❌ Skipping compliance or audit checks.
- ❌ Creating blind spots for regulators and security teams.
- ❌ Potential fines or legal consequences if untracked changes are discovered.