Much like Cloud Computing, there is a lot of noise and confusion around DevOps. Some think that it is about tooling and automation, while others seem to think that it is about either the merging of Operations with Engineering or elimination of Operations itself. Focusing on too narrow a set of solutions creates local suboptimization, often exacerbating the problems this approach was trying to solve. Whereas eliminating Operations entirely trivialises the complexity of the system that Operations co-exists within, again increasing risk and providing bandaids where surgery was required.
Successful organisations that run effectively will instead focus on the systemic over the symptomatic problems, and target the outcomes for the holistic organisation over their own internal technical issues. To effectively instigate systematic improvement we need to provide transparency, alignment, and collaboration between all of the groups, of which DevOps is an essential piece.
Successful implementations focus on the crux of the problem – there are far too many mental, organisational and technological barriers producing so much friction that people lose sight of the big picture. One must find ways to eliminate this friction, allow information to flow so that people can rapidly understand, respond to and pivot based upon ecosystem feedback. It requires going back to the core of Agile itself. By adapting concepts from Boyd's OODA Loop and applying techniques from Lean, it is possible to teach an organization to learn to see.
This deck provides a pragmatic 'from-the-trenches' step by step walk through of a DevOps transformation using over two decades of our own personal experiences running and turning around transformations that span from an early SaaS startup through to some of the largest global enterprises in Energy, Finance, Software, Internet and Telecommunications.
3. Release to market faster
Improve speed and responsiveness
Ensure a smooth, trouble-free service
Make – increase revenue
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
4. Lower costs for setting up &
maintaining services
Reduce infrastructure & people
needed to run services
Save – reduce costs
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
26. Visualize Workflow
Employ Information Sherpas/Fire Wardens
Use A3 Problem Solving
Create Value Stream Maps
Exploit Information Radiators
Work Board
Accepted Scheduled
In
Progress
Blocked Done
How lean helps you see
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
28. Move from Fire Fighting to Fire Prevention
Understand proactive/reactive ratios
Make causes visible
Move towards prevention
Queuing theory
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
29. • Ringfence Fire Prevention
– Fires aren’t a desired business outcome!
– Keep focus (and disruptions to a minimum)
• Make fires and their sources visible
– Firemen can become unintentional arsonists
– Expedite means it is a fire!
• Reduce flammable fuel
– Reduce batch sizes
– Big batches can become all-engulfing infernos!
Create the fire line
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
30. QUEUE MASTER AND WORKFLOW
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
32. Incoming to Workflow
Makes sure that tasks are clear, correct, and
sized appropriately
Makes sure tasks have the right priority
Unscheduled
Queue
Queue Master
Clarification
Queue
Prioritized
Queue
Task
Task
Task
Task
Queue master
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
33. Looks for bottlenecks in queues
Facilitates
Notes patterns for discussion
Can take on tasks if idle, but lower priority
Queue master
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
34. All work goes into flow
via the Queue Master
Work is prioritized
by the Queue Master
Rules
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
35. Week long iterations (at most!)
Queue Master position should
rotate at regular iterations
Iterations
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
36. Review queues and workflow
Go through blocked tasks
Review flow problems
Archive Done
Team iteration review
Great place to go over A3s!
Retrospective
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
37. Handover of Queue Master hat
Choose which improvement items to
action
Review any key upcoming/scheduled
activities
Sort out any change alignment challenges
Planning
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
41. Fire Warden
Spot arsonists and fire
hazards
Coordinate cross
functional fire prevention
Embedded Ops Leads
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
44. DevOps and Service Engineering
Continuous Delivery
Continuous
Integration
Automated
Deployment
Environment
Configuration
Management
Workflow and Service
Transparency
Kanban/
Scrumban
Dashboarding
and
Instrumentation
Cross
Functional
Working
Elastic
Services
Architecture
Loose
Coupling
Design
Building
Resilience
In
DevOps Ecosystem
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
45. Total Cost of Ownership
People Intensity
Risk
Metrics that matter
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
52. Information is powerful
Information brings focus & alignment
Information helps decision making
Information wants to be free
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
53. Automate to improve flow and transparency
Automate to reduce people intensity & friction
Automate to instrument & find defects early
Don’t hide problems
Don’t lose touch with reality
Autonomation
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
54. THE TALE OF THE BILLING DATABASE
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
56. Walk the Gemba and understand the
ecosystem
Visualize the flow
Instrument and let information go free!
Get Intuitive
Continuously improve
Learn to see!
Robert Benefield - Evolve Beyond, Ltd 2013
Tooling, coordination, how do you link it all together?
Why- end of the line, waterfall
Explicit examples about each of the communities- use the pictures and answer the questions
In order to handle these differences in a sensible way we need to create alignment and transparency both within ops as well as across all of the communities end to end. End to end can be both across the product lifecycle, as well as across service flowsLean has many ways to do this
Practical tips: here is what we did and what is missing. Here is the queue master. Extend the flow, going down to the field, sitting down with the traders. Sit down with the teams to understand what the problems are with releasing things. Firefighting and fire prevention. Seeing things and automating stuff to help shift from one to the other. Fire prevention by assessing houses (ops leads are like a fire safety officer). Help sorting out organisation.
Can start on any day,best to align with other teams
Causal loop analysis. Maybe get rid of the iteration review details
Reactive vs proactive
Remove Silos
Outmanoeuvre competition, intuition and leadership over command and control, allowing people to “do the right thing” within a culture/decision framework. “fingertip touch” (schwerpunkt)
All of these are to reduce friction and roadblocks
Helps understand root cause as well as work through a plan to solve the problem