But What About When You Fail?
One thing Agile and DevOps definitely brought IT was a more accepting view of the whole “mistakes happen” mantra. Crashing systems is no longer a guarantee of a free ticket out the door. Indeed, off the top of my head, I can think of at least two cases where a CIO themselves checked in sloppy […]
Zero-Trust Network Access Platforms Slash DevOps Bottlenecks
In a prior article, I indicated why a new remote zero-trust platform is needed to support DevOps teams. Traditional remote access configurations are not well-suited for DevOps given a shifting user population comprised of employees, contractors and other third parties often using their own devices; the large number of tools and systems to which access […]
Meet the New(ish) Pipeline
My company keeps a sample project running pretty much all of the time. Our current project (multi-target web/Android app using Java and Spring built with Gradle and Ant that we’ll call “Finder” here) is getting a bit long in the tooth, so we have been casting about for a new one over the last several […]
MediaOps, Boca Code Award ‘Engineer the Change’ Scholarship
I am really proud to announce that, in partnership with Boca Code, MediaOps has awarded a scholarship for the Fall 2021 term to the Software Engineering Career Course, a 10-week rigorous and fast-paced coding boot camp from Boca Code. Alina Maliuk, a first-generation immigrant from Ukraine, is the recipient. The Engineer the Change scholarship was […]
A New DevOps Test Environment Platform is Needed
Test environment management is bottlenecking DevOps transformations and is driving the need for a new test environment management platform solution. On-demand test environments in which developers and testers do not have to wait for a shared environment are sorely needed. The evidence is clear. In my book Engineering DevOps I indicated that finding and setting up […]
Engineering Applications for DevOps (Part 6)
This blog series explains how to engineer applications for DevOps. Topics covered in this blog series include: • Factors used to decide whether an application is a good candidate for DevOps. • Practices to engineer designs for DevOps. • DevOps applied to enterprise apps and software services. • DevOps applied to COTS systems. • DevOps […]
Engineering Applications for DevOps (Part 5)
This blog series explains how to engineer applications for DevOps. Topics covered in this blog series: • Factors to decide whether an application is a good candidate for DevOps. • Practices to engineer designs for DevOps. • DevOps applied to enterprise apps and software services. • DevOps applied to COTS systems. • DevOps applied to […]
Engineering Applications for DevOps (Part 4)
This blog series explains how to engineer applications for DevOps. Topics covered in this blog series: • Factors to decide whether an application is a good candidate for DevOps. • Practices to engineer designs for DevOps. • DevOps applied to enterprise apps and software services. • DevOps applied to COTS systems. • DevOps applied to […]
Engineering Applications for DevOps (Part 3)
This blog series explains how to engineer applications for DevOps. Topics covered in this blog series: • Factors used to decide whether an application is a good candidate for DevOps. • Practices to engineer designs for DevOps. • DevOps applied to enterprise apps and software services. • DevOps applied to COTS systems. • DevOps applied […]
Engineering Applications for DevOps (Part 2)
This blog series explains how to engineer applications for DevOps. Topics covered in this blog series: • Factors to consider when deciding whether an application is a good candidate for DevOps. • Best practices for engineering designs for DevOps. • DevOps applied to enterprise apps and software services. • DevOps applied to COTS systems. • […]
Engineering Applications for DevOps (Part 1)
This blog series explains how to engineer applications for DevOps. Topics covered in this blog series: • Factors to consider when deciding whether an application is a good candidate for DevOps. • Best practices for engineering designs for DevOps • DevOps applied to enterprise apps and software services • DevOps applied to COTS systems. • […]
A New DevOps Database Platform is Needed
The diverse number of database platforms, deployment environments and data variants needed to support the plethora of applications and services required for rapid DevOps continuous delivery lead times, coupled with the challenges of integrating database changes for application pipelines, is a growing challenge for many organizations as they strive to accelerate their DevOps transformations. When […]
Continuous Testing Practices Gap Assessment
Continuous testing is an essential part of DevOps. To get the maximum value from continuous testing, it is important to use recommended best practices, inclusive of people, processes and technologies. A gap assessment is a great way to efficiently evaluate an organization’s practices for DevOps and determine a strategy for improvement. Gap analysis provides valuable […]
Continuous Testing Practices – Part 3
In my prior blog, Continuous Testing – The Quest for Quality at Speed, I described five tenets and some of the practices for continuous testing to help with understanding what continuous testing is. In my consulting work, I find it necessary to use 15 categories of practices to assess an organizations’ continuous testing capabilities. Given […]
Continuous Testing Practices – Part 2
In my prior blog, Continuous Testing – The Quest for Quality at Speed, I described five tenets and some of the practices for continuous testing to help explain what continuous testing is. In my consulting work, I find it necessary to use 15 categories of practices to assess an organizations’ continuous testing capabilities. Given the […]
Continuous Testing Practices (Part 1)
In my prior blog, Continuous Testing – The Quest for Quality at Speed, I described five tenets and some of the practices for continuous testing (CT) to help those understand what continuous testing is. In my consulting work, I find it necessary to use 15 categories of practices to assess an organizations’ continuous testing capabilities. […]
Learning ‘The Third Way’ of DevOps – Continuous Improvement
I refer to the third way of DevOps–continuous experimentation and learning, as simply continuous improvement. In some sense, there is no way to learn the third way of DevOps because it is, by definition, a moving target. It does make sense to discuss what is needed to create a continuous learning organization for DevOps continuous […]
Learning ‘The Second Way’ of DevOps – Continuous Feedback
As indicated in my prior blog Learning the ‘First Way’ of DevOps–Continuous Flow, many organizations are struggling to realize well-engineered DevOps, even the ‘first way’ of DevOps – continuous flow. The first way of DevOps, continuous flow, is the foundation for DevOps. Once mastered, an organization will naturally want to master the second way of […]
Make a Plan for Test Automation
The amount of testing that we could be doing is massive. Most of us don’t look at testing across the spectrum and all-inclusively, but let’s do that for a second. We have functional testing at the code level, which is reasonably well automated already, if your shop is using such automation. Then we have integration […]
How to Build a People-First Engineering Team
When we think about successful technology teams, there is a tendency to primarily focus on the technology being created rather than the people who are creating it. While both approaches can lead to successful products, a technology-first approach is often the default when software engineers become managers without necessarily having the right tools to manage […]
Learning ‘The First Way’ of DevOps – Continuous Flow
Many organizations are struggling to realize well-engineered DevOps, even ‘the first way’ of DevOps – continuous flow. DevOps is an evolving body of knowledge. There is no one-stop shop that covers all roles and the complete range of skills required for DevOps. A DevOps-competent workforce requires an ongoing commitment to DevOps skills development and mastery. […]
7 Step Transformation Blueprint for SecDevOps
The struggle for continuous software security is obvious, but the solutions are not. As I indicated in my prior blog, SecDevOps is the Solution to Cybersecurity, a security-first mindset, coupled with SecDevOps-specific practices, provides an opportunity to achieve true continuous security. But, in reality, how can an organization accomplish SecDevOps? This blog explains how to […]
Le Morte d’Arthur— A DevOps Engineering Journey
The stories of King Arthur have fascinated me from the time I was young. Now that I am old DevOps_the_Gray, I enjoy relating the story of King Arthur to my experiences with DevOps. I hope you find this blog interesting and relevant too. Imagine a boy raised in Britain by the wizard Merlin who becomes […]