DevOps Culture through the Prism of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow proposed in 1943 that healthy human beings have a number of needs arranged in a hierarchy, which he constructed in the form of a pyramid. The theory suggests that certain needs, such as physiological and safety needs, are more primitive or basic than social or ego needs. The premise is that higher-level needs […]
3 Steps to Building a DevOps Team Focused on Customers
In most enterprises, Dev and Ops people inhabit different worlds, show scant regard for one another and communicate as little as possible—unless it is to vent about something done by “one of those” people over there. Dev and Ops are the chalk and cheese of software development and, mostly, that’s the way they like it. […]
Defining the Role of a SRE
Soft Skills are Just as Important as Technical Skills in the SRE role Site reliability engineering (SRE) is a relatively new discipline, having only been in existence for about 15 years. It originated at Google and has gained popularity recently with more companies advertising SRE positions or trying to implement SRE practices. In the technology […]
Enterprise Infrastructure: Adapt or Face Extinction
In my previous blog, I explored how new ways of working—DevOps, Agile, cloud and startup thinking—have brought in a tectonic shift in the ways of working of enterprises. For infrastructure leadership and management, this is nothing short of a perfect storm that they need to navigate. While these new ways have impacted every aspect of […]
The Human Touch: The Key to Optimizing Your Software Value Stream Network
Software has no intrinsic value until it’s working in production and supporting a customer’s business initiatives. With that in mind, it’s imperative that organizations focus on how they reduce the time to value, not just time to deploy. And that’s achieved through people. A common misconception is that technology underpins a software delivery value stream. […]
DevOps Chat: The CEO’s View with Derek Langone, XebiaLabs
This DevOps Chat features “the CEO’s view” as seen by XebiaLabs CEO, Derek Langone. Derek is one of my personal favorite CEOs in the DevOps space because he is very articulate, to the point and sharp. I think all of these characteristics come through in this DevOps Chat. As CEO of XebiaLabs, Derek is leading […]
Code Yellow: When Operations Isn’t Perfect
Every now and then, engineering teams will get into trouble for any number of reasons. Sometimes, explosive growth catches the team by surprise. Or, on-call has gotten out of control, with alerts going off every five minutes. Or, development and operations teams simply have stopped seeing eye to eye. Regardless of why, the team is […]
DevOps to the Rescue as GDPR Deadline Looms
The stakes are high: Organizations failing to comply with the European Union’s (EU) strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) face fines up to 4 percent of their annual revenues or €20 million ($25 million), whichever is greater. But while the threat of what happens if organizations ignore the mandate when it takes effect at the […]
Early Automation: A Key Requirement for DevSecOps Success
According to the “2017 DevSecOps Community Survey,” by Sonatype, almost 60 percent of the respondents consider security to be an inhibitor to DevOps agility, while more than 50 percent of developers say they do not have sufficient time to allocate to security. Hence arises the need for enhanced security automation in DevOps. Security automation helps […]
DevOps Chats: Jim Gochee, Chief Product Officer, New Relic
In this DevOps Chat we speak with Jim Gochee, Chief Product Officer, New Relic. In his role at New Relic, Jim has seen years and years of evolution in digital transformations. Jim and I spoke about a number of topics including about how to succeed with DevOps, the rise of SRE and APM. Great discussion […]
Why Offshoring Software Does Not Work in the Agile Age
These days, even refrigerators can be programmed to tell you when you’re running low on a certain food or when something has expired. Washing machines, coffee makers and toasters all use software to bring a more connected experience to their users. And a lot of the technology being developed today is targeting large-scale problems, too. […]
If DevOps is Required, Then It’s All About Change Management
For more than two years, I have participated in a number of panel discussions at Boston DevOps, our local DevOps meetup. Panels have been put together from several disciplines to address issues through the successful adoption of DevOps and reaching optimized use of this current methodology in software development. As relevant as the DevOps challenge […]
Transition to DevOps Increasing Across IT Firms
Demand for faster product development and quick market release created a need for increased collaboration between Development (Dev) and Operations (Ops) teams, which eventually led to “DevOps.” With this, transition to DevOps has become one of the key points of discussion across many IT firms. This article gives you an overview of the demand and […]
Is DevOps Really Necessary?
I spend my days discussing DevOps and digital transformations with companies of all sizes, from startups to some of the world’s largest enterprises. I’ve found that many teams are still at a very early stage in modernizing their technology, culture and practices. However, I’m surprised at the number of the organizations that don’t believe in […]
Enthusiasm for DevOps Greater Than Actual Adoption, Survey Shows
When it comes to DevOps practices, adoption continues to lag intention by quite a bit. GitLab recently surveyed some 5,300 software developers and engineers from mostly small and medium businesses around the world. The survey examined overall attitudes and perceptions around the state of DevOps, with a particular focus on uncovering any disparities that might […]
DevOps Chat: Concurrent DevOps with GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij
In this DevOps Chat we speak with GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij. Sid has guided GitLab as a co-founder to the heights of the DevOps market. Joining Sid and me is Ashish Kuthiala, who recently joined GitLab. I have always been impressed with the completeness of GitLabs’ vision of the DevOps toolchain and what the company […]
Remote Organization Model for the Win
As the head of Sonatype’s product development engine, I’ve spent the last six-plus years scaling and hacking on the design and evolution of our fully remote organization. Over this period, we’ve learned a lot about what works, why it works, how to keep things running smoothly and what should be avoided. But none of that […]
Can Agile and DevOps Get Along?
There is a common misconception that Agile and DevOps cannot work together, which does a disservice to everyone in the software development and delivery field. In fact, both approaches can significantly add to the Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection and adaption to better enable product teams to develop, deliver and sustain complex products. Both Agile […]
H1B Visas and Software Outsourcing: What You Need to Know
If your company uses custom-developed software—whether the software is developed by in-house staff or a third party—then you should care about the H1B Visa program. You should also be aware of what factors affect how this program works—and who can utilize the H1B program. Arguably, no current political or government policy topic has a more […]
5 Principles for Building Teams to Evolve Your Entire Organization
A transformation can’t come from simply changing some tools or tweaking some antiquated processes to create improved collaboration. This is ultimately setting yourself up to fail. The magic comes from creating a universal change. You want to just improve your DevOps teams? Why not improve your entire organization? Be dramatic—organizational opposed to departmental. It sounds […]
DevOps Chat: Startup Playbook, Founder to Founder Advice w/ Rajat Bhargava
Two old, good friends of mine published a book yesterday called Startup Playbook. The book is “founder-to-founder advice on how to create and build your startup.” In this DevOps Chat, I sat down with my friend and co-founder Rajat Bhargava. We talked about why he and Will Herman wrote this book, what he hopes others […]
Digital Business Revolution: Why DevOps is the New Enterprise Value Chain
Ongoing industry disruptions are forcing businesses to change their operational model; that’s the only way to avoid and survive digital bankruptcies. In North America, Sears Canada filed for bankruptcy, while Toys R Us and Weight Watchers were on the verge of it. In Europe, particularly, in France, banks including Societe Generale and leading retailers including […]
What GDPR Means to You, and Other Important Questions
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It seems that everyone has questions about it, and for very good reason—GDPR goes into effect May 25. You may be too overwhelmed to even think about developing a knock-out action plan to move your organization toward compliance, or maybe you’ve had your head in the sand. CA […]