Continuous Documentation
Is documentation dead in DevOps? Yes and no. It is transformed, it is automatic, and it is actionable. Back in the days of waterfall development, documentation always seemed to be the unwanted stepchild — it was an afterthought, a theoretically necessary chore that frequently went undone. And there were understandable reasons for this. For one […]
Making DevOps Work with External Contractors
On a recent ‘virtual panel’ session, many questions came in real-time from almost a thousand attendees around the globe. I’ll try to cover the most interesting questions in this column over coming weeks, but one that came through many times is very typical of the discussions I have with my customers and others, especially those […]
Service virtualization – The hows and the whys.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath. You are on an island, smelling the iodine coming from the sea, the sun is gently caressing your cheeks and you are sipping on a cocktail in the middle of the afternoon. Your phone is off, in a place you forgot and you do not have direct […]
Can your DevOps and APM Initiatives Increase Customer Loyalty?
I’ve reached a point where I can rate most services based on the quality of my digital interactions. So much so in fact, that any human interjection into my daily digital consciousness has become, well, almost quirky. It was with some surprise that after a prolonged period of digital engagement with my bank, I received […]
The right answer was “process”
The question is “why is there no one-size-fits-all automation and orchestration solution”? Automation, a component critical for continuous deployment particularly as it extends beyond app operations and into the broader environment to encompass network and security operations, too, continues to be a custom build kind of thing. There’s no single automation tool, framework or pattern […]
Continuous Testing – Accelerated !
Except for cases where test duration is the point of the test, as indicated in my prior blog “Isn’t Continuous Testing a Longevity Test Anti-pattern?”, faster continuous testing cycles are preferred because failing early and often is a DevOps goal. There are multiple reasons for this, but it should be evident that faster tests reduce […]
The ROI of Enterprise DevOps
Ever since the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, I can never think about any technology development without hearing Cuba Gooding Jr as professional footballer Rod Tidwell screaming out, “Show me the money!” So I was not surprised when the CIO of a large enterprise recently asked me the enterprise exec version of that famous line: Q. […]
DevOps is Agile for the Rest of the Company
IBM held its InterConnect 2015 conference last week in Las Vegas. The event covered on a range of topics including hybrid cloud, mobile apps, and DevOps. One session I attended focused on Agile development and the parallels to DevOps were apparent. The session I attended at the Mandalay Bay Hotel was titled “How a Major […]
Isn’t Continuous Testing a Longevity Test Anti-pattern?
Accordingly to Jim Coplien: “an anti-pattern is something that looks like a good idea, but which backfires badly when applied. “ In DevOps context, continuous testing is an attractive solution for the narrow context of testing specific software components quickly (in cycles measured in minutes or hours) but may be “bad” if the system that […]
Tuning in to the real pain of customers
In my product management and marketing experience, I discovered that I carry a deep bias about our product capabilities and why it’s special — before a launch. On a whiteboard, in a spec, or in a usability lab, our product can and will change the world. Post-launch, when customers get their hands on our product, […]
Digital Transformation with Agile and DevOps – Something “Wicked” This Way Comes
Our world is full of wicked problems, like climate change, urban planning and social injustice. They’re called wicked because they’re hard to recognize, define and solve. Furthermore, complex interdependencies mean solving one aspect will just expose or create other problems. Today’s digital transformation imperatives are creating wicked problems for IT. So wicked in fact, they […]
How Deploy Frequency Impacts Infrastructure Stability
I recently took some time out from reading the Internet to read a very specific piece of research I found on the Internet from IDC – its “DevOps and the Cost of Downtime” to be exact. Sponsored by AppDynamics, this fascinating read included a variety of statistics that are helpful in understanding the impact of […]
DevOps & Continuous Change
A remark by a colleague while waiting for the coffee machine to complete its cycle started my train of thought. “Should we have multiple minor releases or just do a few major ones in a year?” In large organizations, due to many factors, the turnaround time for a single successful release is quite extensive; but […]
The Ultimate Endpoint of Enterprise DevOps
There’s a reason we so often use the word “journey” when we talk about DevOps – it is a critical aspect to a practical approach to DevOps. While we focus a lot on culture in the DevOps community, as I have previously said, culture is an output, not an input; it is the destination, not […]
Inside the mind of a true DevOps evangelist
IBM InterConnect is imminent. Next week more than 20,000 people will descend on Las Vegas and take over the north end of the strip for IBM’s massive event. One of the primary topics attendees will be focusing on is DevOps. IBM’s Rosalind Radcliffe—a respected evangelist for DevOps—will be there to share her passion and knowledge […]
Yes, I said “Culture” again
“Culture”. Any time that two or more people get together to do anything — whether it’s DevOps, or marketing, or just eating lunch — they form a culture. Even if they pointedly ignore each other, it’s a kind of culture (just not a very good one). When we the preachers of DevOps say the word […]
The One Where All Hell Breaks Loose
Don’t you love a good story? This one is a DevOps story in a fictional enterprise. It’s the kind of story you’ve seen replayed countless times in large organizations. So settle in for a read. The backstory DChip Tech is a semiconductor company. They’re in the business of making chips for wearable computing since acquiring […]
The Role of a Traditional NOC in the new DevOps World
This new question in the DevOps.com Enterprise DevOps Q&A series comes from a large business, though not what many would recognize as a traditional or legacy enterprise. This organization, like many high-growth businesses, is in a relatively new market segment that only exists due to the rise of cloud computing and digital media. In their […]
Measure Twice. Automate Once.
“Shipping” code may start with the completion of development but it doesn’t end until after the operational delivery process ends. Just like any fulfillment process, shipping is actually just the kick off of an often arduous journey that ultimately delivers the app to the end user. Ship It Back in the old days (when they […]
DevOps: Where are we with that?
There’s a great scene in the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy, where the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company informs his executive team that the board has recommended a massive restructuring plan that will cut their research outlay by 60%. Only seconds after first mentioning this undertaking, the CEO turns to his yes […]
The Trouble With Enterprise DevOps
The literary world and beyond has been up in arms as of late regarding the use of the word ‘literally’. It seems that many are using the word literally when they mean figuratively. For example, if you say, “I literally split my pants laughing,” it would be plausible for one to look at your pants […]
Security Should Be the Top Driver for DevOps
I’ve often said that the driving factor for many companies in adopting a comprehensive information security program are the dreaded “F” and “A” words – FUD and Audit. Technically FUD is an acronym for fear, uncertainty and doubt. And it might be better said that audit is the action used to hopefully demonstrate compliance and […]
DevOps needs infrastructure multi-tenancy
DevOps will, under whatever moniker you want to give it – NetOps, DevOps for Networks, operationalization – continue to make inroads into the network infrastructure because ultimately it’s part of the application deployment lifecycle. While DevOps folks call it “application delivery” the reality is that an application is not ready to deliver to a user […]