Some nifty DevOps videos have been circulating NimbleUser chat groups lately, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime.
Here are my takeaways from these videos, and scads of other DevOps resources.
Here are my takeaways from these videos, and scads of other DevOps resources.
- Most tasks are part of a larger process. We can’t fully optimize core tasks without optimizing the process. The output of one task is input to another task. To make significant improvements, we have to optimize output and input between tasks.
- Most processes cross organizational boundaries. In even the smallest of enterprises, the output of one group is input to another group. To make significant improvements, we have to optimize output and input between boundaries.
- Customer service is the last mile of a process that begins with identifying a need, continues through development and deployment, and brings us to a place where we can significantly improve our customer’s workday.
- And … customer service is another beginning. Agile customer service identifies new needs, brings those needs back into the process, and keeps the process in an upward spiral.
- A significant improvement is not 10% better. Significant is 1x or 10x or 1000x improvements. We can’t achieve “significant” without making end-to-end improvements on a process that loops back into itself.
- DevOps began by optimizing the process between developing a product and handing the product off to operations for deployment. As a result, organizations like Facebook can now deliver new code twice a day — every day.
- Automate all the things! The best process improvement is to hide the process behind an automation. People do add irreplaceable value to a process, but it’s wasteful to ask a person to push Execute every 108 minutes!
- DevOps is an organization-wide process. (Optimizing only dev2ops is now called “DevOps Lite”.) Today, an organization needs the ride from “idea-to-support-to-idea” feel like a friction-free mobius strip. Since no one can do such a thing overnight, we must learn to continually improve, and make the steady changes that propel the process forward, step by step, inch by inch, until we hit a tipping point.
- DevOps is hard work, but work that pays huge dividends. At NimbleUser, we’ve made significant (yes, “significant”) improvements in our product build cycle, and we’re working to minimize boundaries between sales, product, consulting, and support. It’s a wild ride, but I couldn’t be enjoying it more. :)
— Does your organization apply these principles?
— Have you been significantly successful, or running into obstacles?
— What’s your DevOps story?
— Leave a comment and join the discussion!
— Have you been significantly successful, or running into obstacles?
— What’s your DevOps story?
— Leave a comment and join the discussion!
Ted Husted is a release engineer for Nimble AMS. “It’s my job to make sure that we ship everything that’s done, but not before its ready.”
