DevOps Foundations

Abstract

Culture, Lean Thinking, MetricsBlink during a Formula 1 pit-stop and you'll probably miss it. But this wasn't always the case. Fifty years ago, a pit-crew would take over a minute to change the wheels and refuel. Today, anything more than three seconds is considered a fail.It's the same in software development, where teams once tasked with updating enterprise applications at a sedate pace must now deliver new software services as a continuous flow of value to customers.The problem for today's enterprise, however, is that software teams don't work like Formula 1 pit-crews. Rather than working in tandem, IT teams often work serially-development codes, then QA tests, and finally IT operations monitors. However, with application software released, enhanced, and retired over more compressed timeframes (months and even days), this stop-start method of development falls short. It's as ineffective as each member of a Formula 1 pit-crew replacing a tire and checking wheel nut tension before the next one could start-the race would be over before the car left the pits.While we can celebrate the heroics and skill of great racing car drivers, what sets successful constructors apart is their ability to build a winning culture irrespective of role and responsibility, be that driver, team manager, telemetry engineer, or aerodynamics chief, everyone is focused on a singular goal-winning races. It's why drivers thank the teams before they spray champagne on the podium. C H A P T E R 3 Chapter 3 | DevOps Foundations 28Like Formula 1 drivers, technological advancements have improved the efficiency and effectiveness of IT professionals. However, in organizations that traditionally measure and incentivize based on technical specialization within functional areas, relying on tools alone will never build the collaborative culture needed for business growth and profitability.What Characterizes DevOps Culture?DevOps is very different from traditional thinking because it places great emphasis on culture. It instills a shared sense of vision across multiple teams, directly aligned to the business and its customers. To this end, maverick behavior, such a cutting corners and allowing defect ridden code to go into production, or blaming operations when a software release fails, is counter to a DevOps thinking. With DevOps unified IT is the hero and no one is singularly to blame for problems.But this is challenging in IT because of the friction existing between development and other IT teams-especially IT operations. On the one hand, developers are focused on accelerating change by faster delivery of applications, while the operational mantra has been resilience and stability at all costs, even if that means holding back change.Evidence suggests, however, that while both these goals are equally important, they are not mutually exclusive. For example, the 2016 Puppet Labs "State of DevOps" report illustrated that high-performing IT organizations are well able to achieve faster software delivery along with increased resilience and stability.1 Cl...