I recently had the privilege of presenting and participating at DevOpsDays in Minneapolis, MN; and the experience left me euphoric and hopeful. While the majority of conference attendees were DevOps practitioners, the amount of IT and business leaders attending is increasing; and for a good reason. It is a mistake to dismiss DevOps as an IT specific movement, or one about particular technologies. It is nothing short of an innovative disruption.
What is DevOps Anyway?
DevOps' philosophy strives to bring together two groups that are diametrically opposed on most companies' organization charts: Software Development + Operations. These siloes may work well on paper; but the end result is brittle code that is difficult to scale, deploy and maintain. By joining the two groups, they share the responsibility of clean, stable code and a reliable system.
DevOps has roots in Agile as well as Enterprise Systems Management (source: wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps). In fact, the founder of DevOps, Patrick Debois, joked at DevOpsDays that he planned on calling the movement Agile System Administration, but the title was too long!
From Agile, DevOps borrows the idea of delivering working software early and often; resulting in the concept of continuous delivery. The Agile tenet of individuals and interactions over processes and tools is manifested in DevOps as full stack development teams. DevOps also blends well with Lean Startup methodologies because it acts as an enabler of the Build-Measure-Learn cycle.
Why are organizations excited about DevOps?
Puppet Labs has found that organizations adopting DevOps experience a 30-fold increase in code deployment and 50% fewer deployment failures. Other reported benefits include:
- More diversity in skill-sets of practitioners
- A tighter feedback cycle with customers and end users
- More confidence in the IT organization
Having held positions as release manager and product manager, I can personally attest to these benefits. DevOps empowered us to release working software to live clients on a weekly basis; with bug fixes releasing within minutes of resolution. While the initial infrastructure setup consumed time away from building features; having it in place was invaluable.
Critics of DevOps point out that it is unrealistic to expect a Software Engineer to be well-versed in testing, deployment, system administration, etc. In reality, everyone simply becomes more aware of one another's skills and job function. Rarely does a Software Engineer actually create the infrastructure in which she will have to code. Similarly, a Systems Engineer rarely writes feature-producing code. DevOps provides a structure in which these two roles can partner up for the best possible outcome.
How are organizations adopting DevOps?
At five years old, DevOps adoption continues to grow at a surprising pace. According to a survey by Puppet Labs, DevOps adoption has increased by 26% between 2011 and 2013. Startups are the leading adopters; because they already have small teams and limited resources who need to do more. The roster of large-scale, successful adopters include: Flickr, Etsy, and Target.
Similar to Agile, the growth and prolifiration of DevOps has its roots at the individual contributor level. As those root-level teams achieve success, more teams model the practice, and a grass-roots movement takes hold.
Traditional business units such as Marketing, HR and Finance tend to be the last to adopt DevOps and may actively resist it. In these situations, technology groups form informal teams as a workaround. Organizations that fully adopt DevOps often combine Operations and Development departments. Such changes also spread to other business units, who adjust their ways of working to reflect the new reality.
Traditional business units such as Marketing, HR and Finance tend to be the last to adopt DevOps and may actively resist it. In these situations, technology groups form informal teams as a workaround. Organizations that fully adopt DevOps often combine Operations and Development departments. Such changes also spread to other business units, who adjust their ways of working to reflect the new reality.
What is the long-term impact of DevOps to organizations and the technology industry?
The impact of DevOps spans beyond the IT group. Sales must be aware so they can understand the delivery schedule and manage their customers' expectations. Product Development must be aware of how DevOps helps with implicit requirements such as stability and reliability. There will also be times when infrastructure improvements must be planned into the product backlog to leverage the benefits of DevOps. Project Management should also plan with DevOps in mind as it drives release management and timelines. Marketing and Customer Support groups should be aware of the impact of more feature delivery to their processes as well; it can feel like drinking out of a fire-hose.
While DevOps is transitioning from infancy into mainstream, the movement is here to stay in some form or fashion. It is incumbent on everyone working in technology to be aware of the impact of DevOps to their jobs and the industry overall.
