Agile2013

Much like Cloud Computing, there is a lot of noise and confusion around DevOps. Some think that it is about tooling and automation, while others seem to think that it is about either the merging of Operations with Engineering or elimination of Operations itself. Focusing on too narrow a set of solutions creates local suboptimization, often exaccerbating the problems this approach was trying to solve. Whereas eliminating Operations entirely trivialises the complexity of the system that Operations co-exists within, again increasing risk and providing bandaids where surgery was required.

Successful organisations that run effectively will instead focus on the systemic over the symptomatic problems, and target the outcomes for the holistic organisation over their own internal technical issues. To effectively instigate systematic improvement we need to provide transparency, alignment, and collaboration between all of the groups, of which DevOps is an essential piece.

Successful implementations focus on the crux of the problem – there are far too many mental, organisational and technological barriers producing so much friction that people lose sight of the big picture. One must find ways to eliminate this friction, allow information to flow so that people can rapidly understand, respond to and pivot based upon ecosystem feedback. It requires going back to the core of Agile itself. By adapting concepts from Boyd's OODA Loop and applying techniques from Lean, it is possible to teach an organization to learn to see.

This session provides a pragmatic 'from-the-trenches' step by step walk through of a DevOps transformation using over 10 years of our own personal experiences running and turning around transformations that span from an early SaaS startup through to some of the largest global enterprises in Energy, Finance, Software and Telecommunications with companies like Yahoo, BT and Skype.

We will cover:

* the typical starting point of how to meaningfully “walk the gemba (the shop floor)” from the e