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Operability: a DevOps cornerstone – new eBook from HighOps

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

HighOps operability eBook - coverOne of the driving forces behind DevOps is the increasing prevalence of complex, distributed software systems which calls for a substantially different approach to building ‘business’ software systems: an approach that anticipates and expects failures, transient behaviour, emergent states, and unpredictability; and ensures that failure responses are gradual, graceful, and graphable.

‘Making software work well’ in this dynamic, interconnected world is the focus of Software Operability, a subject I have been writing and speaking about for some time.

I recently began working with IT operations experts HighOps (@gotHighOps) and we have published a free eBook Operability: a DevOps Cornerstone. The book covers the fundamentals of operability, why it’s relevant, how to build and sustain a focus on operability,and how operability relates to both DevOps and IT service management approaches such as ITIL.

If you lead the Technology division, head up a software development department or IT operations department, or lead a development or operations team, and want to understand why and how to make your software systems work better, then this book is for you. If you are involved in Service Transition or Service Operation, this eBook will help you to make the case for a strong focus on the operational aspects of the software being delivered. Similarly, if your role is a Software Architect, you will find here sound practical guidance for improving how your software works
in Production.

Download the HighOps eBook ‘Operability: a DevOps Cornerstone’ here.

Experience Reports Book on Continuous Delivery and DevOps – ‘Build Quality In’

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

Cover Image - Build Quality InContinuous Delivery and DevOps are difficult. In many organisations the creation of an automated deployment pipeline is impeded by significant technology challenges, and encouraging Development and Operations teams to work together can seem impossible.

In order to help teams adopt and sustain Continuous Delivery and DevOps, Steve Smith and I decided to put together a book of experience reports – Build Quality In – with contributions from fellow practitioners in these fields.

We have a growing list of really excellent contributors, and we are using LeanPub and its ‘lean’ publication model to make available the content as soon as each chapter is ready – no ‘big bang’ releases! The book is available to buy now on LeanPub, and updates will be made throughout the summer of 2014, with all chapters expected to be ‘done’ by September 2014.

70% of royalties from the book will be donated to the UK non-profit organisation Code Club, which inspires kids to learn how to use computers to build software systems. We wanted to support an organisation that is active in engaging and shaping future engineers (both female and male), and Code Club is doing a great job.

We’re excited to be working with so many talented people on this book, which we hope will become a useful resource for people working in a Continuous Delivery or DevOps context.

Resources

 

DevOps Questions from Unicom DevOps Summit Feb 2014

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

At the Unicom DevOps Summit event in London on February 28th 2014 we experimented with some extra audience/attendee participation by asking for questions on record cards and encouraged people to ‘dot-vote‘ on the questions most interesting to them. There were some good questions, but unfortunately we did not get chance to discuss many of them, so here are all the questions from the card board, along with some very brief attempts at answers.

  • Should security be a part of DevOps?
  • To what extent and how do you insist on standardisation for multiple Scrum + ‘DevOps’ teams with no separate Operations team?
  • What’s the likely process flow of / disruptions to / duration of DevOps adoption?
  • Where does ‘Operations’ sit in the ITIL model? All over the place? e.g. Service Transition?
  • How about some example scenarios? Tangible comparison points would be useful.
  • Where does DevOps start and finish (from a process perspective)?
  • Is DevOps just a job title?
  • Is co-location of resource necessary for successful DevOps?
  • How essential is cloud technology to DevOps?
  • How will the announcement that ThoughtWorks are ‘open sourcing’ their Go DevOps product affect other vendor products? Why pay for other products?
  • There are a lot of open source DevOps/release/orchestration tools – is anyone using (or know about) the Windows equivalent?
  • How do you overcome developer resistance to writing Run Book docs? Are the processes to drive adoption? Is it a sackable offence?

Continue reading DevOps Questions from Unicom DevOps Summit Feb 2014

DevOps Summit December 2013, Bangalore: Software Operability and Run Book Collaboration

Posted on by Matthew Skelton

On 18th December 2013 I presented at DevOps Summit in Bangalore (organised by Unicom Learning Pvt), speaking about the improvements in software operability which DevOps can bring:

Software Operability talk at DevOps Summit Bangalore

One of the goals of DevOps is to make software systems work better in Production, and this characteristic of ‘working well in Production’ is known as operability. Here are the slides I used (available from http://www.slideshare.net/matthewskelton/software-operability-and-run-book-collaboration-29511196):

Software Operability and Run Book Collaboration – Unicom DevOps Summit November 2013, Amsterdam

Posted on by Matthew Skelton

I presented at DevOps Summit, Amsterdam on 14th November 2013 on Software Operability and Run Book Collaboration, and facilitated some of the sessions. Here are the slides from my talk, and the closing Q&A slides:

Software Operability and Run Book Collaboration

DevOps Summit 14 November 2013 – Closing Q&A