Defining the product (DevEx part 4/4)
In the previous blogs I have described how interactions and process can help to improve developer experience. Interactions help DevOps to engage with specialist teams in such a manner that it is as easy as possible. The automation of the process by specialist team allows a specialist team to offer products that can be consumed by other DevOps teams without having effects on their planned work. The interactions and process are focused on request and creating a product with great developer experience. The product that is delivered should also have a great developer experience.
A great product that a specialist team delivers should accelerate DevOps teams and also amplifies this acceleration. Meaning the product should not slow down the DevOps team directly after requesting, it should also not slow a DevOps when requested product changes. Properties of product with a great developer experience are:
- Managed
- Understandable / Transparent
- Secure / Audit-able / Transparent
- Accelerates
Managed, means after the product is delivered the DevOps does not need to worry about upgrades or re-requesting the product if the product changes or deleting if the product is no longer supported by the organisation. The lifecycle of the product is owned by the specialist team and the product is owned by the DevOps team.
Understandable / Transparent, not only the interactions and process to request and create the product should be as easy as understandable and transparent as possible. The resulting product should also be understandable and transparent. The DevOps team should have clear understanding how a product can be used and the product should be transparent how it affects the organisation.
Secure / Audit-able / Transparent, access of the product should be limited. It should be clear who is using the product, where and when and it should be clear how to use the product.
Accelerates, the product should accelerate the DevOps team not slow the DevOps team down. The product also does not have a negative effect on planned work of the specialist team.
When bringing this back to the example of the creation of a firewall rule that is used in the interactions and process blogs, then the product that the specialist team delivers is managed approved firewall rule. This firewall rule is owned by the DevOps team that requested it and it is managed by the specialist team. Meaning that if for instance the firewall vendor changes the specialist team will manage the firewall to be compatible for the new vendor.
The product is easy managed, understandable and secure result of the interactions and process of the specialist team. It allows DevOps team to accelerate and allows the specialist team to amplify this acceleration throughout the whole of the organisation.
Developer experience (DevEx) is the means to help organisations that have dedicated specialist teams for certain service/capabilities to scale the consumption of these capabilities within the organisations. Instead of slowing DevOps teams down, these specialist team become the accelerator by have great interactions, processes and products.
