DevOps Enterprise Review #12

Gene’s links, DevOps resources, industry musings, & more

Hello, DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) Community!

With the 12th edition of the DevOps Enterprise Review, we dive deeper into the world of DevOps and IT in the enterprise!

If this is your first time reading the DevOps Enterprise Review (otherwise known as the “DOER”) this periodical aims to serve technology leaders and DevOps practitioners with a plentiful resource of helpful information. By reporting the happenings in the industry, we hope to keep everyone informed on the technology forces driving businesses forward.

In this edition of the DOER, you’ll find several industry updates and fresh new learning resources. Topics like software bugs and successful team structures for software delivery are all included below. We also share an article about how DevOps is like football and another about why it’s never too late for a company to begin a digital transformation.

As written by Joe McKendrick for Forbes, there’s Good News For Digital Transformation Laggards: It’s Not Too Late. Digital Transformation can be done in increments and many of those undergoing a digital transformation are still learning as they go. Which means, it’s never too late for those wanting to catch up and embark on a journey to remain competitive in today’s on-demand economy.

We also made sure to provide the most recent updates for the DevOps Enterprise Summit Las Vegas event — only one month away, can you believe it?!

If there was anything we missed or that you want to call out for the next edition of the DOER, please send us your ideas in the comments section below.

Enjoy reading and we look forward to hearing from you!

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Gene’s Links

(Note: all posts sourced from Gene’s Twitter feed, @RealGeneKim)

• I am ridiculously excited about @darklang they’re bringing together so many innovative ideas that I’ve wanted to see productionalized, and they’re actually doing it! in a field where so many “innovative launches” turn out to be vaporware, I’m super impressed with their approach. Reshared from Jared Forsyth.
• Handheld printers like the HANDJET® EBS-260 are very light tools (1580 grams) for flexible and smooth marking operations. Reshared from Massimo.
• To a dinosaur pretty much everything ever written is post apocalyptic fiction. Reshared from Mark Lawrence.
• DevOps is abt enabling different teams to communicate & work better together, not eliminating the need for cross-team communication or making 1 person responsible for everything. #FullStackTeams not #FullStackEngineers. Reshared from Dominica DeGrandis.
• I’m looking forward to reading it, because I absolutely LOVED reading “Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea” !!
• A lot of hard work has gone into this book and I was privileged enough to get my hands on an early review manuscript, the hard work of @manupaisable and @matthewpskelton is paying off as the book is charting high on Amazon right now! Reshared from Jeremy Brown.
• This is how cookie cutters are made. Reshared from Vala Afshar.

DevOps Resources — Learn and Grow, Together

Want more frequent updates on DevOps Resources? Be sure to check the IT Revolution DevOps Blog for regular updates!

Monoliths vs Microservices is Missing the Point — Start with Team Cognitive Load

The “monoliths vs microservices” debate often focuses on technological aspects, ignoring strategy and team dynamics.

Instead of technology, smart-thinking organizations are beginning with team cognitive load as the guiding principle for modern software. In this presentation, Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais explain how and why, illustrated by real case studies.

Here is an excerpt from a presentation by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, authors of Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow.

You can watch the video of the presentation, which was originally delivered at the 2019 DevOps Enterprise Summit in London.

Getting Started with Dojos

The digital economy is here, and with it, organizations are facing an unparalleled rate of change. Enterprises are having trouble keeping up in order to sustain market relevancy. Dojos can be a uniquely powerful vehicle for accelerating transformation. This paper walks organizations through the principles of a Dojo and gives guidance on how to set up Dojos at your company.

Authors: Ross Clanton, Jaclyn Damiano, Carmen DeArdo, John Esser, Eric Passmore

The Unicorn Project

The first of many excerpts from The Unicorn Project is now available for download. The Unicorn Project, the follow-up to the best selling title The Phoenix Project, takes another look at Parts Unlimited from the perspective of a senior developer and architect, Maxine. Maxine struggles to survive in a world where you can’t get anything done without piles of paperwork, approvals and endless meetings. Maxine is then approached by a group of developers who want to overthrow the current system and create one that reunites them with their love of technology.

The Unicorn Project will officially hit the shelves November 26. Don’t wait, download the first excerpt today and enjoy!

Industry News — Read All About It!

Why Fixing Software Bugs Should Be the CEO’s Problem — Software platforms permeate the fabric of our lives, yet only 27% of CEOs in the Fortune 100 have degrees in engineering and science. Join a quarterly earnings call, and you’ll hear plenty of discussion about revenue, expenses, and geographic trends, but little (if anything) about the quality of the company’s software. The results are obvious: For nearly every major disaster caused by software defects, the postmortem usually determines that the defect had been around for some time.

The problem is not that company leaders need to have engineering backgrounds and don’t, but that few outside of engineering silos know how to discuss critical software systems. As a result, software bugs generally stay below the radar of the CEO unless a cataclysmic event occurs. (Source: Nicholas Bowen, Harvard Business Review)

Aim to Be a Top 12% Global Testing Team — We know that you’re thinking, “Really? Another fluff post about the top people in my profession and what I need to do to be just like them?” Listen, we hear you, but this is not some fluff piece with vague ideas of what might (or might not) work.

In case you missed it, the 2019 State of Automated Visual Testing was released. Based on independent research sourced from over 350 testing teams around the world, we learned 12% of you are getting much better results than the other 88%. We’re talking four times more successful as measured by the things you (and your boss) really care about–test coverage, release velocity, application quality, overall R&D teamwork and cold hard cash. This is not our opinion. It’s not subjective. It’s objective data and information. Data and information that came from you and your peers. (Source: James Lamberti, DevOps.com)

Four ways CIOs can drive digital transformation — Digital transformation offers an exceptional opportunity for CIOs to step up and take a key role in helping their organisations leverage technology to disrupt competition, break into new markets and stay relevant in the long term.

Despite this, three-quarters of CIOs and their enterprises will fail to meet all of their digital objectives next year due to conflicting digital transformation imperatives, underfunding and ineffective technology innovation, according to IDC. (Source: Zach Cooper, IT Pro)

The Technology Of The Future Is Changing Business Today — Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jack Ma put artificial intelligence in the spotlight when they staged a public debate on the future of the technology earlier this month. Musk reiterated his concern regarding the potentially negative consequences AI could unleash on society, while Ma took a markedly more optimistic tone. Both agreed, however, that the technology will inevitably change the way we live and work, perhaps like no other technology has.

Speculation aside, the reality is that AI and machine learning technologies are already transforming the world of business. And the transformation has only just begun. (Source: Serenity Gibbons, Forbes)

Why DevOps is Like Football — When it’s done right, DevOps is an impressive feat. You have groups of professionals all melding together as one large team working toward a common goal. The groups–and the individuals themselves–perform their roles and hand off tasks to each other at just the right times. They follow pre-designed plans, but they constantly tweak those plans, in real-time, to deal with variables that threaten to undermine the whole mission.

This is DevOps in action. But take a closer look at some of the descriptors above and ask yourself if it sounds like something else that’s starting to creep into a lot of conversations this time of year. If you’re a sports fan like me, this sounds just like football. (Source: Brian Dawson, DevOps.com)

Good News For Digital Transformation Laggards: It’s Not Too Late — Given all the media and analyst coverage about digital transformation these days, one can be forgiven for assuming their company is limping hopelessly behind the pack when it comes to digital transformation. However, it’s not too late to catch up, and as you do, it can be done in incremental spurts. Plus, even the digital dynamos are still confused and grappling with the right way to do things. (Source: Joe McKendrick, Forbes)

Reminders and Updates — Mark Your Calendars

DOES19 Las Vegas is Right Around the Corner!

Hosted at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas from October 28–30, the DevOps Enterprise Summit US is only one month away! Join technology and business leaders from around the world for three full days of immersive learning and networking opportunities. We are excited to hear from leaders at Verizon, State Farm, Target, Adidas, Nike and more. These leaders will give insight on how they continue to drive digital transformation within their large organizations.

Without further ado, here is the latest round of speaker announcements:

• Dustin Smith, Human Factors Psychologist and Senior User Experience Researcher, Google
• Levi Geinert, SVP and Head of Agile Technology Experience, U.S. Bank
• Werner Loots, EVP Consumer and Business Banking, both from U.S. Bank
• Elizabeth Conzo, Analytics Leader, ISG/Precision Ag, John Deere
• Kira Barclay, Director, Analytics, John Deere
• Kevin Chaloupecky, Product Manager, Principal Financial Group
• Ross Sickora, Engineering Coach, Principal Financial Group
• Surya Avirneni, Lead Software Engineer, Capital One
• Bhavik Gudka, Director, Software Engineering, Capital One
• Jeremy Castle, Engineering Director, State Farm
• Kevin O’Dell, Technology Director, State Farm
• Kelley Hedley, Senior IS Director, Travelers Insurance
• Dr. Stephen Mayner, SAFe Fellow and Principal Consultant, Scaled Agile
• Joe Hunt, Global Vice President, Software Development and Architecture, Charter Communications
• Nicolas Chaillan, Chief Software Officer, US Air Force
• Hasan Yasar, Director, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
• Dr. Mik Kersten, CEO, Tasktop
• Dr. Christina Maslach, Professor of Psychology, Emerita, University of California, Berkeley
• Jason Cox, Director, Platform Engineering, The Walt Disney Company
• Brian L. Scott, Manager, SRE, The Walt Disney Company
• Patrick W. O’Connor, Manager, SRE, The Walt Disney Company
• Stephen Chin, Senior Director of Developer Relations, JFrog

If you’re interested in attending, make sure you register here before the event sells out!

2019 Book Publishing Update

Have you ever heard the saying, “So many books, so little time.” Here are IT Revolution, we believe that to be true. There are so many amazing books out there for us to dig into, we feel there just isn’t enough time!

Because we feel there is never enough time to read, we really enjoy finding a great reading list to narrow down our nonstop book search. If you’re like us and you’re looking for some great books to add to your reading list, check out 12 Books That Will Change Your Life, According to Business Icons from Jessica Stillman at Forbes. This list of books originated from a Twitter thread started by entrepreneur Paul Graham when he asked his followers, “If you had to pick one thing you’ve read that changed the course of your life, what would it be?” Recommendations from business executives, investors and founders flooded in and the top 12 books were chosen. The list includes a little something for everyone with genres ranging from sci-fi to fiction.

We’d also like to share some updates from IT Revolution. Not only has Team Topoligies hit bookshelves around the globe, but The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim will be hitting the shelves this November — so keep an eye out and preorder here!

Our book club has also begun following the release of Team Topologies. As a member of the book club, authors will join members for a two-week reading sprint. Members of the book club will read a chapter a day followed by private discussions via Slack. The authors, Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais will join the book club members in these interactive discussions and offer insights about the novel. Many people have tweeted their excitement for Team Topologies and the new book club, check it out below!

Denis Skinner shared his excitement on Twitter: “I just signed up and I’m super excited about this Slack virtual book club! A+ engagement approach.”

Jeremy Brown also shared his thoughts: “A lot of hard work has gone into this book and I was privileged enough to get my hands on an early review manuscript, the hard work of @manupaisable and @matthewpskelton is paying off as the book is charting high on Amazon right now!”

Damien Salvador also tweeted: “Received my copy of @TeamTopologies this morning, already used it as a basis in a conversation this afternoon! #QuickROI”

Thank you for reading the 12th edition of the DevOps Enterprise Review (DOER)! We hope you see in Las Vegas so we can all “Get Together and Go Faster!”

Don’t want to miss any conference or publishing updates from IT Revolution? Subscribe to the newsletter here>>>