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TECH TRENDS WATCHQ2-2016

HOW DEVOPS IS RESETTING THE ECOMMERCE LANDSCAPE AND FREEING UP BUSINESSES FOR RAPID GO-TO-MARKET DELIVERY

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Neil Stewart CEO, Salmon Ltd.

Welcome to DevOps.

DevOps is a practice and culture that fosters an agile relationship between

Development and IT Operations. It improves the relationship between business units

by promoting better communication and collaboration.

It's not new, yet within ecommerce, DevOps’ hand has been strictly underplayed.

Most importantly, DevOps works. Remarkably well, in fact, allowing businesses to test

new ideas fast, and get into the market more quickly than ever before.

This guide focuses on DevOps for ecommerce. It’s been written for business leaders

with varying attitudes to change, and is a crucial resource for leaders who seek clear

competitive advantage in commercial sectors that are experiencing disruption.

I hope it piques your interest, and drives actionable debate. With proven delivery of

some of the world-leading ecommerce platforms, Salmon welcomes the opportunity

to be part of that discussion.

// INTRODUCTION

Wouldn’t it be great if complex ecommerce platform challenges could be solved in

minutes, or hours, rather than days, weeks, or months?

How about fixing pain-points on the go, improving the customer journey near-instantly?

Bring up these ideas with your IT department, and you might be met with scepticism,

or resistance, particularly if you've offshored IT development. But "DevOps" is

changing the development playing field, and business leaders and IT departments

would do well to take note and embrace it.

In a digital-first world, the ecommerce landscape has changed.

Speed is the currency. Today’s leading multichannel enterprises are dependent on

rapid go-to-market, achieved by super-fast software delivery. Dynamic collaboration

is now a critical consideration as businesses digitally transform, and look to serve

their mobile-oriented customers more effectively.

Businesses that decided to offshore have found that their priorities have now

changed, and, like many traditional businesses, have no choice but to reboot their

processes and methods of software delivery, freeing themselves from restrictive

operations that introduce delays and inefficiency*.

*Read Salmon’s PoV on the Death of Offshore

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Craig Harper-AshtonMultichannel DirectorSalmon Ltd.

4 Why Business Leaders Cannot Ignore Tech. Or How I learnt to stop worrying, and love DevOps

8 Big Improvements in Short Timeframes

10 A Top Ten DevOps Checklist for your Organisation

Concluding Comments

DevOps Flips Traditional Thinking on its Head5

11Outstanding Ecommerce Software, Delivered Fast6

// PAGE INDEX

Craig joined Salmon in 2002 and is responsible for delivering high quality

ecommerce and multichannel solutions, spanning business analysis, architecture,

design, development and testing. Prior to joining Salmon, Craig was Technical

Director at Reveda Ltd and Logsys Solutions.

// ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS

David PottsHead of Project ConsultancySalmon Ltd.

David has worked in ecommerce with many of the biggest names in retail for over 15

years. He enjoys helping businesses define their multichannel proposition, designing

and delivering global ecommerce platforms, while managing a team of consultants

at Salmon. Having previously set up and managed ecommerce fulfilment operations,

David offers Salmon clients a unique breadth of knowledge and experience.

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If you’ve been involved with ecommerce over the last 15 years or so, you’ll be acutely

aware that the pace of change is increasing. Ecommerce is now the core component

in most retailers’ multichannel strategies.

Strategy is one thing, but the real battleground is in software delivery; specifically,

speed to market. Salmon believes that this is rarely communicated to the board in

the forceful terms it warrants. And that’s a worry, because organisations must be able

to respond rapidly to the demands of the market and consumers. Inability to do this

challenges their very existence. For many this can mean disrupt or be disrupted.

Ecommerce deployment is now a key differentiator, enabled by software that can be

built rapidly, adapted quickly, and iterated at low cost. Code is built collaboratively,

and in close proximity to the business, the market and the customer.

// WHY BUSINESS LEADERS CANNOT IGNORE TECH. OR HOW I LEARNT TO STOP WORRYING, AND LOVE DEVOPS

At Salmon, we are transforming the way we deploy technology solutions. DevOps is

driving that transformation. It’s accelerating software deployment, and decreasing

time to market. It also flips the speed vs. quality argument, with both being enhanced

at the same time.

For most Salmon clients, this is music to their ears. It's sweet music too: a well known

high street retailer is already experiencing impressive improvements in deployed

code quality and site stability, and reduction of post-deployment issues within 2-3

months of adopting DevOps. Pages 8-9 show what's behind this.

ECOMMERCE IS NOW THE CORE COMPONENT IN MOST RETAILERS’

MULTICHANNEL STRATEGIES

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It removes barriers, complexity, bottlenecks and unplanned work. Crucially, it lets

the team deliver small pieces of software very quickly, and to a high standard. By

contrast, in the old world it was not uncommon to have features that had been

written but never delivered.

Automation is central to DevOps. Automation allows us to deploy new features to

a live website very rapidly, and with 100% confidence. Clients don’t have to wait

weeks for a new feature that customers want now. System downtime is minimised,

or even eradicated. And testing is automated, as far as possible; tests are swift and

repeatable, with reduced risk of error.

DevOps, a compound of ‘Development’ and ‘Operations’, is a philosophy that drives

cultural change. Its purpose is to automate and optimise delivery of software, while

fostering teamwork across software developers and other IT professionals. In

DevOps, all members of teams constantly receive feedback from each other.

DevOps is a driver for continuous integration, which is a two-fold process. It lets us

constantly update software and deliver new features, and it simultaneously achieves

continuous process improvement. It lends itself to agile, lean and collaborative ways

of delivering enterprise software too. Teams focus on a simple, shared objective:

To deliver great software, fast.

// DEVOPS FLIPS TRADITIONAL THINKING ON ITS HEAD

DEVOPS IS AKIN TO A SPRINT RELAY TEAM, WHERE THE HIGHEST PERFORMANCE LEVELS ARE DELIVERED SUSTAINABLY AT HIGH PACE.

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Salmon’s DevOps programme ensures the delivery of outstanding and reliable

software. This is accomplished quickly and painlessly, significantly reducing risk

and the constant rounds of re-iterations for clients.

At the same time, we are continuously making improvements to our processes,

so clients are always in the best possible position. They’re better equipped to

respond to ever-increasing rates of technological and market change, and better

positioned to meet the demands of their customers. And they're better placed to

move ahead, disrupting the market on their terms.

// OUTSTANDING ECOMMERCE SOFTWARE, DELIVERED FAST

Salmon’s clients are seeing outstanding results through DevOps:

• Major, large-scale deployments are delivered in weeks, not months.

• Interim testing is delivered in days, not weeks.

• Pre-deployment quality checks are delivered in hours, not days.

• Problem fixes are made in minutes, not hours.

All of the small efficiency gains that we achieve through DevOps add up to

significant resource savings. We can then repurpose this time, delivering

more features and value for clients and their end users.

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DEVOPS IS REDEFINING THE VERY UNITS OF MEASUREMENT:Major deployments = months weeks

Code changes into production = months days

Interim testing = weeks days

Shipping code = weeks days hours

Problem fixes = hours minutes

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THE QUALITY PERCEPTION MODEL

The DevOps principle - and outcome - as mapped

in the chart is to maintain high quality all of the time:

continuous improvement in other words.

When we think about quality and cost, we sometimes assume that they are opposing

forces. But DevOps is proving we can achieve great results while reducing cost. The

key is maintaining a constant commitment to quality throughout the entire project

lifecycle, and abolishing the system of ‘hand-offs’ that introduces inefficiency, waste

and duplicated work.

The perception of quality is raised because results are more visible, and new

features can be delivered much more quickly, continuously. The secret is to maintain

high quality all of the time, rather than retro-fitting quality at the end. Other industries

have known this for some time, but IT has by and large taken some time to catch up.

Development User Acceptance TestingSystem Test

Project Lifecycle Stage

Qua

lity

Perceived Quality

Contemporary Quality

Salmon DevOps Quality

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60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5

2014/152015/16

180

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6

2015/162014/15

Since adopting DevOps, our teams are reporting improvements so significant

that we are redefining the very units of measurement.

Let’s look at actual Salmon client data to demonstrate these trends. When we

compare results over a 12-month period for a client, the di�erence is striking:

// BIG IMPROVEMENTS IN SHORT TIMEFRAMES

The comparative 2014 vs. 2015 view for Problems Closed is similarly remarkable.

When we work towards continuous improvement, problems are fixed more quickly.

Quality is not just heading up: it’s being sustained at a high level. A culture of

quality is being established, and the results are clear to see:

DevOps is responsible for the sustained reduction in the Problems Backlog

illustrated above. Indeed, over a 6-month period, we have almost halved the backlog.

In practice, this translated into significantly improved website reliability and stability

for the client – an obvious benefit.

Month 1

Problems Backlog

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Problems Closed

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Looking at Early Life Support (ELS), we measured the number of new problems and

incidents found in production, after code had been deployed. Again, the significant

reduction over the period is entirely attributable to Salmon DevOps:

Source information for charts is based on Salmon client data 2014-15 taking account of:

“Release Frequency”: number of releases per month

“Cycle Time”: average number of days between full code deployments to production

“Problems Backlog”: total number of problems/issues/defects in support backlog

“Severe Incident Rate”: number of severity 1 incidents per month

“MTTR” (“Mean Time To Repair”): average time to resolve severity 1 incident

“Average Release Downtime”: number of minutes the website cannot take orders during a

release/deployment

“YoY Monthly Sales Ratio”: +/- % sales growth against same time previous year

Conversion Rate - volume of orders expressed as % of customer visits

Build Tolerance - Number of post-build quality errors/warnings

THE DEVOPS PARADOX:

BY BEING FASTER, QUALITY IMPROVES

20

15

10

5

0

Month 2Month 1 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5

ELS Issues

Vo

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sProblems Backlog, Problems Closed and ELS figures are CONTINUALLY IMPROVING.

Sustained QUALITY IMPROVEMENT is clear through better SITE RELIABILITY and STABILITY

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Let’s be clear. DevOps is not a super-fast, go-to-market enabler for all organisations.

And it has been met with resistance in some IT teams that are content with the

status quo.

But if digital is significant for your organisation – either as a threat, or as an

opportunity – DevOps should be on your radar as you forge ahead, or keep up with

dynamic markets.

// TOP TEN CHECKLIST

CAN DEVOPS BENEFIT YOUR ORGANISATION?

Ask yourself the following questions:

Are you able to introduce high quality deliveries for new features and enhancements at pace?

Can your current operations support faster, easier, zero outage releases?

Do you get high transparency, visibility and feedback throughout your development cycle?

Can your culture adapt to embrace change and continuous optimisation?

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Can you adopt Agile principles fully, rather than simply paying lip service to them?

Are you ready to automate testing, deployments, metrics, measurement and other processes?

Are you willing to review regular playbacks of what is being delivered to avoid unwelcome surprises?

Do you understand the metrics that identify problems and drive improvements?

Can the stability, performance and reliability of your platform be increased without additional cost?

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If you've answered no to 3 or more (or don't know to 5 or more)

questions: Email info@salmon.com or speak with your account

manager to assess how DevOps can make a difference.

With high confidence can you move fast to make more money from your current platform?

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WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Salmon has clear evidence of outstanding outcomes from DevOps. It’s moving

towards using DevOps for everything, automating testing, performance and security.

This is enabling customers to introduce new features quickly, and to get code

changes into production within days, rather than months.

We are breaking the time-consuming release cycle approach that the rest of the

market is still using. Indeed, few ecommerce providers are working in this way.

If your ecommerce programmes require tight collaboration to support shortening

timeframes, evaluate the impact on quality outcomes if you can’t fully meet the

Forward-thinking organisations have done their calculations already. They are

consolidating operations closer to their teams and markets. They’re bringing

development back home to support the digitisation of their business strategies.

And DevOps is increasingly centre stage.

If you’d like to discuss how Salmon DevOps can help you get ahead,

get in touch with your account manager today, or email info@salmon.com.

// CONCLUDING COMMENTS

PA

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©2016 Salmon Ltd. All rights reserved. All company and product names, brands and symbols mentioned herein are brand names

and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information,email: info@salmon.com

or visit: www.salmon.com

ABOUT SALMON

Salmon is a global digital commerce consultancy – the largest in

WPP’s network of companies. We define and deliver market-changing

solutions and customer journeys for the world’s leading brands.

Established in 1989, with operations in London, New York, Melbourne

and Beijing, Salmon clients include AkzoNobel, Argos, Audi UK, DFS,

Halfords, Premier Farnell, Sainsbury’s and Selfridges.

“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” Samuel Langhorne Clemens AKA Mark Twain