Transforming Enterprise Teams to DevOps Workflows Journeying with Culture and Tools

Mandi WallsSolutions Engineering Manager, EMEAFebruary 27, 2016

whoami

• Mandi Walls• @lnxchk• Working at Chef since November

2011

Who DevOps?

• Small companies• Big companies• Government agencies• Not-for-profits

Anyone who recognizes the future

of Technology + Business

is alignment and working together

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfgirlbybay/3360299725/

Why? Why DevOps? Why Now?

• Technology is everywhere• People become deeply attached to and dependent on it

• Cloud platforms and IaaS / SaaS have reduced the cost to bring new online properties to market• Lower upfront investment in hardware and software• More resources to invest in the applications or products themselves

This has created an environment hostile to slow-moving existing organizations

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barbeezgarten/22416012213/

What’s Special About Enterprise DevOps

• Silos• Compliance and regulatory constraints• History• Size• Previous investments

Risk Aversion

• What’s old to fast moving companies is the future for risk averse companies

• Driven to find “Best Practices”• Want everything to be “right” the first time

All while the whole industry is evolving around them

https://www.flickr.com/photos/39032463@N07/10001334855/

The Dreaded Silo

• Functional silos happen for a reason• Complex work leads to specialization

• Specialization without regard to organizational goals• Goals and priorities in conflict

• The functional fanatic• Looks at everything through the same lens of their function

Why Worry About Workflows?

• Tools inform culture informs tools• Good workflows promote good behavior, and bad workflows

encourage bad behavior• Bureaucratic teams choose bureaucratic tools• Open teams choose more open tools

Old Workflows

• Manual• Slow• Often requiring multiple approvals• Division: of labor, of expertise, of power

What’s Bad About Old Workflows

• Slow• Reward the wrong behaviors (culture) if the goal is to be fast

and flexible• Promote functional fanaticism and bad habits• Escalations, short cuts for some

Why Better Workflows are Necessary

• Teamwork vs antagonism – DevOps!• Common goals and shared rewards• Equalize the treatment of projects that follow the workflow

Where Do New Workflows Get Started

• Adoption of public cloud for Dev • Avoid working with old processes created for legacy on-

premise systems• Should it take 6 weeks to procure a virtual host?

Bad Workflows Mean Work Doesn’t Get Done

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmc1952/19611845573/in/album-72157636873610105/

Why Does This Matter in the Enterprise

• Everything has a longer life cycle: Projects, Budgets, Systems, Careers

• Coordination across more and larger teams• Internal politics• Organizational culture

Affects of Organizational Culture

• Workflows reflect culture• Do teams work together?• Do teams trust each other?• Are goals clear and shared?• Is responsibility shared?• Are rewards shared?

Does Everyone Know How They Impact the Bottom Line?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16054928@N07/9633080921/

Helping Individual Contributors

• Being helpful before being obstructionist - Maybe/why vs No• Follow and give feedback• Try before deny• Be honest about how the work being done and how it

impacts goals and bottom line• Balance between fun and necessary

Helping the Technical Manager

• Job is to listen and remove obstacles• Articulate goals, and not just once a year during goal

planning• Prioritization of people, resources, and budget in a clear way• Advocate for the team

The Role of Executives

• Be clear on goals and objectives• Be ready to prioritize and make decisions• Resolve conflicts and budget disputes

Why We Think About Workflow

• Several years helping teams through modernization projects• Seeing the impact of lack of clear goals• Articulating the benefit of the new process

Breaking Bad Habits

• Risk averse organizations want the “Best Practices”• Want the workflow to be 100% right the first time• Low tolerance for experimentation

Challenges at all Levels

• Technical folks may have to go back to basics• Learning to do a bit of programming, command line work, more

typing• Management has to set clear goals

• Stick to them and provide support

Outcomes

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Audit Trail

• Infrastructure as Code provides better auditing• Proof of when changes were made and by which team• A traditionally difficult task becomes part of the default

workflow

Flexibility

• Apply the same workflows to internal and external resources• Make use of tools with APIs for integration

Reliability

• DevOps workflows and tools aid in producing the same outputs repeatedly

• Reuse the same procedures in Dev / QA / Production to reduce errors

Be Patient

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mediman30/5624525299/

It Can Be Done

• It does take investment: time, people, resources• Clear goals are essential to helping teams understand why

change is necessary• Prioritizing the future

Photos

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfgirlbybay/3360299725/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/barbeezgarten/22416012213/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/mediman30/5624525299/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/39032463@N07/10001334855/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmc1952/19611845573/in/album-72157636873610

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• https://www.flickr.com/photos/16054928@N07/9633080921/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmc1952/14853887069/