Continuous Delivery Changes Everything

Editor's Notes

• #2 Intro Originally had a slide deck, decided that wasn’t the best way to go about this Really easy to say “just do this”, that doesn’t help anyone
• #4 Ten years working in Chicago-based start-ups I’ve held nearly every role in a development team Most of all, though: Because I’ve lived it and know what works.
• #5 Discover audience’s roles (manual QA, automation QA, what else?) What is your favorite part about your job? What is your least favorite part? What do you wish was easier?
• #6 Per ZDNet in 2012: $3 trillion in IT failure, worldwide. Working on IT projects sucks most of the time! What do we always hear? “Why did we waste our time on this?” -- Team goals that don’t align with company goals “What do you mean it still isn’t done?” -- Failed projects “How is this still broken?” -- Quickly and effectively addressing issues “You guys never get this stuff right.” -- Prevailing attitudes Gene Kim, author of The Phoenix Project calls this “the downward spiral” Deadlines get missed, so projects are delivered incomplete Issues arise in production Business leaders react poorly We start padding estimates, acting out of fear Suddenly, no risk is acceptable because trust is lost.
• #7 Business: Happy customers! Best possible product! Maximum revenue! Minimum cost! Developers: More time spent improving technical skills More time spent on solving real business problems More time spent on the craft of developing software QA: Less tedious bug tracking Want to make a real difference for users Operations: No 2am wake-ups! Able to solve interesting technical problems like scaling Able to solve interesting business problems like security and compliance
• #8 No long projects, short iterations Push-button deployments and rollbacks Automated unit and integration testing Feature branching and testing
• #9 Learn from every release A/B testing Track user engagement Identify key metrics Release ideas rather than features Fake it until you make it Doesn't have to be fully-featured Focus on the most important aspects, nail those
• #10 Goal: Improve sign-up conversion by 10% Milestone: Redesign sign-up Gets everyone involved OKRs Guilds
• #11 Why do we have tightly-constrained releases? The illusion of control, we can't possibly test everything Lots of manual steps No easy or clear rollback plan Because we're no good at releasing! How do smaller releases increase control? Fewer moving pieces, less to test Lots of practice, rather than doing so rarely Fewer steps means easier to rollback What about risk? Large releases carry lots of risk, since so many pieces move Not releasing things eliminates risk, but also eliminates added business value Small releases have risk, but far less since they change little and can be reverted easily DevOps lives as a symbiotic partner with improving quality and reducing risk Releasing often requires being able to release quickly and easily Automating deployment and testing makes this possible Automated tests can't do everything, but what they can do they do in minutes, not hours Having quality automated tests frees manual testers to focus on user experience, not technical accuracy Security Smaller changes mean less opportunity for new security problems Automating security checks means it’s verified more often Ease of update means it’s easier to correct vulnerabilities
• #13 Why do we have tightly-constrained releases? The illusion of control, we can't possibly test everything Lots of manual steps No easy or clear rollback plan Because we're no good at releasing! How do smaller releases increase control? Fewer moving pieces, less to test Lots of practice, rather than doing so rarely Fewer steps means easier to rollback What about risk? Large releases carry lots of risk, since so many pieces move Not releasing things eliminates risk, but also eliminates added business value Small releases have risk, but far less since they change little and can be reverted easily DevOps lives as a symbiotic partner with improving quality and reducing risk Releasing often requires being able to release quickly and easily Automating deployment and testing makes this possible Automated tests can't do everything, but what they can do they do in minutes, not hours Having quality automated tests frees manual testers to focus on user experience, not technical accuracy Security Smaller changes mean less opportunity for new security problems Automating security checks means it’s verified more often Ease of update means it’s easier to correct vulnerabilities
• #14 People fear change Bring them into the problem solving Help them understand how the change benefits them Sneak up on people Ask questions you know the answers to Get to know your teammates outside of work Value their unique views and fears You cannot dismiss teammates under any circumstance Primary motivation Achievement – public (recognition) or private (gold star) rewards Affiliation – did the team achieve its goal Power – autonomy The job will not save you Just because you're right doesn't mean that's enough People come around at their own pace Meet them where they live Be a flag-bearer "Because that's how we do it" is never acceptable Counter the "we don't have time" argument Just do it Build quality teams You may have something you're best at, but it's not your only job Fight to keep teams together Fight to keep teams small Build trust If you say you're going to do a thing, do it or ensure it gets done Be honest, even if it makes you look bad Admit when you make mistakes Don't punish the well-meaning mistakes of others Create as much transparency as possible, it gives others the opportunity to shine Just do it