Deep Thought: So long and thanks for all the fish

Eventually we reach a point where we must decide to move on and for the dolphins that was when the earth was being demolished by the Vogons to make way for a hyperspatial expressway. Nothing quite so drastic here, but I should be returning next year with something new. In the meantime, I’d like to take the chance to reprise the previous blogs in this series. We started with the introduction and the typical opening questions of;

1. What, actually, is DevOps?
2. How do we implement it into our organisation?
3. What exactly are we supposed to get as benefits from this?

In The Total Perspective Vortex we looked into the different perspectives that exist when we view the question of “What is DevOps?” and realised that there were too many views to give one comprehensive answer. We then gave thought to how we build our DevOps planet and discussed the steps and concerns, in particular, breaking down the effort of a big bang into smaller chunks for delivery. This led to the question of “Why are you implementing DevOps?” to identify the value. In What do you get if you multiply six by nine, we flip reversed the questions into the order we should be looking at, starting with “Why DevOps?”. Meaning we develop and create our view of DevOps, i.e. our unique ‘What is DevOps?’.

In DevOps Failure? Don’t Panic we looked at the importance of failing fast, and that this was important not just to your development approach, but also to your DevOps transformation. The use of a 3rd party to act as a guide was presented as a useful tool for leveraging a smoother transition. We then discussed the importance of basic tenants that have existed in IT for decades, in particular the importance of Configuration Management in DevOps CMDB – Connecting Marvin’s Depressed Brain. Another basic tenant that is important to DevOps is communications, and in particular, feedback. In DevOps Communications & The Babel Fish, we re-iterated its importance and broke down the key rules to be followed for good communications.

In Measuring ROI…Every 10 million years? we discussed the importance of metrics and why we should be measuring consistent and meaningful values from the very first day. If our DevOps transformation must return value, then that value must be demonstrated by comparing a baseline to a new state. In the final blog, we looked more carefully at the true meaning of collaboration. 2 heads are better than 1 looked at the meaning being more than just working together, but also having a common goal, and that collaboration was not just about people, but also the process and technology.

Writing this series of blogs has been an absolute pleasure and if anyone took just one thing from this learnt something new, then I am even happier. I wish you all a pleasant hitch hiking journey through your DevOps universe, and from me, for now, so long, and thank for all the fish.

Kind Regards,

Steve W