Deep Thought: The Total Perspective Vortex of DevOps

The only person to have survived the Total Perspective Vortex, according to the second book of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy franchise, The Restaurant at the End of The Universe*, was Zaphod Beeblebrox. The idea behind the device is a curious tale, but its resultant use was to torture people by showing them a model of the universe and a single microscopic dot with the legend “You are here”. Ultimately this sense of perspective destroys the victims mind. Of course this didn’t work against Zaphod because he was living inside his own computer generated universe just for him, resulting in him being shown as the single most important thing in it.

It is curious that in the telling of this we have a metaphor for DevOps and, ultimately, an understanding of the question. If you remember from my opening “Deep Thought” blog, I posed that to truly understand the answer to “What is DevOps?” we must first understand the question. That is because there may be only one answer to the question, but the answer can be interpreted multiple ways according to ones point of perspective.

Ok, let’s put the answer out there – “DevOps is a culture built on collaboration and communication across all IT professional units and key stakeholders while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure change”. Quite a mouthful isn’t it and yet I know what you are thinking – “Is that it?”. Hmmm, a bit like the answer 42! Well, let us try to understand the question a little better then.

Firstly, and most importantly, who is asking the question? After all, the answer is a matter of perspective. Let us take just 3 example roles that are all stakeholders in DevOps – The Developer, The Incident Manager and the CIO.

The Developer will typically view DevOps as a method for pushing the code they develop, driven by a User Story, through a continuous process of build, integration and testing, until being smoothly delivered into a state-of-the-art production environment in near perfect condition. So to their perspective, the universe centres round a small set of tools driven from checking source code into an SCCM system and through a Continuous Integration and Build tool, before being delivered. This is their universe.

The Incident Manager sees this as the rapid delivery of new systems, each delivery providing an additional increment of business value and should be a correction to the business issues they are having to support. As it arrives in production, it should fix things, meaning they can close tickets and they should be prepared to support the new functionality that has arrived. So to their perspective, the universe centres round the end user, correcting the issues they have had before, ensuring they achieve the value delivered and helping to correct any new issues that may occur. This is their universe.

The CIO looks on at their portfolio and matches the demands of the business to the end systems being delivered. They must match the cost of development, delivery and maintenance against the ultimate end value to the business. They must ensure that a certain Return-On-Investment (ROI) is achieved with the maximum speed and efficiency. So to their perspective the universe centres round the portfolio of costs and time to deliver, balancing the books and showing value to the business. This is their universe.

Each has their own perspective based upon their role within their universe, and each perspective is important and absolutely valid. But each perspective is not a universe in its own right. They are one in a multitude of perspectives within a much larger universe called the Enterprise. There are yet more perspectives from Testers, End-Users, Capacity Managers, Solution Architects and so on. None has the pleasure of being a Zaphod Beeblebrox living in their own computer generated haven. They must all work together. It is ironic then that in implementing a DevOps solution which is intended to break down the barriers, we can revert to a new form of silo.

So when you look back on the answer now, consider what “collaboration” actually means. It means not just collaborating within your own perspective, but working towards a common goal with those of a different perspective. Communicating with them, no matter the IT profession or how they are a stakeholder.

I would certainly hope that the realisation of a Total Perspective has not destroyed your mind, but instead opened it up to a whole new universe, that universe being DevOps within the Enterprise. Now that we can see there is a much bigger picture involved, just how are we supposed to implement this? That is our second question that we must understand more fully, and is for the next time. In the meantime, explore your universe and see new perspectives. Don’t be a microscopic dot, but don’t be a Zaphod either.

*The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams