How DevOps is Transforming IT, and What it Can Do for Academia

How DevOps is Transforming IT, and What it Can Do for AcademiaNicole Forsgren, PhD Director, Organizational Performance and Analytics, ChefResearch Affiliate, Clemson University

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Outline

Listening to industry: the good and the bad

The promise of DevOps● What it is -- and isn’t● What it is doing for the industry● What we’ve found● What it can do for academia

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Listening to industry

Whenever I have industry peers come to me, I warn them:

Faculty own curriculum! If we listen too closely, our students will end up learning COBOL!

● We know what is best for them● We will focus on fundamentals

Industry laughs at the COBOL example…

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So we’re back to the beginning!

Faculty own curriculum! If we listen too closely, our students will end up learning COBOL!

● We know what is best for them● We will focus on fundamentals

… But which fundamentals?

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Which Fundamentals… ?

What we learned?

HBR? That will point you to Agile.● We KNOW they’re overly conservative

DICE salary survey? That points to technologies, and runs the risk of COBOL

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The promise of DevOps

What is DevOps?

A cultural and professional movement, focused on how we build and operate high velocity organizations, born from the experiences of its practitioners. -- Adam Jacob

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What is DevOps?


● People -- and not just technical people● Mindset

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What is DevOps?


● Technology● Process and management● Culture

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What is DevOps?


● Lived experience● Different in every team/org

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What is DevOps NOT?

● Agile (“capital A Agile”)● Technology (though tech is very important)● Prescriptive processes● One size fits all● EASY

But it most definitely is WORTH IT

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What is DevOps doing for industry?

“IT doesn’t matter”

-- Nicholas Carr (2003)

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IT Performance:

● Throughput/ Speed○ lead time for changes○ release frequency

● Reliability/ Stability○ time to restore service○ change fail rate

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Firms with high-performing IT organizations were twice as likely to exceed their profitability, market share and productivity goals.

http://bit.ly/2014-devops-report/

http://bit.ly/2015-devops-report/

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High performing IT organizations

More agile

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More agile What does this mean for:

New content deliveryValue/savings around A/B testingValue around speed to marketCompliance/regulatorySecurity

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More reliable What does this mean for:

Value/savings around reliabilityValue/savings around uptimeComplianceSecurityReputation around uptime, compliance, and security

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Evaluating well-designed and executed experiments that were designed to improve a key metric, only about 1/3 were successful at improving the key metric!

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More reliable

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DevOps promises – and deliversMore throughput

More stability

In tandem. Without the tradeoffs that ITIL calls for.

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Culture is also a key piece

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Google also found this

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Intuit

“By installing a rampant innovation culture, we performed 165 experiments in the peak three months of tax season.

Our business result? Conversion rate of the website is up 50%. Employee result? Everyone loves it, because their new ideas can make it to market. ”

- Scott Cook, Intuit founder

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Amazon

“I think building this culture is the key to innovation. Creativity must flow from everywhere. Whether you are a summer intern or the CTO, any good idea must be able to seek an objective test, preferably a test that exposes the idea to real customers. Everyone must be able to experiment, learn, and iterate.”

- Greg Linden

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DevOps is transforming technology. Imagine the impact on Minnesota’s economy:

● Major employers: United Healthcare, Robert Half, Wells Fargo, Accenture, TEKSystems, US Bank…

○ Healthcare and Finance are areas embracing DevOps

● InfoSec is an emerging field-- and becoming a major player in DevOps

● DevOps skills command top incomes (source: DICE.com)

Source for MN employment info: www.realtimetalentmn.org, IT 2015 Report

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What can DevOps do for us?Let’s take some cues from the movement itself:

● It’s not just technology○ Updating our LMS won’t solve it.

● It’s not just process○ Making all of our lectures a flipped classroom won’t

solve it. ● Culture is really important. Foundationally important.

○ Open communication - across silos - is important● Embrace the blameless post-mortem

○ Default to a position of trust

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What can DevOps do for us?

Curriculum development is HARD and takes a lot of time.

● Sharing is a key aspect of this -- use your academic networks and your industry contacts. They are willing and eager to help.

● Embrace the MVP (minimum viable product) and iterate.● Every team or organization’s DevOps will look different

-- so will yours.

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We’ve talked about

Listening to industry: the good and the bad

The promise of DevOps● What it is -- and isn’t● What it is doing for the industry● What we’ve found● What it can do for academia

It’s an exciting time!

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Thank you

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How DevOps is Transforming IT, and What it Can Do for Academia

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