Mirco Hering - DevOps for the Modern Enterprise

Praise

Mirco knows his stuff. He has a way of stating simple choices and framing options that encourage action. His unique perspective on how to transform your IT organization, especially when you have heavily invested in outsourcing, are both thoughtful and practical. After you read his book, make sure to subscribe to his blog. You want to make sure to have Mirco by your side as you go through this transformation.

Mustafa Kapadia , Digital Transformation Leader, IBM

This is a much-needed book on building teamwork to drive technology infrastructure efforts. Mirco introduces a simple set of processes and well-reasoned principles to align the organization, transform technology infrastructure, and deliver value for customers.

Eric Passmore , Partner Director of Commerce at Microsoft

A pragmatic view on IT and DevOps that doesnt just focus on the what but the how, based on firsthand experience.

Ajay Nair , DevOps Architect, Accenture

This is a truly practical companion book to the other leading publications in the DevOps space. Mirco shares real-world lessons from many years of collective experience and provides tried and tested exercises for you to use to help drive insights and improvements in your organization.

Emily Arnautovic , Software Architect, Accenture

DevOps is a hot topic. Pretty much every major organization wants it, and pretty much every major organization is struggling to come to grips with what it is and exactly how to get it. Mirco is a rare entity in the space. Hes an architect who has grown up in large, complex organizations working with even larger, more complex systems integrators and delivery partners heavily reliant on ERP, CRM, and other COTS applications that seem to challenge much of what DevOps is about. Both pragmatic and practical, he not only gives great tips on how to find your way down the DevOps path in these environments but will help you avoid many a mistake as he shares his own.

Mark Richards , SAFe Fellow at Coactivation

25 NW 23rd Pl, Suite 6314
Portland, OR 97210

Copyright 2018 by Mirco Hering

All rights reserved, for information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, IT Revolution Press, LLC,
25 NW 23rd Pl, Suite 6314, Portland, OR 97210

First Edition
Printed in the United States of America
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Cover and book design by Devon Smith
Author photograph by Julian Dolman

Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data

Names: Hering, Mirco, author.
Title: DevOps for the modern enterprise : winning practices to transform
legacy IT organizations / Mirco Hering.
Description: First edition. | Portland, OR : IT Revolution Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017053420 (print) | LCCN 2017056532 (ebook) | ISBN
9781942788201 (ePub) | ISBN 9781942788225 (Kindle) | ISBN 9781942788195 (trade pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Computer system conversion. | Operating systems (Computers) |
Computer software--Development. | Management information systems. |
Information technologyManagement.
Classification: LCC QA76.9.C68 (ebook) | LCC QA76.9.C68 H47 2017 (print) |
DDC 004.068dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017053420

ISBN TP: 978-1942788195
ISBN ePub: 978-1942788201
ISBN Kindle: 978-1942788225
ISBN PDF: 978-1942788218

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases or for information
on booking authors for an event, please visit our website at ITRevolution.com.

Contents

Figures

Tables

FOREWORD

by Dr. Bhaskar Ghosh

T hroughout my many years working in the IT industry, I have encountered numerous disruptions from technology advances, new business models, and even global economic cycles. Among all those waves of change, DevOps in particular stands out. Paradoxically, it stands out not because of the principles it embodies but because of the downstream change it has ushered in.

I like to say that you can do DevOps without Agile, but you cannot do Agile without DevOps. This is just one of many examples of transformations that have been catalyzed by the advent of DevOps. By empowering software developers to do more and, consequently, own more, DevOps is unleashing creativity, which is leading to a feedback loop of continuous improvement in systems delivery.

While I fondly recall the time I spent years ago managing infrastructure operations for large enterprises, the challenges of that job often resulted from the distinction that was drawn between development and operations responsibilities. Of course, this was in an era of largely monolithic systems using Waterfall techniques for large-scale, periodic delivery of software releases. In those past production environments, such separation of duties was a practical and efficient operating model for the needed pace of system changes.

In the digital era, however, speed is paramount. The distinction of responsibilities is not conducive to the more incremental change delivery approaches that are required to meet the demands of business today.

In this book, Mirco shares much more than just the mechanics of DevOps; he also shares his passion for improving software engineering. Through clever analogies and prescriptive advice, Mirco dispenses practical recommendations for how to embrace DevOps in an enterprise. Whether you are just getting started with DevOps or you are a seasoned professional seeking counsel on how to apply its principles at scale, as you go through DevOps for the Modern Enterprise , you will find yourself infected by the enthusiasm Mirco has for DevOps and the benefits it can bring.

Dr. Bhaskar Ghosh
Group Chief ExecutiveAccenture Technology Services
Bangalore, India
March 2018

Preface

Learning is not compulsory; its voluntary.
Improvement is not compulsory; its voluntary.
But to survive, we must learn.

W. Edwards Deming

O ne of the most rewarding things in my career has been the search to find the most efficient way to deliver meaningful projects and to get as many people as possible to do the same. When we are not working efficiently, we spend time on unnecessary, repetitive, and boring tasks, which is not fun at all. I dont have lofty goals of changing the world by doing my work, but I think everyone deserves to enjoy his or her work. And when workers enjoy what they do, good outcomes are inevitable.

Since joining Accenture as a consultant over ten years ago, I have worked with dozens of teams to increase their delivery capability through increased productivity or increased speed. But even before my time as a consultant, I was driven to figure out ways to bring efficiency to IT. I came into the workforce in the late 1990s when offshoring IT work was still in its early days. I spent my first few years as a developer in research labs for IBM, working on telematics and developer tools (e.g., developing languages for custom CPUs and providing the associated compilers and IDE extensions ). When I started working, packaged software was on the rise, but most work was done in custom development and onshore. The only way to improve productivity was to increase the level of automation, and in all my early projects, we had creative solutions built around shell scripts , Perl scripts, and other custom tooling to make the life of developers and operators easier. I thoroughly enjoyed building these automation solutions and seeing how projects became easier and more enjoyable for everyone involved.