• Getting DevOps Right (It Is Not Just About Technology, Leadership and Management Matters)

    Getting DevOps Right (It Is Not Just About Technology, Leadership and Management Matters)

    It is a truism that to realize the benefits of technology has driven change initiative the focus has to be on deliberate leadership and management of the initiative, rather than an exclusive focus on technology and tools. However, that obvious truth gets lost, in the euphoria and excitement about the latest technology, especially in technologically…

  • Succeeding With DevOps: Google’s DevOps Survey Findings Mapped to DASA’s Team Competence Model

    Succeeding With DevOps: Google’s DevOps Survey Findings Mapped to DASA’s Team Competence Model

    First, the expected good news, “Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Study Competitive advantage through DevOps” – a survey sponsored by Google Cloud, confirmed that DevOps delivers key business results. Survey respondents who adopted the DevOps approach say that it has improved speed to market ( named by 70%), productivity (67%), innovation (66%), and product/service quality…

  • Eisenbahnscheinbewegung, or Fake High-Performance Transformations

    Eisenbahnscheinbewegung, or Fake High-Performance Transformations

    Over the past years, I’ve seen quite some interesting organizational transformations. No matter which labels were being used (agile, Lean, DevOps), all promise for a collaborative culture with high-performing teams and flows of value. In my experience, the major challenge in any of those transformations is to achieve a sense of ownership and shared responsibility…

  • The Business Case for DevOps (Fully Realize the Business Benefits of Agile Software Development)

    The Business Case for DevOps (Fully Realize the Business Benefits of Agile Software Development)

    The thinking that Agile software development and DevOps are different and separate frameworks, and hence need to be adopted separately seems to be taking hold. This is obviously, incorrect and has insidious long term consequence as it will perpetuate the divide between Dev and Ops. Although, Agile software development preceded DevOps – Agile software development…

  • The Culture Conundrum (To Succeed With Agile and DevOps Transformation, You Need to Get the Culture Right)

    The Culture Conundrum (To Succeed With Agile and DevOps Transformation, You Need to Get the Culture Right)

    One of the key success factors in Agile and DevOps transformation is the culture of the teams and the organization. However, since culture is intangible it is difficult to get a sense of whether you are getting culture right or wrong. So, instead of getting caught up prematurely in the minutiae of how to get…

  • Leadership Starts With You

    Leadership Starts With You

    As follow up to the successful ‘Fit for the Future’ CIO event organized by CIO Platform Netherlands and DevOps Agile Skills Association (DASA), a CEG Agile/Scrum event was organized and kindly hosted by Rabobank. One of the goals was to further explore the findings from the CIO event. As part of this follow on event…

  • DevOps Knowledge Day Findings – ‘Courage’ is the Name of the Game!

    DevOps Knowledge Day Findings – ‘Courage’ is the Name of the Game!

    “Courage” seemed to be a common theme at the Conlea ‘DevOps Knowledge Day’ event co-sponsored by the DevOps Agile Skills Association (DASA). Courage to deal with suspicious boards (doubt, having heard all the ‘best practice’ promises before), courage to deal with managers (fear of the change to span of control and new leadership styles) and…

  • Kaizen Event and Value Stream Mapping as Continuous Improvement Tools

    Kaizen Event and Value Stream Mapping as Continuous Improvement Tools

    Continuous improvement tools can support the Kaizen or radical change mindset. Kaizen EventA Kaizen event is a structured problem-solving approach that contributes to purposeful continuous improvement within any organization. DMAIC is a problem-solving approach to facilitate continuous improvement, as shown in the following figure. The primary tasks of the various steps of the DMAIC cycle are:…

  • SRVISION 2019

    SRVISION 2019

    It’s time for organizations to become more resilient to get ready for the digital age! The annual SRVISION event took place in the Netherlands discussing Flying Datacenters, Pando – the largest single living organism on earth, and Edith from All in the Family looking to put more Ops into DevOps. The line-up for the event…

  • Why Taking DevOps “Literally” is No Solution

    Why Taking DevOps “Literally” is No Solution

    To create independent and autonomous teams around services, you might be tempted to build teams with full-stack expertise as depicted in the following figure. Although this might be a better setup, it takes the DevOps approach too literally. Each team, now, needs all knowledge and skills, and reuse is almost zero. DevOps is often misunderstood…