Monday morning on the highway. Your speed: 0 mph. You're stuck in the usual rush hour traffic jam because the capacity of this road is exceeded. And it's now obvious you'll reach your destination much later than if the road were empty. But what happens if you exceed the capacity of your development team? What … Continue reading 3 Reasons To Avoid Overloading Your Teams
How badly set goals create a tug-of-war in your DevOps organization
A rope. Eight people on either side. "Pull!" And then it begins: both parties are pulling in their own direction. A tug-of-war has started. Imagine your developers and sysadmins as those two parties starting that tug-of-war Each group has different goals. And having different goals leads to each party pulling in another direction. How can … Continue reading How badly set goals create a tug-of-war in your DevOps organization
Is DevOps just a fad?
There are DevOps tools and DevOps job ads. People talk about culture and sharing and being nice to each other. Sounds pretty fishy, right? The only thing missing is a DevOps certification and we're done with the DevOps hype. Is DevOps really just a fad? Let's take a closer look... You're frustrated with another department … Continue reading Is DevOps just a fad?
Do Code Improvements Add Value?
Investing into code improvement is a dual edged sword: on the one hand you know that if you don't improve your code you'll get slower over time. On the other hand improving your code does not deliver tangible value to your users. So how do you know whether you're on track? Track the time a … Continue reading Do Code Improvements Add Value?
Devops Dudes: Meerkat
How Delays Render All Your Efforts Useless
London Stansted Airport, early afternoon - a huge crowd at the railway station. No trains - only people, and a lot of confusion and anger. Having just flown an hour from Munich, Germany, I was supposed to meet a client two hours after touch down. But here I stood, waiting with the crowds: the railway … Continue reading How Delays Render All Your Efforts Useless
Devops Anti-Patterns
While I'm collecting Devops Protocols which highlight healthy patterns in your organization, let's take a quick look at the opposite: Devops anti-patterns. Would you be able to spot the warning signs when your team starts to slip in the wrong direction? Committed is "Done" It's a good and trusted agile practice for a team to … Continue reading Devops Anti-Patterns
Devops Protocols: Start Small
Imagine you want to introduce automated configuration management to your organization. You've read all the books and even visited a great conference where you heard a lot of success stories. "It's really time to get our servers under control" you think. But how do you get started? The over ambition trap You're highly motivated and … Continue reading Devops Protocols: Start Small
Devops Protocol: No Manual Changes
You've heard about Devops and you like the idea. But how can you grow a Devops culture in your organization? In my series about Devops Protocols I talk about the fundamental building blocks for growing a Devops culture. No Manual Changes refers to the behavioural trait of not messing with any productive systems. Let's discuss … Continue reading Devops Protocol: No Manual Changes
Where Agile Starts
In most enterprises, employees are referred to as resources. Heck, it's even worse. There's a whole department dealing with human resources. This, my friend, is bad. It's bad because it kills the most basic ingredient for agile success: Respect. Respect for your employees. Let's have a look and see how respect builds the foundation for … Continue reading Where Agile Starts
Agile Web Operations 