The DevOps Handbook
This book will give us an insight as to how we can create world class agility, reliability and security in technology organisation. This book helps us to understand and replicate the DevOps transformation we have been a part of and also eliminate the myths associated with it. Some of the common myths are listed below:
- DevOps is only for Startups
- DevOps replaces Agile
- DevOps is incompatible with Information Security and Compliance
- DevOps means eliminating IT Operations or "NoOps"
- Devops is only an open source software movement
We start of with a little bit of history where we read about the following in greater details:-
The Lean Movement
The lean movement started in 1980s when several techniques like Value Stream Mapping, Kanban Boards, and Total Productive Maintenance was codified for Toyota Production Systems. Two of leans major principles of belief is
- The Manufacturing lead time to convert raw materials to finished products would lead to the best judgement of customer satisfation, quality and employee satisfaction.
- The Manufacturing short time would be judged by the small batch sizes of work.
The Agile Manifesto
The Agile Manifesto was created since a lightweight set of values and principles were required to be created against the software development model like the waterfall model. The key principle of the Agile manifesto was :-
- To deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale
- There was a need for small,self motivated teams working in a high trust management model.
Agile Infrastructure And Velocity Movement
The Agile Movement started to gain momentum after the 2008 Agile conference in Toronto, Canada where a session was held on "birds of a feather". This session was based on applying the Agile principles to infrastructure as opposed to application code. This caused like minded people who supported this idea more inquisitive. In 2009 at the Velocity conference, a seminal was given on "10 Deploys per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr". This influential session described the shared goals between Dev and Ops and used continual integration to make deployment an essential part of our daily work. Patrick Debois wasn't presented at the seminar but having been influenced by it he coined the word DevOpsDays in Ghent, Belgium.
The Three Principals
The three important Principals of DevOps are as follows:-
Principal of Flow
Rapid flow through technology value stream.
Principal of Feedback
We need feedback to detect errors. This process needs to be as fast as possible so that the exceptions raised don't hinder the technology value.
Principal of Continous Learning
This creates an environment for learning and experimentation. Allows us to find a perfact balance between the two to improve the value being added to the stream.