Agile, Scaling & DevOpsSome insights from a practitioner

Peter VollmerDistinguished Technologist

What is the problem to solve?

Faster Response

Reduced Costs- Doing more with less -

Better Customer Experience

Innovation

“Our development methods must keep pace with an

increasingly complex world driven by software”SAFe Foundations 4.0

“It's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast that Eat the

Slow”Jason Jennings

“If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of

change on the inside, the end is near.”Jack Welch

Problems are context sensitive …

Traditional IT department

Commercial of the shelf software vendor (COTS)

Individual software development (Bespoke solutions)

Cyber physical systems builder

others

… but helping principles are universal in nature

A common disease that afflicts management the world over is the impression

that “Our problems are different". They are different to be sure, but the

principles that will help to improve quality of product and service are universal

in nature.

—W. Edwards Deming

Lean-Agile PrinciplesAccording to the Scaled Agile Framework

Take an economic view

Apply systems

thinking

Assume

variability;

preserve

options

Build

incrementally

with fast,

integrated

learning cycles

Base

milestones on

objective

evaluation of

working

systems

Visualize and

limit WIP,

reduce batch

sizes, and

manage queue

lengths

Apply cadence,

synchronize

with cross-

domain

planning

Unlock the

intrinsic

motivation of

knowledge

workers

Decentralize

decision-

making

– Principles metaphorically equal the laws of

physics. Even if you ignore them they will still

apply.

– Every transformation might look different but

can rely on these universal principles.

The Lean-Agile View

6

Idea

Software in Production

Shortest sustainable lead time

value

value

value

value

value

value

value

valuevalue

Goal:

Move things as fast as possible through the pipeline with maximum throughput.

Question: What do we have to do to get faster and increase throughput?

Value Stream Optimization

Organize around value streams (Optimize throughput, not utilization)

Optimize around the major bottlenecks

Automate, automate, automate

Reduce/eliminate stabilization phases (instantly fix any quality issues – build-in quality)

Compose Request

Evaluate & Approve

Technical Assessment

Code & TestAcceptance

TestDeploy

5 min. Wait3 days

Wait 15 days

Wait20 days

Wait40 days

Wait15 days

5 min. 20 min. 2 h 15 min. 20 min.

Touch time:3h 5 min.

Wait time: 103 days

The top issues in Agile/DevOps transformations

Issue #1 – Lack of knowledge leading to …Symptoms

− Team level only: “We have some scrum teams…”

− Teams are organized around phases

− We do agile but …

Have to commit to a detailed plan for the next year

only finish half of the user stories in a sprint

test in a different sprint than we do development (intra sprint waterfall, inter-sprint waterfall)

do no retrospectives

team members do not know the scrum guide

We do not measure our velocity, cycle-time and throughput

− “You don’t have to tell me, I already know.”

− Most people are not trained, no coaching in place

Agile transformations are not managed!

FrAgile

Issue #1 – Lack of knowledgeCall for Action

It is not enough that management commit themselves to quality and

productivity, they must know what it is they must do.

Such a responsibility cannot be delegated.

W. Edwards Deming

Clarity on how to think, without clarity on how to act, leaves people unmoved.Dan Pink

Manage your lean-agile transformation

Issue #2 – No clear backlogsSymptoms

– Everything has the same importance (80% must-requirements)

– No clear ownership (content authority)

– Not delivered what was asked for

– Too many things are done in parallel (project slip, due to unfinished work)

– Backlogs contain work for many years

– Impediments are not immediately removed

– Dependencies are not managed, late surprises

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Issue #2 – No clear backlogsBacklog Concept

fix

fix

fix

flex

Ranked backlog

Whenever you run out of time you have delivered the maximum possible business value.

Iron rectangle & agile mindset How to maximize scope/business value?

Date Quality

Costs Scope

Issue #2 – No clear backlogsEnterprise Backlog Model & Active Backlog Management

Epics are in the

Portfolio Backlog

Features are in the

Program Backlogs

Stories are in the Team

Backlogs

Capabilities are in the

Value Stream Backlogs

An Enterprise Backlog Model

1. Define clear ownership (content authority)

2. Use ranking not priority

3. Limit size of items

4. Align on dependencies

5. Reduce planning horizon (max. a few months of work)

6. Manage & asap remove impediments

7. Limit work in process (wip) – practice swarming

Issue #3 – Lack of CI/CD PipelineSymptoms

– No running software for the first half of the project

– Builds are broken most of the time

– Test environment takes weeks or month to be set up and is done manually

– Always not enough hardware

– Discovered bugs are often environment/setup issues

– Interface incompatibility discovered late

– No mocks, stubs, service or network virtualization in place

Issue #3 – Lack of CI/CD Pipeline

“… automated manifestation of your process for getting software from version control into the hands of your user.”1

• Concept is not new but more radical

• Measure it

• Take it to the next level

1) See Humble, Farley: Continuous Delivery, Addison-Wesley, 2011

Check in Build TestManual Tests Running

and tested

softwareUnit Test / Static Code Analysis / Code Coverage

Lead Time

Reduce lead time

Deploy

Check in Build

to Dev

Issue #3 – Lack of CI/CD PipelineDevOps Deployment

to Staging

Deployment

Package/Image/Container

to Production

Roll-back

Same process for deployment

Dev and Ops people working together already from the beginning of the project.

Orchestration via Build System Automation Flow

(1) start build

Build Cloud(1) build

(2) start static code analysis

(2) static

code analysis

Installable

package

Code Analysis(3) acquire test environment

Test Cloud(3) acquire test

environment

(4) deploy software

(4) deploy

software

Test Workstation

(QTP/EATE)

(6) trigger execution

ALM

(6a) get tests

(6c) store results

(6b) execute

tests

(5) make template/snapshot

Test Reports

(5) vm snapshot

Build Reports

End-To-End Automation

Example: Böblingen Unattended End-to-End Test Automation

HPE DevOps Technology Matrix

Continuous

Assessment

Continuous Delivery

Continuous Integration and Testing Continuous Release

Continuous

OperationsSOLUTIONS

3RD PARTIES

GIT

TFS

Subversion

VS

Eclipse

MS WDT

MS Build

Maven

SSH

vCenter

Chef

Nexus

Nexus

SSH

vCenter

Chef

Jenkins

Plan Develop BuildDeploy

(DV, QA)Test

Deploy

(ST, PR)Test Release OperateDefine

DV-QA ST-PR

PROCESS

HP

AGM

ALM SV

NVPPM / CSA / CODAR

SM BSM

ALI CODAR / CSA

OO

SA

ALM

UFT

PC

CODAR / CSA

OO

SA

ALM

UFT

PC

OO BSM

SM

UCMDB

BSM

SV

NV

SV

NV

SM

ADM Suite

ITOM Suite

Example: Automatic Provisioning of a Complex EnvironmentCSA Service Design as the Heart of the system

Sequential Design Model

- Deploys VM and installs DB

- Deploys VM with OML

- Deploys VM with Test Server

- Creates VM and installs OS

- Install BSM Application

- Configures and starts BSM

Resource Bindings for every CSA service component are providing the actions

Example: OO Runbook AutomationAutomate IT tasks, manage compliance and orchestrate IT processes

OO as core for executing actions

- Used standard OO content packs

- Developed own OO run-books

Example: Database ProvisioningDMA Workflow for deploying and running Oracle DB

Example: HPE Product Stack for Provisioning and Deployment

CSA Portal

Service Lifecycle Management

HP Operations Orchestration

HP Server Automation

HP Database & Middleware

Service

Manager

Service

Designer

Service

Catalog

HP Cloud Service Automation

Bare Metal Matrix Cloud OS vCenter Amazon

EC2

HP Cloud

Services

HPSW ADM/ITOM Portfolio for DevOps

HPE AppPulseHPE Cloud Service

Automation

HPE BSMHPE AppPulse Mobile

HPE StormRunner

Load

HPE ALM HPE Agile Manager HPE Unified

Functional Testing

HPE Performance

Center

HPE LoadRunner

Continuous Integration, Testing, Delivery and Assessment

CONNECTED INTELLIGENCE

HPE CODAR

Designer

Orchestrator

Provisioning engine

OOTB integrations

App Deployer

Configuration models

Issue #4 – Organizational SetupSymptoms & Resolution

Traditional Org Structure

• Work in silos (silo optimization)

• Too many dependencies

• People with conflicting goals

• Slow decision making (people are waiting)

Lean-Agile Org Structure

• Cross functional teams: Optimized for speed and throughput

• Designed to minimize dependencies

• Aligned goals

• Fast decision making and impediment removal

Product Management

R&D Architecture

Dev QA Doc

Manager

Team Team Team Team Team

Function

Function

Function

Function

Function

PO

Area PO

Chief PO

Issue #5 – People & Motivation

– Productivity factor #1 are motivated people

– B. Boehm: “Use better and fewer people.”

– J. Sutherland: “Invest in productivity of existing workforce first – hiring new people is second.”

– Dan Pink: “Money is a bad motivator – Just pay people enough to get the money out of their mind so that they can focus on the work.”

– Peter Drucker: “Workers are knowledge workers if they know more about the work they perform than their bosses.”

– Jurgen Appelo: “In many organizations, management is the biggest obstacle to successful Agile development.”

Summary

Gain knowledge, understand the lean-agile principles

Understand your value streams and organize around them

Focus on lead-time, cycle-time and throughput

Actively manage backlogs

Deliver in short increments

Apply Management 3.0

Thank youContact: vollmer@hpe.com

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