devops a history - geekwire · devops: a history nell shamrell-harrington @nellshamrell geekwire...

DevOps: A HistoryNell Shamrell-Harrington

@nellshamrell GeekWire CloudTech Summit

Who Am I?

Nell Shamrell-HarringtonSr. Software Engineer at Chef

@[email protected]

Core maintainer of Habitat and Supermarket open source projectsCo-host of Food Fight podcast

mailto:[email protected]?subject=

Why a talk about the history of DevOps?

Doesn’t everybody already know this???

As DevOps has spreadthroughout the industry

DevOps has become overmarketed

and hyped

Context has been lost

Context is crucial for both understanding and

applying DevOps

Buzzwords!!!

Source: upgrad.com

Source: blog.modulus.io

Where is the signal in the noise?

To go forward, you must go back - Game of Thrones

The purpose of this talk is to highlight the origin and

context of these buzzwords

How to they are to relevant to us now and into the future

Let’s start with a meta-buzzword!

Meta-buzzword: Scale


18th Century: Craft Production

Source: “The Machine that Changed the World” by Womack, Jones, and Roos

1785: Honore Blanc introduces

interchangeable gun parts


Source: “Implementing Lean Software Development” by Poppendieck

1908: Henry Ford produces the Model T



Interchangeable parts, interchangeable workers



“Standardization in its true sense is the union of all the best points of

commodities with the best points of production…”

- Henry Ford


Source: “Today And Tomorrow” by Henry Ford

“…to the end that the best commodity may be produced

in sufficient quantity and at the least cost to the consumer”

- Henry Ford



“Many people thought that machine production would destroy craftsmanship…”

- Henry Ford



“Exactly the reverse has come about; we now need more

expert machinists than we have ever needed”

- Henry Ford



Sound familiar?

“Each of the high performers had server/sysadmin ratios

greater than 100:1…”


Source: “The Visible Ops Handbook” by Behr, Kim, and Spafford

“In contrast, analysts report that average server/sysadmin ratios

is between 15:1 and 25:1”


Source: “The Visible Ops Handbook” by Behr, Kim, and Spafford

Back to the past!

Ford Mass Production System designed for

huge quantitiesof limited models


Source: “The Toyota Way” by Jeffrey K. Liker

“Any customer can have a car painted any color

that he wants as long as it is black”

- Henry Ford


Source: “My Life and Work” by Henry Ford

Meta-buzzword: Lean

Lean was originally used to characterize

the Japanese approach to automobile manufacturing

Meta-buzzword: Lean

Source: “Implementing Lean Software Development” by Poppendieck

1926: Toyoda Automation Loom Works

Meta-buzzword: Lean


Buzzword: Jidoka

Automation with a human touch

Buzzword: Jidoka


Sound familiar?

“…ask yourself, does this alert require any immediate

intervention? Alerts should be actionable.”

- Patrick Debois

Buzzword: Jidoka

Source: “Web Operations” by John Allspaw and Jesse Robbins

“If an alert can be ignored or doesn’t require human

intervention, the alert is a waste of energy” - Patrick Debois

Buzzword: Jidoka

Source: “Web Operations” by John Allspaw and Jesse Robbins

Back to the past!

1930’s: Toyota pivots from looms

to automobiles

Meta-buzzword: Lean


1940’s: World War II

Meta-buzzword: Lean


Toyota Production System

Meta-buzzword: Lean


“Flexibility required marshaling the

ingenuity of workersto continuously

improve processes”

Meta-buzzword: Lean


Buzzword: Kaizen

Continuous Improvement

Buzzword: Kaizen


Buzzword: Kanban

Kanban “pulls” from the previous step

Buzzword: Kanban


Buzzword: Just In Time

“…only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed”


Source: “Just-in-Time” toyota-global.com

http://toyota-global.com

Sound familiar?

“WIP in the silent killer”


Source: “The Phoenix Project” by Kim, Behr, and Spafford

“If no one has slack time, WIP just gets stuck in the system.”


Source: “The Phoenix Project” by Kim, Behr, and Spafford

Back to the past!

Toyota revolutionized manufacturing through

lean production

Meta-buzzword: Lean


1970’s - 90’s: Software Engineering rises to prominence

Meta-buzzword: Lean

Source: “To Agility and Beyond” by Peter Varyhol

Buzzword: Waterfall

Buzzword: Waterfall

Source: DOD-STD-2167

1985: U.S. Department of Defense adopts

software process

1. Software requirements analysis

Buzzword: Waterfall


1. Software requirements analysis 2. Preliminary design

Buzzword: Waterfall


1. Software requirements analysis 2. Preliminary design 3. Detailed design

Buzzword: Waterfall


1. Software requirements analysis 2. Preliminary design 3. Detailed design 4. Coding and unit testing

Buzzword: Waterfall


1. Software requirements analysis 2. Preliminary design 3. Detailed design 4. Coding and unit testing 5. Computer Software Component

(CSC) integration and testing

Buzzword: Waterfall


1. Software requirements analysis 2. Preliminary design 3. Detailed design 4. Coding and unit testing 5. Computer Software Component

(CSC) integration and testing 6. Computer Software Component Interface

(CSCI) testing

Buzzword: Waterfall


Buzzword: SCRUM

Buzzword: SCRUM

1995: Sutherland and Schwaber present

“The Scrum DevelopmentProcess”

Source: “Scrum Development Process” by Ken Schwaber

“The development process is regarded as unpredictable

at the onset…” - Ken Schwaber

Buzzword: SCRUM


“…and control mechanisms are put in place to manage the

unpredictability” - Ken Schwaber

Buzzword: SCRUM


“Scrum also defined time-boxediterative development cycles

whose goal was to deliver working software”

- Peter Varyhol

Buzzword: SCRUM

Source: “To Agility and Beyond” by Peter Varyhol

Buzzword: Agile

1996: Extreme Programming project started

Buzzword: Agile

Source: extremeprogramming.org

http://extremeprogramming.org

Buzzword: Agile

Source: “Writing the Agile Manifesto” by Martin Fowler

2000: Extreme Programming leaders meet in OR

2001: Agile Manifesto Written

Buzzword: Agile

Source: “Writing the Agile Manifesto” by Martin Fowler

“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through

early and continuous deliveryof valuable software”

Buzzword: Agile

Source: agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

“Welcome changing requirements, even late in

development. Agile processes harness change for the

customer’s competitive advantage”

Buzzword: Agile



“Working software is the primary measure of progress”

Buzzword: Agile



Buzzword: DevOps

2007: Patrick Debois is

working in IT - has to straddle the connection between dev and ops

Buzzword: DevOps

Source: “The History of Devops” by Damon Edwards

2008: Patrick Debois presents “Agile Operation and Infrastructure: How

Infra-Agile Are You?”

Buzzword: DevOps

Source: “A Short History of DevOps” by Richard Rapaport

“Development and Infrastructure would work in isolation and would

integrate just before the political deadline…There was no time

left to fix things”

Buzzword: DevOps

Source: “Agile Operations and Infrastructure” by Patrick Debois

“Every sprint you would have a new working release and it would

constantly improve.”

Buzzword: DevOps


“The application went live… Every release they would improve

both the software and the infrastructure”

Buzzword: DevOps


• Layers of Agile Infrastructure

Buzzword: DevOps


• Layers of Agile Infrastructure • Technical

Buzzword: DevOps


• Layers of Agile Infrastructure • Technical • Project

Buzzword: DevOps


• Layers of Agile Infrastructure • Technical • Project • Operations

Buzzword: DevOps


2009: John Allspaw and

Paul Hammond present “10+ Deploys per Day,

Dev and Ops Cooperationat Flickr”

Buzzword: DevOps


Ops: “It’s not my machines, it’s your code!”

Buzzword: DevOps

Source: “10+ Deploys per Day…” by John Allspaw and Paul Hammond

Ops: “It’s not my machines, it’s your code!” Dev: “It’s not my code, it’s your machines!”

Buzzword: DevOps


Ops and Dev have the same job

Buzzword: DevOps


Ops and Dev have the same job

Enable the business to function

Buzzword: DevOps


All businesses require change

Buzzword: DevOps


All businesses require change

Change involves risk

Buzzword: DevOps


Dev and Ops must own this risk through

culture and tools

Buzzword: DevOps


“Tools will not help you if you install them and

still have an argumentativeculture going on”

Buzzword: DevOps


2009: First DevOpsDays

held in Ghent, Belgium

Buzzword: DevOps


2010: First DevOpsDays

held in USA

Buzzword: DevOps


2010: #devops takes off on Twitter

Buzzword: DevOps


2017: So much DevOps!

Buzzword: DevOps

Buzzwords come and go

The ideals of producing the best product

In the most humane and engaging way

for employees

Have stayed the same

The implementationsof the ideals have evolved

And will continue to evolve

They must continue to be nurtured and

cultivated

In business and beyond

History carried the torch this far

Now it’s your turn

Carry the ideals onward

Thank you

Who Am I?

Nell Shamrell-HarringtonSr. Software Engineer at Chef

@[email protected]

Core maintainer of Habitat and Supermarket open source projectsCo-host of Food Fight podcast

Any Questions?

mailto:[email protected]?subject=

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