devops and intentional emergence - velocity conference

51
DevOps and Intentional Emergence Jim Stogdill Velocity September 16, 2014

Upload: jstogdill

Post on 26-Jan-2015

705 views

Category:

Technology


3 download

DESCRIPTION

Presented at Velocity Conference in September in New York City. The information age is replacing the industrial age and corporations are going through changes as big as their original adoption of bureaucracy as an organizing principle. This talk describes the notion of "Intentional Emergence" in a corporate setting. The idea that managers and technologists should create conditions for emergent outcomes rather than always focusing on the outcome itself. DevOps and other mechanisms for a more dynamic IT culture are important to this end.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

DevOps and Intentional Emergence

Jim StogdillVelocity

September 16, 2014

Page 2: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

intentional: done on purpose. deliberate.

emergence: the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns and

properties during the process of self-organization in complex systems.

Page 3: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 4: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 5: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 6: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Q: The traditional corporate / government enterprises have the same technologies as

Silicon Valley.

So why do they deliver innovation so differently?

Page 7: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Top Down Bottom Up

Page 8: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 9: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 10: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 11: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 12: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Industrial Age -> Network Age

Centralized -> DecentralizedPlanned -> Generative

Hierarchical -> Flat, NetworkedModernist -> Post ModernistSovereign -> Interdependent

Modular, Readily Deconstructed -> ComplexEstablishment-> Counterculture

Reductionist -> ExpansionistDesigned-> EmergentOpen-> ProprietaryMass-> Information

Page 13: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Organizational fitness:

Goals +

internal state +

dynamic environment

2) Must change in response

1) Is Changing

Page 14: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 15: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

ObserveOrient

It’s not the OO loop.

Page 16: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 17: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 18: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 19: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Q: Why is maneuver, fast transients, or whatever in the

corporate enterprise so difficult? Why can even simple projects

feel like pushing rope?

Page 20: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Photo Jan Banning http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/bureaucracies-around-the-world

A:

Page 21: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

organization characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority.

bu·reau·cra·cy:

Page 22: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 23: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 24: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Photo Jan Banning http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/bureaucracies-around-the-world

Page 25: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Bureaucracy is a low band pass filter, with delay.

Page 26: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

a brief aside:

Page 27: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

http://www.ukuleleman.net/uploaded_images/Bush%20Faces%20of%20the%20dead-795931.jpg

Page 28: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Image Source: http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kx11ssrFCN1qb0ukuo1_400.jpg

Page 29: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Yaneer Bar-Yam, Dynamics of Complex Systems

Page 30: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

And, maybe it takes a network to build a network to interact

with a network.

Page 31: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Constructal Law:

For a finite-size system to persist in time (to live) it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it.

-From Design in Nature

More and more of the “currents” imposed on the modern corporate enterprise are informational and

digital.

Page 32: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

If you want information flow, architect your systems to promote connections

Page 33: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

“It is no exaggeration to say that if we had had to rely on conscious central planning for the growth of our industrial

system, it would never have reached the degree of differentiation, complexity, and flexibility it has attained.

Any further growth of its complexity, therefore, far from making central direction more necessary, makes it more important than ever that we should use a technique which does not depend on

conscious control.”

Friedrich Hayak, The Road to Serfdom

Page 34: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

Company: Planned, Hierarchical, Reductionist,

Bureaucratic…

Market: Emergent, Networked,

Expansionist, …

Page 35: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

$

$

$

$

$

$

$

Internal characteristics are becoming “post-

bureaucratic” with more permeable

boundaries.

Page 36: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Surroundings

Market: Emergent, Networked,

Expansionist, …

Enterprise Core: planned,

hierarchical, reductionist

Edge: Impedance matched hybrid.

Intentionally emergent.

Page 37: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

The Paradox of Control

Page 38: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Gall’s Law: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.

So, we need to make lots of little systems. And help them grow, adapting quickly as they do.

Page 39: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 40: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

The skunk works of One

Page 41: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

“One” starts here

Building the long tail of IT contribution. On purpose.

Page 42: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Generativity = “a system’s capacity to produce

unanticipated change through unfiltered

contributions from broad and varied audiences.”

Page 43: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 44: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Some things that contribute to generativity

Open Source Software

Open Standards

Runtime Platforms

Low hurdles for initial

project start

Small world networks

Simple rules

20% time Variable Cost

Open Data

Open API’s

Community

Page 45: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 46: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference
Page 47: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Intentional Anode

Page 48: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Q: What changes to policy, architecture, technology, or

culture would enhance long tail emergence in the company you

work for?

Page 49: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Q: How can we better impedance match our organizations to the

decentralized and emergent world we are immersed in?

Page 50: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the

mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Page 51: Devops and Intentional Emergence - Velocity Conference

Thank YouJim Stogdill

@jstogdill