Achieving DevOps Nirvana: Insights from a Release Management Expert

Eric Kunkel, MMA

Ash Owen, Serena Software

18Apr 2013

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

Transitioning from Release Management to DevOps

“Bridging the Agility Gap and Industry Best Practices”

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

Background

• Release Management / DevOps Professional for over 17 years

• Implemented and Built Release Processes at various Fortune 1000 Companies

–As an employee of D&B (Dun & Bradstreet), US Trust (Charles Schwab), and Merrill Lynch

–As a consultant - TriZetto Corp, Apartments.com, DTCC, TIAA CREF, Safeway, TD Ameritrade…

• Participate in many forums that include DevOps professionals

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

MMA Pillars for Release Process Success

• A Release Management Process needs to be a standard process that is simple to use, predictable, and repeatable

• The same process can be used regardless of your Software Development Life Cycle Methodology

• Building the right process is the first stepSoftware tools are meant to augment your process; not define it…

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

Release Management at Merrill Lynch

• Time Frame – December 1996 – August 2005• Definition – Release Management• Implementation:

– Deployments (Manual Dev & QA automated Pre-Prod & Prod)– Testing (Mostly Manual but some automation)– Standard Environments– Standard Repository (PVCS)– Mix of home grown and COTS tools (SCM & PVCS)

• Key Points Learned:– Home grown utilities are not always better– Mixing multiple application suites requires tight integration– Having the right data to make informed business decisions

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

Release Management at US Trust

• Time Frame – August 2005 – August 2006• Definition – Release Management• Implementation:– Deployments (Manual)– Testing (Manual)– Standard Repository (ClearCase)– COTS tools (Rational Suite)

• Key Points Learned:– Lack of standards stifles productivity– Management buy-in is not always enough

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

Release Management at D&B the beginning of DevOps

• Time Frame – August 2006 – August 2011• Definition – Release Management trending towards DevOps• Implementation:

– Deployments (Manual then automated)– Testing (Mostly Manual with some automation)– Standard Environments– Standard Repository (Dimensions CM)– COTS tools (Serena Release Manager)

• Key Points Learned:– Business buy-in is key– Provide an automated tool to free up resources– Development process look more like production requirements

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

Rolling out Automated DevOps at a HealthCare IT Company

• Time Frame – November 2011 – April 2012• Definition – Release Management• Implementation:

– Deployments (Automated) (SRA)– Testing (Manual)– Standard Environments– Standard Repository (Dimensions CM)– COTS tools (Serena Release Manager)

• Key Points Learned:– Understanding of Out of the Box Capability– Utilizing the full of power of Serena Release Manager– Environment Management

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

Bringing a DevOps Methodology to Apartments.com

• Time Frame – November 2012 – Present• Definition – Continuous Delivery• Implementation:

– Deployments (Manual) (Serena Release Automation)– Testing (Mostly Manual but some automation)– Standard Environments– Standard Repository (Microsoft TFS)– Mix of home grown and COTS tools (SSM and SRA)

• Key Points Learned:– Prove the capability prior to building in complexity– Use a mixture of Open Source, COTS, and homegrown utilities – Invest in automation to free up resources for higher value activities

CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARYThis material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced, published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of MMA Consulting Corporation.

Applying Serena Tools to Automated DevOps

• Serena Dimensions CM

– Golden Repository

–Main Source Code Repository

• Serena Release Control

–Manage Release Process and Run-books

• Serena Release Automation

–Manage Release Artifacts

– Streamline deployments

• Serena Service Manager

– Implement ITIL standards and governance

• Serena ChangeMan ZMF

–Mainframe Application Development and Release with Source Code Repository

How to Achieve DevOps Nirvana

Ash Owen

18Apr 2013

Application Delivery Challenges

Audits

IncreasingDemand

ManualProcess Errors

Release Bottleneck

Visibility & Coordination

Issues

BusinessDemand

Faster AgileDelivery

Many DeploymentPlatforms

IT Ops

12

Adaptable Release Management

Dev

Business

Ops

DEV TEST UAT PROD

CONTINUOUS DELIVERY RELEASE TRAIN

Self-Service Controlled

INTEG STAGING

Serena Release Automation

Serena Release Manager

13

14

Serena Release Manager/Automation

Support for Subversion, Hudson & Maven

Self Service requests to:

• Provision virtualized & cloud environments• VMWare, Windows Azure, Amazon EC2

• Deploy components to environment

Plug-in updates: VMware, PVCS, Remedy

What Is It

What’s Coming

Schedule Application Releases

Automate Release Tasks

Visualize & Share Release Calendar

Q?