My notes from the DevOps Handbook

by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, John Willis

The DevOps Handbook

Foreword

• in current times we need to be able to cooperate multidisciplinary
• for example: a mechanical engineer cooperation with electrical engineer when designing a plane
• strict work borders do not work out
• success in modern technical endeavors absolutely requires multiple perspectives and expertise to collaborate

No matter what industry you are in, what product or service you provide, this way of thinking is necessary for survival for every business

Introduction

• a world where each department work together, help each other to ensure that overall organization succeeds
• work toward a common goal
• fast flow of planned work into production
• stability
• reliability
• availability
• security
• cross-functional teams
• which features will delight the users
• not only features implementation
• smooth and frequent workflow without disruptions
• reduce friction in developers' work
• automated self-service tools and platforms

• less dependency on others

• maximize productivity

• organizational learning

• win in the marketplace

• Lean principles improve the outcomes

• deployment as the routine with low risk

• competitive advantage requires fast time to market

• problems that DevOps solve will worsen over time without dramatic intervention

• core, chronic conflict within the organization

• technical debt - decisions that we make lead to problems that get increasingly more difficult to fix over time
• one of the factors - competing goals
  • respond to rapidly changing landscape
  • provide stable, reliable and secure service
• three acts of downward spiral
• IT Ops
  • keep the infrastructure running
  • complexity of infrastructure
  • poor documentation
  • fragility
  • workarounds -> technical debt
  • I will fix the mess when I have more time
  • never...
  • most fragile -> most important, revenue generating
• Compensation for broken promise
  • the new, big feature
  • developers: another urgent project
  • cutting corners -> technical debt
  • I will fix it when I have time
• Everything is a a little more difficult
  • everybody is a little busier
  • a little more time for work
  • a little slower communication
  • more tightly coupled
  • smaller actions cause bigger failures