Delivering exceptional customer experiences and product for your business take speed and flexibility. More than ever before, speed and flexibility are required from every part of your organization, business and IT alike. DevOps provides your business leaders, enterprise architects, developers and I&O leaders a philosophy to achieve, not only the velocity that customers desire but also drive innovation and enforces quality. One example is ING. The company is undergoing a major digital transformation in which DevOps is a primary driver supporting their transformation. ING CIO Ron van Kemenade has initiated DevOps as the vehicle to aggressively support ING’s evolving customer needs. At ING, technology is the beating heart of the bank.[i]

DevOps requires a transition from technical silos to product centered teams

Effective DevOps will require the tearing down of the technology based silos within an organization.  Instead, teams need to focus on the products (or service) delivered and be empowered to own the complete lifecycle.  Key performance metrics such as such as availability, the number of features added are used to measure the speed and quality of how these product centered teams work.  In some organizations, the team may even own support of the designed and delivered services.  This integrated product team is a fusion of developers, infrastructure & operations, quality assurance, and release managers into a single team that works on the entire pipeline, from commit to deployment. Existing centers of excellence such as DBA’s or security teams will remain and support the DevOps team; in some cases, they might even be allocated to the team for a particular duration. [ii]

Deconstruct silos of automation and replace with full pipeline automation

Automation delivers incredible value when used across the complete lifecycle from design, delivery, and support. Our research confirms that today unfortunately too many ad hoc linkages or human interventions still are used within the design and delivery of a service. To drive both velocity and quality, IT pros must assemble a loosely coupled (API-centric) toolchain, including elements such as automated testing, continuous delivery (CD) and application release automation (ARA).  This toolchain must be integrated into the continuous deployment pipeline.   

To assist you, we have identified five critical DevOps metrics to evaluate performance

To measure your success we have developed metrics which can be used to modify the culture of your today’s I&O team. Whether you are just starting your DevOps journey or are further along, establishing metrics by product (or service) will allow you to focus and ultimately drive success. The five critical DevOps metrics for I&O professionals to leverage and measure are:

·      Time to Delivery

·      Deployment Frequency

·      Change frequency

·      Success rate

·      Time to recovery

In our report, "The Need For Speed: Drive Velocity And Quality With DevOps" we address the transition to velocity enabling the continuous improvement necessary to meet today and tomorrow’s accelerating business requirements. 

As always, I welcome your observations, comments, and experiences. You can contact me here and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter (@RobertEStroud).

 




[i]
Ron van Kemenade, CIO of ING, shared details of the corporate value of DevOps, including a video on the journey, during 2016 DevOps Enterprise Summit in London. Source: “DevOps: Ron van Kemenade – Nothing Beats Engineering Talent…The AGILE Transformation at ING,” YouTube video, July 26, 2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKEaMeaiZOw).

[ii]For more information on structuring teams for successful DevOps, see “Organize And Staff I&O Pros For Successful DevOps Practices” Forrester report (Forrester account required).