Waza keynote: Idea to Delivery

Idea to
Delivery
app development in 2012

Adam Wiggins
Waza, January 2012

Friday, January 13, 2012

Technique


Small sharp tools


Richard Feynman

Murray Gell-Mann


“ The Feynman Problem-Solving
Algorithm:


Algorithm:
(1) Write down the problem.


Algorithm:
(2) Think very hard.


Algorithm:
(2) Think very hard.

”
(3) Write down the answer.
- Murray Gell-Mann

http://quotations.tastefulwords.com/murray-gell-mann/the-feynman-problem-solving-algorithm/


Where can we
look for new
techniques?


Zoom out


Idea to delivery


Idea Implementation Deployment Delivery


Programmer



programmer
vs
app developer


Breadth of
responsibility


App developer



4 techniques
from the last decade

6 techniques
of the emerging future


4 techniques
from 2000 - 2010


1. Agile


1. Agile
2. Software-as-a-service


1. Agile
3. Web frameworks


1. Agile
3. Frameworks


1. Agile
3. Frameworks
4. Virtualization


1. Agile
3. Frameworks
4. Virtualization Cloud


1. Agile
3. Frameworks
4. Cloud


Agile Framework Cloud SaaS



Scrum Rails Heroku URL



Agile
+ Frameworks
+ Cloud
+ SaaS


The 2010s way for
app development


6 techniques
for 2012 and beyond


Technique 1


Technique 1
Deploy from day 1


Early development



http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book


“ Even at this early stage, we’re
already going to deploy our (still-
empty) Rails application to
production. This step is optional,
but deploying early and often
allows us to catch any deployment
problems early in our development
cycle.


The alternative—deploying only
after laborious effort sealed away
in a development environment—
often leads to terrible integration
headaches when launch time
comes.


Technique 2


Technique 2
Continuous
deployment


Deploy schedules


Deploy on demand


Is continous
deployment real?


1.1 million deploys
to Heroku in the
last month


Technique 3


Technique 3
Feature flags


http://code.flickr.com/blog/2009/12/02/flipping-out/


Decouple these



Deployed, but
inactive


Still the active
path for all users

Activated for
some users


Activated for
all users


Dead code, now
safe to remove

A
gradual &
granular
method for delivery


{sidebar}


We see
friction
across
1000s of apps


Trends


Principles


http://www.12factor.net/


{continue!}


Technique 4


Technique 4
Dev/prod parity


Development:
SQLite

Production:
PostgreSQL


Development:
SQLite
Uh oh.
Production:
PostgreSQL


Development and
production as
similar as possible


http://www.12factor.net/dev-prod-parity


Can we go further?


Virtual machines


http://railscasts.com/episodes/292-virtual-machines-
with-vagrant?view=asciicast

http://unfoldthat.com/2011/05/06/using-vagrant-for-
your-django-development.html

http://walkah.net/blog/why-vagrant


Technique 5


Technique 5
Stay close to
production


Developers do
deploys


Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

“ No battle plan survives
first contact with the
enemy.

- von Moltke

”

“ No code survives contact
with production load.

”

Your code in
development is
theoretical


Your code in
production is
reality


“ Everyone has a plan 'till
they get punched in the
mouth.

- Mike Tyson

”

Real user
behavior
will punch you in the
mouth


Sword-in-the-bag
bug


Searching for the
answer in my code


Found the answer
by observing
production


Technique 6


Technique 6
Logs as event
streams


The pulse of your
application


http://www.12factor.net/logs


Everything that
your app is doing,
right now


Everything that
your app has done,
in the past


Log archival &
search tools


Papertrail
http://addons.heroku.com/papertrail


Loggly
http://addons.heroku.com/loggly


Ivory-tower
thinking


More evidence,
less speculation


The evidence is in
your logs


Recap


Deploy from day 1
early and often avoids
launch-day headaches


Continuous
deployment
deploy on days 2, 3, and n


Feature flags

decouple
deployment & delivery


Dev/prod parity

avoid those little
incompatibilities


Stay close to
production
reality is production load
and real user behavior


Logs as event
streams
an evidence-based
approach


Call to action


?
Are you a
programmer
or an
app developer

Come out of our
programmer cave


Connect with our
code in the wild


Connect with our
users


Take responsibility
for idea to delivery

Idea Delivery


Fin.
Adam Wiggins
@hirodusk
http://adam.heroku.com/


Waza keynote: Idea to Delivery

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