Dealing with drag

@pragagile
Stefan Holdermans
Devopsdays Eindhoven 2023
Dealing with drag

@pragagile
McKinsey controversy

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Individual

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Individual
Team

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Individual
Organisation
Team

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Individual
Organisation
Team
Don’t!

@pragagile
Individual
Organisation
Team
Don’t!
What

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Individual
Organisation
Team
Don’t!
How
What

@pragagile
It’s all about
fl
ow

@pragagile
What is
fl
ow?
• Smooth and uninterrupted movement of work

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What is
fl
ow?
• Steady and e
ffi
cient progression through the SDLC

@pragagile
What is
fl
ow?
• Steady and e
ffi
cient progression through the SDLC
• Effective delivery of value

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What is drag?
• Opposite of
fl
ow

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What is drag?
• Opposite of
fl
ow
• Delays

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What is drag?
• Opposite of
fl
ow
• Delays
• Bottlenecks

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What is drag?
• Opposite of
fl
ow
• Delays
• Bottlenecks
• Excessive interruptions

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Unnecessary toil
• Manual deployments

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Unnecessary toil
• Manual testing

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Unnecessary toil
• Manual testing
• Figuring out how things work

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Unnecessary toil
• Manual testing
• Frequent
fi
re
fi
ghting

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Unnecessary toil
• Manual testing
• Frequent
fi
re
fi
ghting
• Overly complex con
fi
gurations

@pragagile
Unnecessary toil
• Manual testing
• Frequent
fi
re
fi
ghting
fi
gurations
• Ine
ffi
cient meetings

@pragagile
Unnecessary toil
• Manual testing
• Frequent
fi
re
fi
ghting
fi
gurations
• Ine
ffi
cient meetings
• …

@pragagile
Technical debt
• Trading longer-term maintainability for short-term convenience

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Technical debt
• Time immediately won is the “loan”

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Technical debt
• Higher cost of future changes is the “interest”

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Technical debt
• Higher cost of future changes is the “interest”
• Taking on debt is not inherently bad

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What colour is your backlog?

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Visible Invisible
Positive value
Negative value

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Features
Visible Invisible
Positive value
Negative value

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Features
Defects
Visible Invisible
Positive value
Negative value

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Features
Architecture
Infrastructure
Defects
Visible Invisible
Positive value
Negative value

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Features
Architecture
Infrastructure
Defects Technical debt
Visible Invisible
Positive value
Negative value

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Software metabolism

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Basal metabolic rate

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• The energy your body uses at rest to keep basic functions running (e.g.,
breathing and cell repair)

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• The energy your body uses at rest to keep basic functions running (e.g.,
breathing and cell repair)
• Decreases with age

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Basal metabolic rate of software

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Eduardo Ferro Aldama

@pragagile
t
€

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t
€
x

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Where to start optimising?

@pragagile
Value-stream mapping

@pragagile
Backlog
In
progress
Peer
review
Deployment Done

@pragagile
Backlog
In
progress
Peer
review
Deployment Done
6 days 3 hours 1 hour
Work
52 hours

@pragagile
Backlog
In
progress
Peer
review
Deployment Done
Work
52 hours
1.5 days 2 hours
Wait
16 hours

@pragagile
78 days
Backlog
In
progress
Peer
review
Deployment Done
Work
52 hours
1.5 days 2 hours
Wait
16 hours

@pragagile
Pull requests
• Context switches

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Pull requests
• Wait times

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Pull requests
• Wait times
• Asynchronous communication

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Pair programming
• Real-time collaboration

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Pair programming
• Immediate feedback loop

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Pair programming
• Immediate feedback loop
• Stronger team dynamics

@pragagile
Pair programming
Backlog
In
progress
Deployment Done
6 days 1 hour
Work
52 hours
2 hours
Wait
16 hours
Peer
review
3 hours
1.5 days

@pragagile
Pair programming
Backlog
In
progress
Deployment Done
6 days 1 hour
Work
52 hours
2 hours
Wait
16 hours

@pragagile
Pair programming
Backlog
In
progress
Deployment Done
6 days 1 hour
Work
49 hours
2 hours
Wait
2 hours

@pragagile
Takeaways
• Achieving
fl
ow often means reducing drag

@pragagile
Takeaways
• Achieving
fl
• Reducing does not always mean eliminating

@pragagile
Takeaways
• Achieving
fl
• Reducing does not always mean eliminating
• Use data to
fi
gure out what to optimise

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