Devops is about communication. In order to make better software, we seek out diverse viewpoints, use a common vocabulary, and encourage transparency. But despite all this focus on communication, we don't have much of a framework to guide our decisions. "Should we do continuous integration?" "Why not? People seem to like that." "What about ChatOps?" "Sure, yeah; it works for GitHub." Well, there's a half-forgotten rule -- first stated 46 years ago -- that can guide us through these decisions. It's called Conway's Law: Organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations. I'll show how Conway's Law is derived, how it's been empirically tested, and how it informs so much of what we do in devops. I want my audience to walk away with a new tool for spreading devops, shaping cross-team communication, and moving forward with confidence.

1. the skeleton of
devops
conway’s law

3. hello i am dan slimmon
danslimmon.com
dan@danslimmon.com
github.com/danslimmon
twitter.com/danslimmon
danslimmon.wordpress.com

4. hello i am dan slimmon
● i’m in ops
● exosite
● blue state digital

5. what works in devops
LET’S DO CHATOPS!
k

6. what works in devops

7. what works in devops
LET’S DO CHEF!
k

8. what works in devops

9. what works in devops

10. what works in devops

11. theory
theory gets a bad rap

12. theory
a theory is a set of rules
that generates predictions
about the behavior of a system

13. theory
experiments
weed out
false theories
theories
tell us what
experiments
to do

14. theory
hydrogen emission lines

15. theory
rydberg formula derived in 1888

16. theory
1888 -
1913
in atomic
physics:

17. theory

18. theory

19. whoa
oh mans
HOLY
SHIT
Z O M G

21. theory
theories can be tested
theories allow us to share understanding
theories point the way to innovation

22. devops theory
devops is a
system

23. devops theory
● silo destruction
● infrastructure as
code
● continuous
integration
● empathy
● blameless post-
mortems
● measure all the
things
● chatops

24. devops theory
● silo destruction
● infrastructure as
code
● continuous
integration
● empathy
● blameless post-
mortems
● measuring
everything
● chatops
communication

25. conway’s law
“How Do Committees
Invent?” Melvin Conway, 1968
http://tinyurl.com/conwayslaw

26. conway’s law
organizations which design systems
…
are constrained to produce designs which are
copies of the communication structures of
these organizations

27. conway’s law
to the extent that an organization is not
completely flexible in its communication
structure, that organization will stamp out an
image of itself in every design it produces

28. conway’s law
if you have 4 groups working on a compiler,
you'll get a 4-pass compiler
eric s. raymond

29. conway’s law
proof

30. conway’s law
“proof”

31. conway’s law
consider some system
and the organization
which designed it

32. conway’s law
system: organization:

33. conway’s law
system: organization:

34. conway’s law
system: organization:
?

35. conway’s law
system: organization:

36. conway’s law
new system: organization:
um...

37. conway’s law
new system: organization:

38. conway’s law
your org structure isn't solving your problem.
it's an artifact of how you've solved it before.
adam jacob

39. conway’s law
architectural innovations destroy the usefulness
of the architectural knowledge of established
firms
architectural innovation: the reconfiguration of existing
product technologies and the failure of established firms.
henderson, r. & clark, k. 1990.

40. conway’s law in devops
what’s this got to do with devops?

41. conway’s law in devops
we continuously redesign our systems
to make them better
and to adjust to changing stimuli
so we must do the same for our team
structures

42. conway’s law in devops
chatops

43. chatops
system: organization:
?

44. chatops
system: organization:

45. chatops
system: organization:

46. conway’s law in devops
infrastructure
as code

47. infrastructure as code
rubby rubby
rubby
#!/bin/bash

48. infrastructure as code

49. conway’s law in devops
devops is a special case of conway’s law
we mold our communication structure into the
shape we want for our system

50. theory is a conversation
agree with me
or, even better, disagree with me

55. theory is a conversation
organizations which design systems
…
are constrained to produce designs which are
copies of the communication structures of
these organizations