Mary Newell from Cisco gave this talk at DevOpsDays Galway 2017: Transitioning from a traditional software delivery approach to DevOps can be a daunting prospect. The list of challenges may appear overwhelming. Inevitably, this paradigm shift will be an adventure with many interesting and unforeseen changes along the way. This talk will outline one team's journey towards a DevOps culture, while still maintaining close links with teams working on more traditional delivery schedules.

1. Updated May 2017
Mary Newell
Software Engineer
Tuesday 14 November 2017
One Team’s Journey to DevOps
Dragging the Dinosaur into the 21st
Century

2. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Timeline of Adopting DevOps
Late
2014
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016
Late
2016
Mid
2017
100%
Automated
Testing
Test
Driven
Development
Ops
Agile
DEV and QA
Manual Testing
One
Engineer
Model
Time
to
Release
Late
2017
DevOps

3. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
• On prem server
• Agile with 2 week sprints
• 6 month delivery cycle
• Clearly defined and distinct Dev and QA roles
• Mostly manual testing
Where it all began
Late
2014
Late
2016
Mid
2017
Nov
2017
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016

4. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
• > 3 times = automate
• Tests should be easily repeatable
• Infrastructure
• Using the same language as product
Step 1 – 100% Automated Tests
Late
2014
Late
2016
Mid
2017
Nov
2017
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016

5. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Late
2014
Late
2016
Mid
2017
Nov
2017
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016
• DEV and QA roles merged
• Mindset shift (particularly for QAs)
• Pair programming
Step 2 – One Engineer Model

6. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Late
2014
Late
2016
Mid
2017
Nov
2017
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016
• TDD – Test Driven Development
• Requirements become tests
• Implement tests first
• Fix code to make tests pass
• Refactor
Step 3 - TDD

7. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Late
2014
Late
2016
Mid
2017
Nov
2017
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016
• New delivery mechanism
• Release channels
• Pipeline as code – Jenkinsfiles
• Conditional pipelines
• Supporting releases
• DevOps
Step 4 – Time to Release

8. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Late
2014
Late
2016
Mid
2017
Nov
2017
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016
• Metrics, metrics and more metrics
• Metrics driven development
• Proactive customer support
• Troubleshooting skills
Step 5 – Ops

9. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Late
2014
Late
2016
Mid
2017
Nov
2017
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016
• Shared code base
• Multiple moving parts
• Multiple delivery mechanisms
• Backwards compatibility
• Test coverage and stability
• Not being in control of the entire environment
• Mindset change (particularly from a QA perspective)
• Troubleshooting skills
Some Challenges

10. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Late
2014
Late
2016
Mid
2017
Nov
2017
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Early
2016
• Control your environment
• Test stability
• Support
• QA to DEV is a daunting prospect
• Invest in metrics
Some Advice

11. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Timeline of Adopting DevOps
Late
2014
Mid
2015
Late
2015
Mid
2016
Early
2016
Early
2017
100%
Automated
Testing
Test
Driven
Development
Ops
Agile
DEV and QA
Manual Testing
One
Engineer
Model
Time
to
Release
Late
2017
DevOps

12. © 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Questions?