The document discusses the challenges faced by Gaggle's technology team in delivering projects efficiently and isolating developer work. Some of the challenges included long feedback loops due to inability to work in isolation, lack of automation in provisioning AWS accounts and deployments. The solutions proposed were to provision separate AWS accounts for each developer, use AWS CDK to define infrastructure as code and automate deployments for each application, create pipelines for continuous delivery of dependencies and services, and set up separate integration accounts with budget automation to address costs. This improved the efficiency of Gaggle's technology team.

1. S A N F R A N C I S C O | A P R I L 2 0 , 2 0 2 2

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Improving developer experience
with CDK
Casey Lee
D E V 2 0 2
Chief Technology Officer
Gaggle

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Gaggle’s Transformation Story
Blocked Items
190,616,612
105%
Messages
5,155,335,282
350%
Files
6,276,549,392
489%
PSS
20,395
61%
Human Items
38,815,291
34%
Lives Saved
1,338
50%

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Challenge:
“The tech team never gets
anything done...when they do,
it is months late!”

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% Efficiency = (# Engineers) / (WIP)
WIP = (Lead Time) x (Deploy Frequency)
High WIP, Low Efficiency

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Challenge:
Inability to
work in
isolation
results in long
feedback loops

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Solution: Provision separate AWS
accounts per developer

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Challenge: Unable to use
existing CI/CD to deploy
into dev account

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Solution: Use CDK
for each
application

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Solution: Use CDK for each application
from gaggle_cdk.core import S3Website, S3JsonFile, apply_permissions_boundary
class AppStack(core.Stack):
def __init__() -> None:
s3_website = S3Website(
self,
hosted_zone=hosted_zone,
website_sources=s3deploy.Source.asset(artifact)
)
config = S3JsonFile(
bucket=s3_website.bucket,
object_key="assets/config.json",
values={
"version": os.getenv("CODEBUILD_RESOLVED_SOURCE_VERSION","-"),
"identityProviderId": user_pool_idp,
"baseApiUrl": base_url,
}
)

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Solution: Automate IAM Permission Boundary
from gaggle_cdk.core import apply_permissions_boundary
class AppStack(core.Stack):
def __init__(self) -> None:
apply_permissions_boundary(self)

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Solution: Automate Tag Policy
tags = GaggleTags(
application=application,
environment=environment,
team=team,
some_random_tag=”foo",
)
# Create a stack, add resources to it
stack = core.Stack(app, "my-stack")
# Apply the tags to the stack
tags.apply(stack)
# Additionally you can apply tags to the entire app
tags.apply(app)

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Challenge: Deploying dependencies

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Solution:
Automate
build/deploy of
dependencies
from source

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Solution: Automate build/deploy of
dependencies from source
# Define the commands needed to build build:
- npm run build
# Define the dependencies to load
dependencies:
- repo: gaggle-net/service-a.git
ref: main
# Define the applications to run locally
- basedir: infrastructure
stacks: ui-stack
context:
my-context-key: my-context-value

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Challenge: QA
is now a
bottleneck to
delivery
process

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Solution:
Separate
integration
accounts per
team

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Solution: Create
pipeline for
each service

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Solution: Create pipeline for
each service
from aws_cdk import core
from gaggle_cdk.core.pipelines import DeploymentPipeline
class ExamplePipelineStack(core.Stack):
def __init__(self,scope: core.Construct):
pipeline = DeploymentPipeline(
self,
github_repo="sample-api",
github_org="gaggle-net",
integration_account="100000000000",
staging_account="200000000000",
production_account="300000000000",
)

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Challenge: Many
accounts can be
expensive!!

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Solution:
Budget
Automation

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# The 'org' sections defines settings for the entire organization
org:
owner: org-owner@gaggle.net
workspace: T0000000
channel: ZZZZZZZ
default_daily_limit: 5
# Teams are containers for accounts.
# 'owner' - email address to notify for overages
# 'channel' - slack channel to notify for overages
teams:
- name: FOO
owner: alice@gaggle.net
channel: YYYYYYYYYYY
# Accounts are matched by 'name'.
# - 'owner' an additional 'owner' can be specified to be included in overage emails.
# - 'daily_limit' can be overridden per team
account_costs:
- name: developer-alice
- name: developer-bob
owner: bob@gaggle.net
Solution: Budget Automation

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from account_budget import AccountBudget
class BudgetsStack(core.Stack):
def __init__(self) -> None:
for account in accounts:
b = AccountBudget(
self,
account_id=account.id,
daily_limit=daily_limit,
emails=[team.owner,account_cost.owner]
)
# create chatbot channel
aws_chatbot.SlackChannelConfiguration(
self,
slack_channel_id=config.org.channel,
slack_workspace_id=config.org.workspace,
notification_topics=[b.topic]
)
Solution: Budget Automation

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Solution: Budget Automation

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Results...

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% Efficiency = (# Engineers) / (WIP)
WIP = (Lead Time) x (Deploy Frequency)
Kickoff Transformation

29. Thank you!
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Casey Lee
@nektos
Survey Link 

30. Please complete
the session survey
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