The document discusses the concept of Organic DevOps, emphasizing the importance of fostering DevOps from within organizations rather than relying on external consultants. It outlines critical aspects such as assessment guidelines, roadmaps, tool selection, and talent training to enable successful DevOps implementation. The author asserts that engaging software engineers and creating a culture of trust are essential for effective transformation in large enterprises.

1. Organic DevOps:
DevOps from within, not without
Sagar Karmarkar
VnV DevOps, Inc.
sagar@vnvdevops.com
linkedin.com/in/vnvdevops
Twitter: @sagarvnvdevops
DevOpsDays Houston Apr 2019 1
TM

2. Who am I?
2
Sagar Karmarkar
DevOps Architect
• Over 25 years experience as technical support
engineer, software engineer, build/release
engineer, technical manager, consultant
• Responsible for developing the DevOps
platform at large enterprises including Fidelity,
Home Depot, JCPenney, and AIG
• Lived in Katy for over 14 years
DevOpsDays Houston Apr 2019

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The Great Divide in large organizations
Developers Operations
Who’s in the hole?
• Architecture
• QA / Test
• Change Management
• Regulatory
• Audit / Compliance
• Security

4. Influences
Technology evolution changing the nature of interaction
between Developers and IT Operations
• Public cloud and the associated economies of scale
• Infrastructure automation
• Microservices architectures, evolutionary
architectures
Convergence of management movements
• Lean movement
• Agile
• Toyota Kata
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Agile vs. DevOps
• So does DevOps
• So does DevOps!
• There is a DevOps Mindset as well
• But hesitate when asked to spend
thousands on DevOps?
• Agile has Core Values
• Agile has Principles
• There is such a thing as an Agile Mindset
• So, why does an organization spend millions
on implementing Agile?
Most CEOs don’t understand DevOps

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"If senior management has a desire to work
differently and an understanding of the
challenges of the people doing the work,
DevOps can happen.“
Jim Kimball, CTO, HedgServ

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Continuous
Integration
Continuous
Delivery /
Deployment
Continuous
Validation
Infrastructure as
Code
Monitoring
DevOps Capabilities
• So, where does DevOps belong?
• To paraphrase Mary Poppendieck – “Software
Engineers who understand the SDLC should populate
the Agile Team”.
• Dev and Ops have been modularized over the last
30 years in order to reduce costs
• So, why not do it internally?

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Two ways to do DevOps in large Enterprises
Directive Knowledge
from “within”
from “without”
Top Down, e.g. SAFe
Bottom Up, e.g. Dojo
• Architecture
• Build
• Test Automation
Do Both!
- Leading the Transformation, Gruver & Mouser

9. Why do DevOps Organically?
• Listen to your software engineers; they are the “closest to the
problems”
• Fostering trust with Software Engineers is key for DevOps to
work
• Your people are not resources, they are “intrinsic knowledge
workers”!
• Let the teams pick tools and talent (with an eye out for costs)
• Hiring consultants from “without” to solve a problem from
“within” is counter-intuitive
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DevOps in the Organization
Operations
Development
Team
Development
Team
Development
Team
DevOps Ops
Dev
Team
Dev
Team
Dev
Team
DevOps
Team
Centralized Distributed
DevOps is a Shared Service

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1. Assessments
• One group in the DevOps space that has developed guidelines around assessments is DORA
(DevOps Research and Assessment; now run by Google)
• Create your own assessments - 24 Capabilities divided into 5 Categories
• Continuous Delivery
• Architecture
• Product and process
• Lean management and monitoring
• Culture
• The assessment can be addressed either via interviews or with objective data
• Repeat assessments every 1-2 quarters to incorporate new learnings and get feedback from new
team members

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2. Roadmaps
• Address how DevOps Capabilities are going to be improved over time
• Address how Architectural Runway will be developed to move off of legacy and over to modern
design over time
• Assess Tools and Talent for the new way of generating Business Value
• If you are doing Agile or SAFe, the near-term PI Planning Board or long-term Solution Board is
your roadmap
• Roadmaps must be agreed to by Business and Technology Leadership

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Tool Overload

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3. Selecting the Right Tools
• No one solution is right
• Questions to consider:
• What products are you producing? (mobile, packaged, APIs, front-end, etc.)
• What tools are you currently using?—which are working well and which are not
• What problems are you trying to solve with DevOps?
• What is your desired workflow and organizational interactions?
• Does the tool have strong community support?
• What is the learning curve?
• Select tools that enhance collaboration and integrate well with each other
• Involve all teams in tool selection

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3. Talent & Training
• Recruiting: Upskilling/Reskilling current staff, hiring entry level staff
• Hiring: Bulk Hiring process in place, HR rules changed (hire for technical excellence, eliminate
performance management rigidity)
• Onboarding: Put Training around DevOps Capabilities: CI/CD, Continuous Validation,
Infrastructure as Code and Monitoring
• Two groups that have developed competence models around developing skill and knowledge
areas are DASA (DevOps Agile Skills Association) and DOI (DevOps Institute).

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Examples
• Financial Services: several “technologies” needed to be deployed to distributed environments
• Chose IBM Urbancode Deploy as the ARA / ADA tool
• Reduced Websphere and Informatica deploys down to minutes
• Retail: needed to test features on several browsers and mobile devices
• Chose Sauce Labs / Perfecto Mobile solution to spin VMs with specific browser versions and
mobile OS versions for testing
• Trained teams to enable testing within hours, not days
• Insurance: as part of the Digital transformation program, needed to incorporate way to deploy
application and database changes quickly
• Chose XebiaLabs Deploy/Release and Datical for Database deploys
• Trained DevOps team as “trainers”; informed teams of how to utilize tools

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Final Thoughts
• DevOps as a Shared Service
• Avoid Tool Proliferation
• Avoid Outsourcing pieces of the SDLC
• Use A – R – T3 and don’t let DevOps be forgotten in your organization!

18. Organic DevOps:
DevOps from within, not without
Sagar Karmarkar
VnV DevOps, Inc.
sagar@vnvdevops.com
linkedin.com/in/vnvdevops
Twitter: @sagarvnvdevops
DevOpsDays Houston Apr 2019 18
TM