With Nicole Forsgren, VP of Strategy and Research at GitHub Now more than ever, technology matters. Long before COVID-19 made remote work the norm, digital products were driving value and disruption for organizations. But delivering software safely remained a debate: For years, we thought slow meant more stable code and releases… even though we kept seeing fire drills and suffering through weeks-long releases. The best, most innovative organizations have realized that it's possible to release code -- in ways that are safer, more stable, and more reliable while providing insights into what users value and need. Nicole Forsgren, author of "Accelerate" and leading software development and DevOps researcher will share insights on what teams can do to improve their software delivery as well as stories from organizations that have seen the benefits of these practices.

1. @nicolefv
Move Fast In The
Age of Uncertainty
Nicole Forsgren
VP of Research & Strategy
GitHub

2. Keynote Presenter
Nicole Forsgren
VP of Research & Strategy
GitHub

3. MOVE FAST
IN THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY
DR. NICOLE FORSGREN
VP, RESEARCH & STRATEGY, GITHUB

4. @nicolefv
HI! I’M NICOLE

5. @nicolefv

6. @nicolefv
"I think building this culture is the key to innovation. Creativity must flow
from everywhere. Whether you are a summer intern or the CTO, any good
idea must be able to seek an objective test, preferably a test that exposes
the idea to real customers.
Everyone must be able to experiment, learn, and iterate. Position,
obedience, and tradition should hold no power. For innovation to flourish,
measurement must rule.”
- Greg Linden
http://glinden.blogspot.com/2006/04/early-amazon-shopping-cart.html

7. @nicolefv
We can make a difference.

8. @nicolefv
“IT doesn’t
matter.”
-- Nicholas Carr, 2003

9. @nicolefv

10. @nicolefv
“IT doesn’t
matter.”
-- Nicholas Carr, 2003

11. @nicolefv
“IT doesn’t
matter.”
-- Nicholas Carr, 2003

12. @nicolefv

13. @nicolefv
You’re doing it
wrong.
There is no

14. @nicolefv
You’re doing it
wrong.
There is no

15. @nicolefv
And…?

16. @nicolefv
Doing it right:
Use tech to support & de-
risk so we can deliver value

17. @nicolefv
TODAY!
How to deliver tech that matters
● Getting faster
● Getting safer
● Getting better (outcomes)(also getting better)
● Bonus: getting better for us
● Fin (and more!)

18. @nicolefv
HOW TO DELIVER TECH THAT MATTERS
Our work needs to be improved (and sometimes reimagined):
• Technology & automation
• Process
• Culture

19. @nicolefv
HOW TO DELIVER TECH THAT MATTERS
Our work needs to be improved (and sometimes reimagi:
• Technology & automation
• Process
• Culture
cloud.google.com/devops
bit.ly/dora-bfd

20. @nicolefv
GETTING FASTER
Lots of work has been done to make software delivery faster
• CI/CD
• Automated testing
• Loosely-coupled architecture
• Version control
• Monitoring and observability
• …

21. @nicolefv

22. @nicolefv
GETTING FASTER & SAFER
Did you know? Speed and stability go together

23. @nicolefv
AVAILABILITY
Availability is about promises we make and keep to our customers and end users…
The measure: How well teams
● Define their availability targets
● Track their current availability
● Learn from any outages

24. @nicolefv
AVAILABILITY
Availability is about promises we make and keep to our customers and end users…
The measure: How well teams
● Define their availability targets
● Track their current availability
● Learn from any outages Day one is short, day two is
long

25. @nicolefv
GETTING SAFER
Lots of work has been done to make software delivery safer
• CI/CD
• Automated testing
• Loosely-coupled architecture
• Version control
• Monitoring and observability
• …

26. @nicolefv
GETTING FASTER & SAFER
There’s a right way to do change approvals
• Heavyweight change approvals slow down delivery and
introduce instability
• Lightweight, clearly understood change approvals enable faster
delivery, clear work, and better automation
• Adopting a risk-based, strategic approach helps us focus and
prioritize

27. @nicolefv
GETTING BETTER (OUTCOMES)
Actually delivering what users want
Start with foundations
• Fast feedback
• Measuring what matters
• Integrating customer feedback

28. @nicolefv
GETTING BETTER (OUTCOMES)
Actually delivering what users want
Start with foundations
• Fast feedback
• Measuring what matters
• Integrating customer feedback
These are also core to
CI/CD and software delivery

29. @nicolefv
GETTING BETTER (OUTCOMES)
Actually delivering what users want
We can leverage additional methods to manage risk & delight users
• Feature flags
• Gradual rollout
• Gradual ownership
• SRE methods (like SLOs)

30. @nicolefv
“But I know my users and
I know what I’m doing”

31. @nicolefv
Evaluating well-designed and executed
experiments that were designed to improve a
key metric, only about 1/3 were successful at
improving the key metric!
Online Experimentation at Microsoft, Kohavi et al. http://stanford.io/130uW6X

32. @nicolefv
BUT WAIT… WE HAVE TO WORK WITH PEOPLE
Our systems are beautiful and complex and amazing
… and also distributed and fragile and broken (or on a break) sometimes.

33. @nicolefv
BUT WAIT… WE HAVE TO WORK WITH PEOPLE
Our systems are beautiful and complex and amazing
… and also distributed and fragile and broken (or on a break) sometimes.
SO ARE PEOPLE.

34. @nicolefv
CULTURES THAT SUPPORT THESE METHODS
Learning and discovery are hard and scary.
Shipping code is risky. Not shipping code is risky.
The key is talking, listening, supporting, surfacing. Prioritizing the
group and supporting individuals in balance.

35. @nicolefv
WESTRUM ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
PATHOLOGICAL
Power-oriented
BUREACRATIC
Rule-oriented
GENERATIVE
Performance-oriented
Low cooperation Modest cooperation High cooperation
Messengers shot Messengers neglected Messengers trained
Responsibilities shirked Narrow responsibilities Risks are shared
Bridging discouraged Bridging tolerated Bridging encouraged
Failure leads to scapegoating Failure leads to justice Failure leads to inquiry
Novelty crushed Novelty leads to problems Novelty implemented