An outage of the Foo service caused many interruptions and context switches as the NOC, developers, SREs, and other teams worked to resolve the issue. It took time to escalate, diagnose the problem, get the necessary access and approvals, and restart the services with the correct configuration to fully resolve the outage. The process highlighted how handoffs between teams, disconnected access, waiting, and misaligned priorities can slow resolution of incidents in production.
19. SRE
“It’s a problem
with the Foo
service”
SRE
SRE
Foo
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
Foo
Service
No.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Foo
Lead Dev
+ add
12:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Foo SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Can you
fix it?
20. SRE
“It’s a problem
with the Foo
service”
SRE
SRE
Foo
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
Foo
Service
No.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Foo
Lead Dev
+ add
12:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Foo SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Can you
fix it?
Partially
Done
Work
21. SRE
“It’s a problem
with the Foo
service”
SRE
SRE
Foo
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
Foo
Service
No.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Foo
Lead Dev
+ add
12:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Foo SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Can you
fix it?
Partially
Done
Work
Escalation
22. SRE
“It’s a problem
with the Foo
service”
SRE
SRE
Foo
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
Foo
Service
No.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Foo
Lead Dev
+ add
12:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Foo SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Can you
fix it?
Partially
Done
Work
Escalation
Waiting
25. o
Dev
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
ding!
Ignore.
App
Manager
Hey did you see
that ticket?
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
sigh.
I’ll take a look
I’m go
mor
pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
Scrum
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Interruption
26. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
27. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Disconnected
Access
28. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Disconnected
Access
Waiting
29. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Interruption
Disconnected
Access
Waiting
30. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Interruption
Disconnected
Access
Waiting
Context
Switch
31. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
32. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
Partially
Done
Work
33. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
Partially
Done
Work
Waiting
34. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
Partially
Done
Work
Waiting
Interruption
35. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
Partially
Done
Work
Waiting
Context
Switching
Interruption
36. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
37. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
Extra
Process
38. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
Extra
Process
Misaligned
Priorities
39. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
Interruption
Extra
Process
Misaligned
Priorities
40. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
Context
Switching
Interruption
Extra
Process
Misaligned
Priorities
41. Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
SVP
(Susan)
Chief of
Staff
Tech VP
Tech VP
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Restart approved”
Customer
impact?
Ticket
Middlewa
Manage
(Melissa
Wh
prod
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Ticket
Context Wagon
42. Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
SVP
(Susan)
Chief of
Staff
Tech VP
Tech VP
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Restart approved”
Customer
impact?
Ticket
Middlewa
Manage
(Melissa
Wh
prod
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Ticket
Context Wagon
Interruption
43. Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
SVP
(Susan)
Chief of
Staff
Tech VP
Tech VP
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Restart approved”
Customer
impact?
Ticket
Middlewa
Manage
(Melissa
Wh
prod
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Interruption
44. Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
SVP
(Susan)
Chief of
Staff
Tech VP
Tech VP
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Restart approved”
Customer
impact?
Ticket
Middlewa
Manage
(Melissa
Wh
prod
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Interruption
Disconnected
Context
45. Share
point
proved”
Ticket
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Who knows these
production services
the best?
Ellen!
Middleware Middleware
(Scott)
Ellen
to
Europe
office
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Ticket
Context Wagon
46. Share
point
proved”
Ticket
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Who knows these
production services
the best?
Ellen!
Middleware Middleware
(Scott)
Ellen
to
Europe
office
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Waiting
47. Share
point
proved”
Ticket
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Who knows these
production services
the best?
Ellen!
Middleware Middleware
(Scott)
Ellen
to
Europe
office
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Waiting
Siloed
Knowledge
48. Share
point
proved”
Ticket
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Who knows these
production services
the best?
Ellen!
Middleware Middleware
(Scott)
Ellen
to
Europe
office
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Waiting
Manual
Siloed
Knowledge
49. Share
point
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
ket
Context Wagon
Middleware
(Scott)
Bar
Service
10 min Middleware
(Scott)
Waiting for
Acme Service
Acme startup
failed
Bar
Service
6:00pm
53. -Bar app startup timed out. Error says can’t
connect to Acme service.
- I looked at Acme but it seems to be running
-Is this error message correct? Why can’t Bar
connect?
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Middleware
(Scott)
Bar SRE
+ add
Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
6:45
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)Ticket
Context Wagon
The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
54. -Bar app startup timed out. Error says can’t
connect to Acme service.
- I looked at Acme but it seems to be running
-Is this error message correct? Why can’t Bar
connect?
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Middleware
(Scott)
Bar SRE
+ add
Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
6:45
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)Ticket
Context Wagon
The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Escalation
55. -Bar app startup timed out. Error says can’t
connect to Acme service.
- I looked at Acme but it seems to be running
-Is this error message correct? Why can’t Bar
connect?
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Middleware
(Scott)
Bar SRE
+ add
Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
6:45
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)Ticket
Context Wagon
The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Escalation
Task
Switching
56. Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
Bar
Lead Dev
6:45pm
ob)
ager
nager
ev (Karen)
E
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Bar
Lead Dev
(Liu)
Business
Managers
I can comment out
the test… But the
CD pipeline only
goes to QA ENV!
57. Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
Bar
Lead Dev
6:45pm
ob)
ager
nager
ev (Karen)
E
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Bar
Lead Dev
(Liu)
Business
Managers
I can comment out
the test… But the
CD pipeline only
goes to QA ENV!
Escalation
58. Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
Bar
Lead Dev
6:45pm
ob)
ager
nager
ev (Karen)
E
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Bar
Lead Dev
(Liu)
Business
Managers
I can comment out
the test… But the
CD pipeline only
goes to QA ENV!
Escalation
Task
Switching
59. Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
Bar
Lead Dev
6:45pm
ob)
ager
nager
ev (Karen)
E
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Bar
Lead Dev
(Liu)
Business
Managers
I can comment out
the test… But the
CD pipeline only
goes to QA ENV!
Escalation
Task
Switching
Disconnected
Process
60. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
61. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
Distraction
62. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
Distraction
Finger
Pointing
63. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
Distraction
Finger
Pointing
Heroics
64. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
Distraction
Finger
Pointing
Heroics
Waiting
65. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
66. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Escalation
67. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Escalation Interruption
68. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Escalation
Task
Switching
Interruption
69. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Escalation
Task
Switching
Siloed
Knowledge
Interruption
70. Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
There was a rule change last
Thursday that would stop Bar
from talking to Acme.
Can you change it back?
Sure we make changes on
Thursday…
Chief of
Staff
SVP and VPs are livid… this was
supposed to be a safe change!!
Freddie, we’ve got customers calling.
ES
Em
pro
rul
Update
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
8:00pm
71. Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
There was a rule change last
Thursday that would stop Bar
from talking to Acme.
Can you change it back?
Sure we make changes on
Thursday…
Chief of
Staff
SVP and VPs are livid… this was
supposed to be a safe change!!
Freddie, we’ve got customers calling.
ES
Em
pro
rul
Update
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
8:00pm
Extra
Process
72. Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
There was a rule change last
Thursday that would stop Bar
from talking to Acme.
Can you change it back?
Sure we make changes on
Thursday…
Chief of
Staff
SVP and VPs are livid… this was
supposed to be a safe change!!
Freddie, we’ve got customers calling.
ES
Em
pro
rul
Update
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
8:00pm
Extra
Process
Misaligned
Priorities
73. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
74. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
Extra
Process
75. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
Extra
Process
Escalation
76. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
Extra
Process
Escalation
Task
Switching
77. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
Extra
Process
Escalation
Task
Switching
Misaligned
Priorities
78. I’ll have
Network
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
APPROVE: Emergency
firewall rule change
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
(Nicole)
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middl
(Sc
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
9:30pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Firewall (Freddie)
Ticket
Context Wagon
NetSec (Nicole)
79. I’ll have
Network
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
APPROVE: Emergency
firewall rule change
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
(Nicole)
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middl
(Sc
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
9:30pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Firewall (Freddie)
Ticket
Context Wagon
NetSec (Nicole)
Waiting
89. e
Ticket
“APIs OK”
Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Services
restarted OK”
NOC
NOC
Lights are green…
I guess it is fixed.
Close
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Zzz
11:30pm
N
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Firewall (Freddie)
Ticket
Context Wagon
NetSec (Nicole)
Cust. Engmt. (Varsha)
90. e
Ticket
“APIs OK”
Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Services
restarted OK”
NOC
NOC
Lights are green…
I guess it is fixed.
Close
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Zzz
11:30pm
N
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Firewall (Freddie)
Ticket
Context Wagon
NetSec (Nicole)
Cust. Engmt. (Varsha)
.
91. NOC
Lights are green…
I guess it is fixed.
Close
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Zzz
Next Day
SVP
(Susan)
Whose fault is this?!
Why are we so bad at change?
What additional processes
and approvals are you
adding to never let this
happen again?!
VP
VP
Dir
Dir
VP
Dir
VP
Scott)
da)
Carlos)
(Bob)
die)
NetSec (Nicole)
Cust. Engmt. (Varsha)
93. We’ve invested in Cloud, Agile,
DevOps, Containers…
Why does everything still take too
long and cost too much?
Executive Team
Our transformation has
largely ignored Ops
96. “We need better tools”
…by following the conventional wisdom:
97. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
…by following the conventional wisdom:
98. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
…by following the conventional wisdom:
99. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
“We need more change reviews/approvals”
…by following the conventional wisdom:
100. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
“We need more change reviews/approvals”
…by following the conventional wisdom:
“We’ll wait and see what ITIL v4 says”
101. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
“We need more change reviews/approvals”
…by following the conventional wisdom:
102. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
“We need more change reviews/approvals”
…by following the conventional wisdom:
109. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
John
Allspaw
110. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME Is this dangerous?
John
Allspaw
111. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
John
Allspaw
112. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
John
Allspaw
113. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
Is this dangerous?
John
Allspaw
114. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
John
Allspaw
115. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
Answer is always
“it depends”
John
Allspaw
116. escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor
Context
Where are decisions made? Who can take action?
117. Psychological safety is an key indicator of trust
Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk taking. It can be defined as "being able to show
and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of
self-image, status or career.
- William Kahn
Boston University
1990
118. Psychological safety is an key indicator of trust
Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk taking. It can be defined as "being able to show
and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of
self-image, status or career.
- William Kahn
Boston University
1990
Google: most important characteristic
to predict team effectiveness?
2016
119. Psychological safety is an key indicator of trust
Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk taking. It can be defined as "being able to show
and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of
self-image, status or career.
- William Kahn
Boston University
1990
Google: most important characteristic
to predict team effectiveness?
2016
Psychological safety!
122. Toil: Name For a Problem We’ve All Felt
“Toil is the kind of work tied to running a production
service that tends to be manual, repetitive,
automatable, tactical, devoid of enduring value, and
that scales linearly as a service grows.”
-Vivek Rau
Google
123. Toil vs. Engineering Work
Toil Engineering Work
Lacks Enduring Value Builds Enduring Value
Rote, Repetitive Creative, Iterative
Tactical Strategic
Increases With Scale Enables Scaling
Can Be Automated Requires Human Creativity
124. Excessive Toil Prevents Fixing the System
Toil Engineering Work
E.W.Toil
Reduce toil
Improve the business ǡ
No capacity to reduce toil
No capacity to improve business
Toil at manageable percentage of capacity
Toil at unmanageable percentage of capacity (“Engineering Bankruptcy”)
125. Excessive Toil Prevents Fixing the System
Toil Engineering Work
E.W.Toil
Reduce toil
Improve the business ǡ
No capacity to reduce toil
No capacity to improve business
Toil at manageable percentage of capacity
Toil at unmanageable percentage of capacity (“Engineering Bankruptcy”)
126. Excessive Toil Prevents Fixing the System
Toil Engineering Work
E.W.Toil
Reduce toil
Improve the business ǡ
No capacity to reduce toil
No capacity to improve business
Toil at manageable percentage of capacity
Toil at unmanageable percentage of capacity (“Engineering Bankruptcy”)
Downward spiral is inevitable!
130. Backlog Information
I need X
PrioritiesTools
Silos
Backlog
I do X
Requests
for X
Silo A
Information
Priorities
Silo B
Tools
131. Silos cause disconnects and mismatches
Backlog Information
I need X
PrioritiesTools
Backlog
I do X
Requests
for X
Silo A
Information
Priorities
Silo B
Tools
Context
Context
Process
Process
Tooling
Tooling
Capacity
Capacity
133. How do we cover for our silos’ disconnects and mismatches?
Silo A Silo B
134. How do we cover for our silos’ disconnects and mismatches?
Silo A Silo B
Ticket
Queue
135. ??
Silo A Silo B
We all know how well that works
Ticket
Queue
136. Ticket queues are an expensive way to manage work
Ticket
Queue
Queues Create…
Longer Cycle Time
Increased Risk
More Variability
More Overhead
Lower Quality
Less Motivation
Adapted from Donald G. Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development
144. Are all tickets bad?
Ticket
System
No. Just use tickets for what they are good for
145. Are all tickets bad?
1.Documenting true problems/issues/exceptionsTicket
System
No. Just use tickets for what they are good for
146. Are all tickets bad?
1.Documenting true problems/issues/exceptions
2.Routing for necessary approvals
Ticket
System
No. Just use tickets for what they are good for
147. Are all tickets bad?
1.Documenting true problems/issues/exceptions
2.Routing for necessary approvals
Not as a general purpose work management system!
Ticket
System
No. Just use tickets for what they are good for
151. “Shift Left” the ability to take action
escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor
152. “Shift Left” the ability to take action
Push the ability to take action this direction
escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor
153. “Shift Left” the ability to take action
Push the ability to take action this direction
escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor
Tools
Enablement and tooling
157. Reduce Toil
1. Track toil levels for each team
2. Set toil limits for each team
158. Reduce Toil
1. Track toil levels for each team
2. Set toil limits for each team
3. Fund efforts to reduce toil (with emphasis on teams over toil limits)
159. Reduce Toil
1. Track toil levels for each team
2. Set toil limits for each team
3. Fund efforts to reduce toil (with emphasis on teams over toil limits)
Bonus: Use Service Level Objectives, Error Budgets, and other lessons from SRE
161. Obvious: Get rid of as many silos as possible
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
162. Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Obvious: Get rid of as many silos as possible
163. Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Obvious: Get rid of as many silos as possible
“Horizontal” shared
responsibility, not
everyone do everything!
164. Shared and dedicated responsibility is key
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Development Team n
SRE
Team
Clear handoff requirements
Error budget with consequences
“Netflix"
Model
“Google”
Model
165. Shared and dedicated responsibility is key
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Development Team n
SRE
Team
Clear handoff requirements
Error budget with consequences
“Netflix"
Model
“Google”
Model
166. Shared and dedicated responsibility is key
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Development Team n
SRE
Team
Clear handoff requirements
Error budget with consequences
“Netflix"
Model
“Google”
Model
Same
high-quality,
high-velocity
results!
167. But what about the cross-cutting concerns?
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
168. But what about the cross-cutting concerns?
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
169. But what about the cross-cutting concerns?
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue Ticket
Queue
171. Self-Service Operations: Turn handoffs into self-service
Self-Service Operations
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
Ops
(operates platform)
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops
(embedded)Cross-Functional Product Team 1
Cross-Functional Product Team n Ops
(embedded)
Cross-Functional Product Team 2 Ops
(embedded)
172. Self-Service Operations: Works with any org model
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Development Team n
Ops/SRE
Team
Self-Service Operations
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
Ops
(operates platform)
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
173. Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Ops/SRE
Team
Self-Service Operations
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
Ops
(operates platform)
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Cross-Functional Product Team n Ops
(embedded)
But, what about security and compliance?
Build-in
Security
Here
Build-in
Compliance
Here
177. Self-Service Operations Design Pattern (in a nutshell)
Pull-Based
Accept tools/languages
that teams want to use
Define “guardrails” to
provide work safety
178. Self-Service Operations Design Pattern (in a nutshell)
Pull-Based
Accept tools/languages
that teams want to use
Let people who
“push buttons”
define the buttons
Define “guardrails” to
provide work safety
179. Self-Service Operations Design Pattern (in a nutshell)
Pull-Based
Accept tools/languages
that teams want to use
Let people who
“push buttons”
define the buttons
Build in security
and compliance
Define “guardrails” to
provide work safety
182. Self-Service is ultimately about user experience
1.Work how they want to work (GUI, API, CLI)
2. “Guardrails” (Smart options that helpfully constrain)
183. Self-Service is ultimately about user experience
1.Work how they want to work (GUI, API, CLI)
2. “Guardrails” (Smart options that helpfully constrain)
3.Dynamic resource model
(Up-to-date details of your environment)
185. Strategy: Self-Service improves response times
https://youtu.be/USYrDaPEFtM
Jody Mulkey at DOES ‘15 SF
Services Monitoring Scripts/Tools Services Monitoring Scripts/ToolsServices Monitoring Scripts/Tools
DEV STAGE PROD
Dev & QA NOC/Ops Dev
Promote
approved
jobs
Self-Service Self-Service
Empower
186. Strategy: Self-Service improves response times
https://youtu.be/USYrDaPEFtM
Jody Mulkey at DOES ‘15 SF
Services Monitoring Scripts/Tools Services Monitoring Scripts/ToolsServices Monitoring Scripts/Tools
DEV STAGE PROD
Dev & QA NOC/Ops Dev
Promote
approved
jobs
Self-Service Self-Service
Empower
188. Strategy: Self-Service improves consistency &compliance
Shaun Norris at DOES ‘18 London
https://youtu.be/d5IMvK0YHTg
Optimized for compliance
• 86,000+ employees
• 60+ countries
• Highly regulated
189. Strategy: Self-Service improves consistency &compliance
Shaun Norris at DOES ‘18 London
https://youtu.be/d5IMvK0YHTg
Optimized for compliance
• 86,000+ employees
• 60+ countries
• Highly regulated
LOB #1
LOB #2 LOB #3
LOB …n
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Self-Service
ComplianceConsistency
190. Strategy: Self-Service improves consistency &compliance
Shaun Norris at DOES ‘18 London
https://youtu.be/d5IMvK0YHTg
Optimized for compliance
• 86,000+ employees
• 60+ countries
• Highly regulated
LOB #1
LOB #2 LOB #3
LOB …n
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Self-Service
ComplianceConsistency
12 months: 13,000+ ops tasks in privileged
environments that didn’t require a review
191. Recap
Don’t forget about Ops.
Challenge conventional wisdom.
Leverage the Self-Service
Operations design pattern
“Shift-Left” control and decision
making.
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Focus on removing silos and
queues
Learn from SRE: Reduce toil to
create capacity to change
Toil Engineering Work
E.W.Toil
Reduce toil
Improve the business ǡ
No capacity to reduce toil
Toil at manageable percentage of capacity
oil at unmanageable percentage of capacity (“Engineering Bankruptcy”)
Understand the forces
undermining operations work
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Ops/SRE
Team
Self-Service Operations
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
Ops
(operates platform)
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Cross-Functional Product Team n Ops
(embedded)