release automation is necessary, but not sufficient · release automation is necessary, but not...

Release Automation is Necessary, But Not Sufficient

Kevin Parker, Chief Evangelist Serena Software

SERENA SOFTWARE, INC. 1

The Problem


This is a software-powered world

Agile development has increased the pace of

innovation …

… and pushed the bottleneck downstream

to IT Operations

Conflicting Organizational Goals


Slow, Costly and Error-Prone Application Releases


Poor release quality due to ineffective hand-offs between Dev and Ops

Global Commercial Bank

Time consuming and error-prone manual deployments

Human errors deploying to 100 servers, no standard process and no audit trail

Global Insurer Regional Retailer

50% of companies are dissatisfied with key portions of their release management process

95% of IT organizations lack a centralized release management process…and this contributes up to 80% of production defects

Forrester Research Gartner

Lost $440M in 45 minutes Stalled commuter trains for 3 hours

Knight Capital BART

Thus, the DevOps Movement


Deployment Automation is a Great Place to Start


• People should not move the “bits”

• Automate code and config deployments with a single set of deployment processes across all environments

• All preprod deployments should be rehearsals for the final deploy into prod

• Quick incremental wins with big impact

An Example of Deployment Automation Success

7

• No formal release process.

• 2-person team unable to keep up with development updates.

• Implemented Serena Release Manager

• With focus on Release Automation

• Redeployed 1 FTE to higher value tasks

• Saved $200k/year in external consulting fees

• 3x increase in deployment throughput

• 75% reduction in deployment errors

Investment Management Firm $7B in Managed Assets

SERENA SOFTWARE, INC.

Islands of Automation Can Still Be Silos

Path to Production

We Believe Deployment Automation is Necessary, But Not Sufficient


How do you eliminate the silos and not burn the business?

How to Start

• Be agile and lean

• Incremental changes

• What matters to the business

• Define and measure success

• See the system

• Follow the flow

• Eliminate waste

• Focus on continuous improvement

• Deliver quick wins


What Matters to the Business?

• Yes, go ask the people

• Gain visibility and insight into the business

• Understand culture, goals and objectives

• How does your job fit within the context of the business?

• Agree on metrics


How Responsive are you to the Business?


• How do you measure success?

• Average cycle time for moving a business request from Development to Production?

• Number of business requests implemented this week, month, year?

• Cost of moving a unit of change through your application lifecycle?

• Percentage of a release focused on technical debt?

• Develop metrics to support what matters to the business

See the System and Follow the Flow

• Business request to the production

• Detailed picture of your current process

• Follow the flow of information and artifacts

• Where does your deployable assets reside?

• Identify feedback loops required


Increase Operational Efficiency

• Look for ways to optimize throughput

• Simplify process

• Lean Methodologies

• Value Stream Mapping

• Timeline Analysis

• Waste Analysis


Lean In and Then Lean Out


Details Are Important, and So Is The Big Picture

Manage Pre-production Environments Improve availability and readiness

17 SERENA SOFTWARE, INC.

• Calendar shows environment contention and availability issues

• Process drives environment provisioning, management, and decommissioning

• Automatic notification of environment readiness and status changes

Eliminate Inefficient Handoffs


• Define, build, orchestrate and manage all deployment turnovers and tasks

• Capture environment and deployment tribal knowledge in a “runbook”

• Formalize packaging and process of the handoff

• Same set of semantics

Orchestrate the Release Process Streamline and accelerate the release lifecycle

19 SERENA SOFTWARE, INC.

• Single system of record for release planning and execution

• Schedules

• Milestones

• Gates and Approvals

• Automatic cycle-time capture

• Ensure audit trails for compliance and learning

Integrate the Toolchain Leverage existing tools for incremental adoption approach


Build Unit Test

SIT UAT Pre- Prod

Operate & Service

Request & Define

Develop

QA

Deploy

Prod

Release Manager

Automate the Deployment Deployment Hub

Orchestrate the Process Coordinate the Team

Summary

• Velocity and Complexity of Application Releases continue to increase as businesses adapt to new economic conditions.

• Responsiveness to the business and Operational Efficiencies are value drivers.

• Automation is the quickest route to high performance.

• Automation is necessary, but not sufficient.

• Manual deployments, poor team collaboration, and lack of control lead to poor quality releases at a High Cost to the business.

• High levels of performance demand an Agile and Lean approach.

• Quick wins and continuous improvement trumps big bang rollouts.


Thank You

[email protected]

release automation is necessary, but not sufficient · release automation is necessary, but not...

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