Devops and Organizations

Devops is a mode of operation that forms in response to ownership in an organization.

Amazon, an engineering powerhouse delivers value despite its size because

• a need is fulfilled by a service
• a service has a SLA,
• an sla has an owner and delivery team.

The sla enables delivery by specifying

• where it is consumed
• what is provided
• when the speed and reliability
• why it is important
• but not how it is implemented. The service owners decide what is most effective.

I think that the success of Amazon is due to the corporate organization aligning with the service architecture.

I see these transformation as about reforming the organization structurally. Developing, deployment and operation as a group is instinctual as a hedge against the consequences of poor SLA ownership

Monolithic applications are resistant to devops - Monolithic apps inherently require more breadth of knowledge than is possible for the collective intelligence of a dev group. Loosely coupled well defined Interfaces enable devops arcs.  In devops, intelligence required for dev-to-deploy-and-operate is less than that attainable by a dev group

Agile developmental transformation feels unnatural to the engineers and will be resisted if the bureaucratic organization is not also transformed to align ownership with units that can act in their best interest in an agile manner.

Transformation must happen at an organizational level.  Making the tools group the first service delivery group with sla and ownership starts the transformation with the services and practices that ease it.  This reference group can train others and spin off more service groups.  The resulting organization is brand new.

If such a transformation is what the client wants to do, the company assisting them should not sign a transformational statement of work that does not involve declaring and following a formal SLA for the group being formed to start the organizational transformation.