A Modest Gauge for DevOps Maturity
Gauging your organization's readiness to adopt DevOps practices is a big, lucrative consulting opportunity for a plethora of tools and process vendors! You could read about the disputed definition of DevOps, pay consultants millions of dollars to determine how mature your business is in adopting DevOps, or alternately, just consult my simple rubric:
Imagine that it's Friday afternoon, and a key customer is demanding a code rollout to address a critical issue. The software development team that owns the affected service has just checked in the fix. Dev, Ops, and someone sweaty with an impressive title are discussing what happens next.
The Question
Someone Sweaty with an Impressive Title Asks: "Hey, can we get this change rolled out tonight? It's super-important."
Possible Answers, and their DevOps Rating
Everyone: "Impossible, the code won't be tested and ready to deploy until sometime Saturday, the deployment will take until next week, and then we have to test it manually before we release it to the customer."
DevOps Rating: 0 out of 5 - You're Definitely Not DevOps
Ops: "We think this is going to be a disaster. Also, are the developers going to be available if there's a problem?"
Dev: "No, we don't work weekends."
DevOps Rating: 1 out of 5 - You're Not DevOps
Ops: "We think this is going to be a disaster. Also, are the developers going to be available if there's a problem?"
Dev: "Don't worry, the new college grad is on-call for the weekend."
DevOps Rating: 2 out of 5 - You're Dev and Ops, Heading the Wrong Way
Ops: "This isn't a great idea, but we have done it before and we can do it again. Also, are the developers going to be available if there's a problem?"
Dev: "Yes, there's an experienced engineer on-call and the team lead is aware something unusual is happening."
DevOps Rating: 3 out of 5 - You're Dev and Ops, Heading the Right Way
Dev: "DevOps will take care of it."
DevOps: "WTH?"
DevOps Rating: -1 out of 5 - You're Not DevOps, You Just Slapped a Title on Some People Doing Operations
Dev: "It’s rolling out now, and my phone is quiet."
Ops: "That's true - I just triggered the production deployment and checked that everything looks good in production. Dev, let's go get a beer while we watch to ensure everything stays healthy."
Dev: "You're my kind of Ops!"
DevOps Rating: 4 out of 5 - You're Well On the Way to DevOps
Dev: "It's rolling out now, everything looks good, and my phone is quiet."
Ops: "I just answered you in literally the previous line."
DevOps Rating: 5 out of 5 - You're DevOps
Remember that the point of DevOps is to reduce separation between development and operation of Internet-based services. In doing so, you will be embracing the true spirit of the DevOps movement!
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