The Future is Software Software is the competitive differentiator driving every business, in every sector, in one way or another. Every enterprise must evolve its software development and delivery processes in order to compete in this new world, or face the prospect of being disrupted. With this shift in focus, comes challenges of accelerating software […]
August 9th, 2018 | Published in Agile Release Management, DevOps, Release Management
Given the scale and complexity of enterprise applications, trying to improve release cycle time without compromising quality is a constant concern. In tightly-coupled architectures, release pipelines have multiple system dependencies which adds to the complexity of maintaining quality while managing the increased velocity of change. An effective release process requires close collaboration across all teams, […]
March 14th, 2018 | Published in Agile Release Management, Release Management, Test Environment Management
In the second part of our conversation with Gary Gruver (read part 1 here), we continue to discuss delivery pipeline inefficiencies of enterprise releases. As Gary describes in his book Starting and Scaling DevOps: “The biggest inefficiencies in most large organizations exists in the large, complex, tightly coupled systems that require coordination across large numbers […]
January 15th, 2018 | Published in Agile Release Management, Deployment Management, DevOps, Test Environment Management
In his book, Applying Agile and DevOps at Scale, Gary Gruver talks about the differences between the application deployment pipeline of a loosely coupled architecture vs a tightly coupled architecture typical of large enterprises. In loosely coupled architectures, release trains achieve quality validation independently. He uses multiple parallel train tracks to illustrate this delivery independence. […]
January 8th, 2018 | Published in Agile Release Management, Deployment Management, DevOps, Test Environment Management
While the DevOps movement and associated technologies have garnered much attention and fanfare, few have addressed the core issue—the handoff from development to operations. This blog post explains why Release Management is the bridge between development and operations, and how you can strengthen that bridge with the right approach, tools, teams, and processes. The Chasm […]
June 26th, 2017 | Published in Agile Release Management, Release Management
Business is demanding better, faster delivery of value from IT so it can compete in a market that’s moving at breakneck speed. How can IT accelerate business outcomes if it’s taking nine months to complete projects? First and most important, align IT teams with business goals: acquire new customers, retain current customers, and boost revenue. […]
April 28th, 2017 | Published in Agile Release Management, Release Management
“The core idea of Lean is to maximize customer value.” Lean Enterprise Institute What is Lean? Businesses are being driven up against the wall by continual industry disruption. Many are fighting back by adopting Lean as a means to support business transformation. The aim is simple: create more value for customers with fewer resources. Lean […]
April 12th, 2017 | Published in Agile Release Management, Release Management
That’s not a fancy twist on a popular approach in IT. This post is about untangling the mess Agile Release Planning has become. We’re living in an age where we’re chasing the latest buzzwords and trends. We hardly slow down to look at the path we’ve covered to see if we’ve improved or not. It’s […]
April 10th, 2017 | Published in Agile Release Management
To make sure we’re on the same page, let’s start by defining what we mean by a silo. “They are nothing more than barriers… between departments… causing people… to work against each other.” Patrick Lencioni in Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars Thanks to the work of Lencioni we have a good framework for understanding the […]
March 21st, 2017 | Published in Agile Release Management
Rising costs. Delays. Failed deployments. Outages. Your risk is increasing and you’re scrambling to figure out why. The trigger is a lack of visibility. And it is the single biggest reason your release risk is going up for dev, for ops, and for the business.
March 15th, 2017 | Published in Agile Release Management, Release Management
Your calendar is filled with release reviews, but it’s looking busy and not exactly doing much. Every time you glance at it, you cringe. You promise yourself you would free up some time so you can actually get stuff done. But you never get around to doing that because you don’t know where to start […]
March 2nd, 2017 | Published in Agile Release Management, Release Management