a16z Podcast: Feedback Loops -- Company Culture, Change, and DevOps
Mar 28, 2018
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Nicole Forsgren, CEO of DORA and co-author of "Accelerate," teams up with Jez Humble, DORA's CTO and co-author of several influential books, to explore the transformational power of DevOps. They discuss the necessity of dismantling the myth that speed and performance can't coexist, drawing insights from extensive research on high-performing companies. Topics include the evolution of DevOps practices, the critical role of leadership in driving change, and the importance of collaborative metrics and culture in achieving success across diverse organizational structures.
DevOps revolutionizes software development by promoting collaboration between teams, enhancing agility and adaptability in rapidly changing environments.
Measuring organizational performance through key DevOps metrics reveals that companies can achieve both speed and reliability without compromise.
A strong organizational culture fosters innovation and psychological safety, enabling teams to learn from failures and continuously improve their processes.
Deep dives
The Evolution of DevOps
DevOps emerged as a response to the challenges faced in building large, distributed software systems that require speed, security, and scalability. This movement aimed to create a synergy between development and operations, a necessity as companies like Amazon and Google pushed the boundaries of software engineering. Historically, the challenges of software crises, reminiscent of the 1960s, required a pivot from rigid processes to more flexible and iterative approaches. Much like the Agile movement that preceded it, DevOps focuses on continuous improvement and adaptation, catering to fast-evolving product requirements.
Performance Measurement in DevOps
Measuring performance in organizations that adopt DevOps practices involves assessing several key metrics that directly correlate with speed and stability. Metrics such as lead time, release frequency, and change fail rate provide insights into how efficiently teams can deliver software while maintaining quality. The research indicates that high-performing companies can achieve both speed and reliability, contradicting the notion that prioritizing one necessitates sacrificing the other. By utilizing Agile principles and continuous feedback loops, organizations can refine their processes to better respond to diverse user needs.
Organizational Culture and Its Impact
An organization's culture plays a vital role in enabling successful DevOps practices, as it fosters an environment where innovation and risk-taking are encouraged. Companies are categorized into three cultural types: pathological, bureaucratic, and generative, with generative cultures being most conducive to rapid adaptation and learning. Psychological safety within teams is essential, as it ensures that employees feel comfortable sharing failures without fear of reprimand, ultimately leading to fruitful discussions and learnings. Organizations that prioritize a culture of collaboration and learning tend to outpace their peers in performance and adaptability.
Insights from Extensive Research
Vast research spanning over 23,000 data points highlights that organizations which embrace DevOps practices experience marked improvements in performance. This research underscores that effective technology implementation, coupled with strong leadership across various organizational levels, significantly boosts productivity and market competitiveness. Findings emphasize that companies leveraging their cultural capabilities alongside technology can derive a competitive edge in increasingly saturated markets. Essentially, the right combination of people, processes, and technology results in sustainable organizational success.
Unlocking the Potential of Any Organization
Any organization, regardless of size or industry, can harness the principles of DevOps to enhance performance and foster innovation. Successful transformations begin with assessing existing capabilities and identifying constraints that hinder progress. Companies need to evolve from viewing technology merely as a tool to understanding it as a foundational capability that drives overall success. By fostering a mindset of continuous improvement and embracing the principles of collaborative development, organizations can become agile and responsive to changing market conditions.
with Nicole Forsgren (@nicolefv), Jez Humble (@jezhumble) and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90)
From the old claim that "IT doesn't matter" and question of whether tech truly drives organizational performance, we've been consumed with figuring out how to measure -- and predict -- the output and outcomes, the performance and productivity of software. It's not useful to talk about what happens in one isolated team or successful company; we need to be able to make it happen at any company -- of any size, industry vertical, or architecture/tech stack. But can we break the false dichotomy of performance vs. speed; is it possible to have it all?
This episode of the a16z Podcast boldly goes where no man has gone before -- trying to answer those elusive questions -- by drawing on one of the largest, large-scale studies of software and organizational performance out there, as presented in the new book, Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps -- Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim. Forsgren (co-founder and CEO at DevOps Research and Assessment - DORA; PhD in Management Information Systems; formerly at IBM) and Humble (co-founder and CTO at DORA; formerly at 18F; and co-author of The DevOps Handbook, Lean Enterprise, and Continuous Delivery) share the latest findings about what drives performance in companies of all kinds.
But what is DevOps, really? And beyond the definitions and history, where does DevOps fit into the broader history and landscape of other tech movements (such as lean manufacturing, agile development, lean startups, microservices)? Finally, what kinds of companies are truly receptive to change, beyond so-called organizational "maturity" scores? And for pete's sake, can we figure out how to measure software productivity already?? All this and more in this episode!
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