Nicole Forsgren, co-founder and CEO of Dora, and Jez Humble, CTO at DORA, discuss how organizations leverage software to innovate. They reveal insights from their research on high-performing companies, emphasizing the balance between speed and stability in DevOps. The conversation highlights the importance of integrating technology with company culture for a competitive advantage, and advocates for updated metrics to measure productivity. Their insights illustrate that adaptability and supportive leadership are crucial for any organization's success in the tech-driven landscape.
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From FTP to Deployment Automation
Jez Humble's early career contrasted deploying code via FTP at a startup with complex enterprise deployments.
This experience highlighted the need for automation and scripting, which became key DevOps principles.
insights INSIGHT
Speed and Stability
High-performing companies don't trade off speed for stability, achieving both through DevOps practices.
These capabilities reinforce each other, leading to better quality and faster delivery.
insights INSIGHT
No Speed-Stability Trade-off
Research shows no trade-off between speed and stability in software development.
High performers excel at both, while low performers struggle with both.
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The DevOps Handbook provides a detailed and practical roadmap for improving IT in any organization by bridging the gap between development and operations teams. It includes case studies from companies like Google, Capital One, Netflix, and others, demonstrating how DevOps practices can enhance business outcomes. The book focuses on culture, automation, measurement, and sharing, and it extends the solutions presented in 'The Phoenix Project' to cover information security and compliance. The second edition features new case studies and insights from renowned researcher Dr. Nicole Forsgren[1][2][4].
Lean Enterprise
Barry O'Reilly
Jez Humble
Joanne Molesky
Continuous delivery
Dave Farley
This book provides a detailed approach to implementing Continuous Delivery, focusing on automation and collaboration between development, testing, and operations teams. It emphasizes the importance of keeping software in a releasable state and highlights the benefits of frequent, low-risk deployments.
Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps
Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations
Nicole Forsgren
Gene Kim
Jez Humble
Through four years of research, the authors provide a comprehensive overview of how to measure and improve software delivery performance. The book is divided into three parts: the first part presents the results of the research, the second part details the statistical methods used, and the third part includes a case study. It emphasizes the importance of certain practices and capabilities in driving high performance in technology organizations, impacting business outcomes such as profitability, productivity, and customer satisfaction.
One of the recurring themes we talk about a lot on the a16z Podcast is how software changes organizations, and vice versa... More broadly: it’s really about how companies of all kinds innovate with the org structures and tools that they have.
But we've come a long way from the question of "does IT matter" to answering the question of what org structures, processes, architectures, and roles DO matter when it comes to companies -- of all sizes -- innovating through software and more.
So in this episode (a re-run of a popular episode from a couple years ago), two of the authors of the book Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps, by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Jean Kim join Sonal Chokshi to share best practices and large-scale findings about high performing companies (including those who may not even think they’re tech companies). Nicole was co-founder and CEO of Dora, which was acquired by Google in December 2018; she will soon be joining GitHub as VP of Research & Strategy. Jez was CTO at DORA; is currently in Developer Relations at Google Cloud; and is the co-author of the books The DevOps Handbook, Lean Enterprise, and Continuous Delivery.
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