How do you improve with one metric quality, cost, performance, employee and, most importantly, customer satisfaction? I think MTTR is one to consider, but with a DevOps twist (agile+lean+ITSM). The thing I love about DevOps is that it allows for people to think differently. DevOps is the movement driving organizations to find new ways of […]
Lean Security: How Better Development Can Protect Your Business
If companies are to reach their strategic goals—reducing time to market, boosting sales, improving product market fit and brand image, and cutting cybersecurity costs—then it’s time for a new outlook on software security. Today’s business leaders must learn to see security for what it is: A differentiating factor. Companies with reputations for secure developmental processes […]
Lean for DevOps: Measuring the meaningful
At a recent Lean project report out to stakeholders, a piece of analysis was presented which showed the quantity of metrics being captured, in various areas, at different organizational levels. IBM’s Watson had been used to generate the chart, and it told an interesting story. But that story needed some translating. ‘Look at all those […]
Lean for DevOps: Is it OK to move the banana?
There is an urban legend about a Lean deployment which, in the process of applying the 5S to a workshop, drew lines on the desk to indicate where each worker should keep their banana. 5S, for the uninitiated, is a set of principles by which Lean practitioners organize a workspace – which might apply to […]
Roll-up your sleeves – Launch a SAFe® Agile Release Train
Most organizations often begin their agile transformation with a series of low risk, stand-alone pilots. While these pilots may prove that teams can adopt small team agile practices such as “Scrum” or “XP”, however these pilots often don’t help prove that your organization can adopt agile at the enterprise level. Scaling agile to support larger […]
Steer SAFely – So how do you do it?
This is the third blog in the DevOps – Scaled Agile series. In the previous blogs, we discussed the characteristics of a successful enterprise agile transformation and provided specific guidance on applying lean and agile practices at an enterprise level. We covered the “why” and a bit of the “how” at a high level, making […]
Steer SAFely – Driving collaboration across multi-disciplinary teams
This is the second blog in the DevOps – Scaled Agile series. In the first blog, Scaling Lean and Agile for the enterprise: All hands on keyboard!!!, we discussed the characteristics of a successful enterprise agile transformation and described why engagement and commitment across all disciplines in the organization is not just optional, but required, […]
Scaling Lean and Agile for the enterprise: All hands on keyboard!!!
Lean and Agile methodologies are nothing new, but in the last few years we have seen the emergence of several frameworks combining elements of both. The IBM DevOps framework is one clear example. Combining principles of Lean and Agile into a single framework enables scaling of the core benefits to the entire organization, not just […]
Will DevOps Kill IT Outsourcing?: Part 1
Part 1: DevOps and outsourcing like oil and water After nearly two decades of steady IT outsourcing for the sake of savings and efficiency gains, the shine seems to have worn off from this once glittering phenomenon. And according to many experts, DevOps and continuous delivery practices are playing a big part in many enterprises’ […]
Lean for DevOps: Mapping the tributaries and deltas of demand
Here at IBM’s Lean practice we use a diagram called ‘Mississippi’ to analyze demand. It is not so-called because it originates in Mississippi – in fact I’ve been given to understand that this tool was developed, and named, in our UK practice*. Instead, it’s called the Mississippi because, like that great river, demand comes from […]