An analysis of GitLab’s “Act 2” transition under CEO Bill Staples, examining whether the company can successfully pivot to an AI-native, agentic software delivery model while dismantling the radically transparent, remote-first culture that originally defined its brand and operational success.
The Hidden Cost of “Free” Open Source Infrastructure
When the OpenSSF, PyPI, Rust Foundation, and OpenJS recently declared that “Open Infrastructure Is Not Free,” they highlighted a crisis that affects every organization building modern software. Behind every container image pulled, every vulnerability scan and every automated deployment, there’s a vast web of infrastructure: Package registries, CI/CD services, artifact repositories, security feeds, distribution networks and CDN layers. For decades, this […]
AsyncAPI: Transparency as a Value
History has been marked by opaque and totalitarian power systems. Aided by prisons and walls that keep out the light. The concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals has marked human evolution. From feudalism to fascism, the annulment of the rights of individuals has been based on obscurantism and ignorance. Information has […]
In Product Development, Transparency is the New Agility
The rise of DevOps has shown that agility and speed are key drivers for turning a business into a high-growth company. But as product managers, that’s not all we can take away from the DevOps culture. Those same methodologies that enable DevOps to function, such as having cross-functional teams and embracing a culture that embraces […]
Dashboards from Hell
Even organizations with a mature DevOps services model inevitably will hear from executive sponsors about the “need” for a dashboard for DevOps information. Organizations just starting to embrace DevOps won’t have the time to construct one yet, but over time will reach the same conclusion. The need is real, and the value is significant—it is […]
Interoperability’s Impact on Transparency
We fix what we see is broken. Providing “transparency” into the DevOps-enabled software development life cycle (SDLC) has tangential goals of quickly illuminating what is broken, running slower than it should or working flawlessly. Automated testing systems, for instance, are generally good at highlighting pass/fail results from integrated testing in the development process. Once they […]