02 The Value of DevOps, Digital Transformation Era, DevOps as an Essential Option #

Hello, I’m Shi Xuefeng. Today, let’s talk about the value of DevOps.

Recently, due to work reasons, I visited a leading financial company in China. During my conversation with colleagues from the technology department, there was something that surprised me and I would like to share it with you.

Although this company is perceived as a traditional enterprise, they actually use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework for performance goals.

Let me briefly introduce OKR. OKR is a popular performance management framework used by Silicon Valley internet companies. Simply put, “O” represents objectives, which means what we need to achieve, and “KR” represents key results, which are used to validate if we have achieved the objectives.

The CEO of this financial company, who is also the head of the technology department, set multiple OKRs for all employees, with only one belonging to the visionary category. You may not believe it, but this visionary OKR is to successfully implement DevOps in three pilot projects across the organization by the end of this year.

Moreover, this is not just empty talk. If this visionary OKR is ultimately achieved, all employees’ year-end bonuses will be increased by 10% to 20% on top of the existing amount. It is evident that they are serious about implementing DevOps.

Even the core system transformation of the entire organization didn’t make it to the visionary OKR list. So why does DevOps have such a profound influence, capturing the CEO’s fascination and becoming the top item on their wishlist? This leads us to the topic I want to discuss today: the value of DevOps and its significance for modern enterprises.

If we have to choose the keyword with the highest exposure in the strategic plans of major enterprises in recent years, digital transformation undoubtedly takes the top spot, without exception.

For example, traditional automotive giant Volkswagen announced the launch of comprehensive digital transformation this year, with a plan to invest approximately $4 billion by the end of 2023 to achieve digitalization in management and production. Furthermore, it is projected that by 2025, the proportion of software development within the Volkswagen Group will increase from its current level of less than 10% to 60%.

Why is Software So Important? #

For software professionals, this is undoubtedly an exciting thing. At the same time, it once again proves the long-standing saying, “Every company will become a software company.” So, in the era of digital transformation, why is software so important?

The rise of the mobile interactive internet, brought about by the popularization of the Internet and the development of mobile communication technology, has deeply influenced the way we live.

As a simple example, a few years ago, if we needed to do banking transactions, we had to find the nearest branch, take time out to go there and take a number, wait for a long time, and then finally sit in front of a bank teller to complete the transaction face-to-face. Of course, this is assuming everything goes smoothly. If we forgot to bring our identification or if there were too many people in line, we might have to go again, making the cost of doing business quite high.

Now, in most cases, all we need to do is take out our mobile phones, open the bank’s app, tap a few times on the screen, and the transaction is done, without any time or space restrictions. The user’s experience of banking services comes directly from the mobile application itself. If a bank’s app has an ugly interface and often experiences various issues during operation, it will directly affect the user’s impression of the bank and even subconsciously make them think that the bank is not reliable. Obviously, no bank wants to leave such an impression on people.

Therefore, software has gradually transformed from being an internal support system and cost center for enterprises to becoming a direct carrier and profit center for enterprise services. Enterprises reduce operating costs and improve service levels through software, while users not only enjoy convenience but also strengthen their connections with enterprises.

This is a win-win situation, but the problem is that we are in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) era, which represents the typical characteristics of this era. For example, the bike-sharing industry went from rising rapidly and being extremely popular to gradually becoming calm in just a few years.

The ability for enterprises to quickly meet users’ needs, flexibly adapt to industry trends, and stand out in the face of increasing industry competition is no longer a “good to have” capability but a “must-have” capability.

It can be said that the efficiency and quality of software delivery have become the core values and core competitiveness of today’s enterprises. Therefore, any enterprise, whether it is a industry giant or a startup, whether it is in the Internet industry or traditional industry, whether it is a leader or a disruptor, has a strong desire to improve its software delivery capabilities, which coincides with the ideas and background of DevOps. So it is not surprising that DevOps can become the number one choice on the enterprise wishlist.

However, even though software is so important, there are still many companies developing software in a manual workshop-like manner. To quote a leader from a national think tank, “The industrial revolution has eliminated the majority of the manual labor force but has given rise to the largest existing manual labor force, programmers.” This statement may seem sensational, but this way of developing software does exist, and it is accompanied by a lot of inefficiency. The software development and delivery efficiency within enterprises has become a goldmine worth exploring and excavating. Efficiency economics could become a new growth point for performance.

The Value of DevOps #

So, what exactly is the value that implementing DevOps brings to enterprises? To answer this question, we have to mention the famous industry survey report on DevOps.

Efficient software delivery #

Since 2014, this report has been published annually. It is considered the most authoritative report in the industry, as it is based on scientific analysis conducted by industry experts and leaders. Many of its data and concepts have been widely disseminated. I found that among the extensive pages of this report, the four key metrics of DevOps are the most frequently referenced or mentioned.

1. Deployment frequency: The frequency at which applications and services deploy code to production.
2. Lead time for changes: The duration from code submission to successful execution in production.
3. Mean time to recover (MTTR): The duration between occurrence of a failure in an application or service and its recovery.
4. Change fail rate: The proportion of deployments in production that fail or cause a degradation in service.

Each year, this report calculates the differences between high-performing teams and low-performing teams based on these four core metrics. Based on last year’s data, high-performing teams had a deployment frequency 46 times higher, a lead time for changes over 2,500 times faster, a mean time to recover over 2,600 times faster, and a change fail rate 7 times lower compared to low-performing teams.

Regardless of how this data is calculated, the impact it has is impressive when you see these numbers for the first time. The concrete numerical representation of the difference in efficiency between companies is quite impactful.

And the most “desperate” thing in the world is when people who are better than you turn out to be even more hardworking. When you carefully examine this report, you will notice that many of the frequently mentioned star companies are practicing DevOps. Many of the case studies from these companies have become classic examples in the DevOps industry.

On the other hand, the four outcome metrics mentioned in the DevOps State of the Report represent the two most important aspects of software delivery: delivery efficiency and delivery quality. Furthermore, from the data, we discover an astonishing revelation: high-performing organizations achieve not only high efficiency but also high quality. This shows that it is possible to have both speed and quality.

However, this subverts the traditional software development notion of “slow and steady wins the race.” According to the traditional V-model of software development, after the software development is completed, it needs to go through various levels of tests such as unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and acceptance testing to ensure that the software quality meets expectations. However, for modern software development, such heavy processes and controls are obviously unable to keep up with the pace of the times.

When we continuously improve software delivery efficiency, we often do so at the expense of quality. The more we do, the more mistakes we make, often leading to a dilemma.

DevOps, on the other hand, goes against the grain. It seeks to help companies improve the entire software delivery process by introducing systematic development practices, revolutionary software architecture, continuous upgrading of organizational management concepts, and influencing corporate culture. It aims to achieve both high throughput and overall service stability, thus truly achieving fast and good software delivery goals.

Inspiring team creativity #

The aforementioned topics are undoubtedly the important value that DevOps brings to enterprises, but not the entirety. In this column, I not only want to share knowledge with you but also hope to share different perspectives. Let’s think and discuss together to gain inspiration and new knowledge.

Previously, when I was chatting with KK, the founder of Jenkins, he posed a question: Students familiar with cloud computing may have some knowledge about the de facto standard in container orchestration, Kubernetes, and its CNCF foundation. So why are enterprises enthusiastic about joining foundations like this? Even when it requires a significant financial investment, what are the benefits they receive?

There is no denying that CNCF is a very successful operational case study, and being a member enjoys the benefits written in black and white. However, for many small and medium-sized enterprises, their aspirations may go beyond that.

Many times, enterprise participation in such organizations is also a way to demonstrate to internal employees that “we are on the same starting line as the world’s most famous companies, focusing on the same issues.” This serves as both motivation and an enhancement of confidence in the enterprise itself for its employees.

The same goes for DevOps because, ultimately, enterprise problems are human problems, and the core value ultimately rests with people. Therefore, focusing solely on the ability to deliver software while neglecting the people’s feelings often leads to one-sided results.

When building a DevOps tool platform within the enterprise, I often contemplate this question. Even if we have put great effort into improving delivery efficiency through platform capabilities, the time saved may only allow employees to have a little more rest. Nevertheless, it is still a meaningful endeavor because DevOps also includes the concept of improving the survival status of software practitioners and enhancing their happiness.

From this perspective, implementing DevOps not only improves the work rhythm of software development teams through various process optimizations and automation capabilities, but it also aligns everyone towards the same goal, fostering trust and efficient collaboration. This mobilizes employees’ enthusiasm and innovation capabilities, enabling the entire team to enter a state of actively creating value. The impact this has is far beyond that achieved by building one or two tool platforms.

Summary #

DevOps, as the third revolution in software engineering, has become a necessary option for almost all companies that deliver services through software in the wave of digital transformation. It can not only improve the software delivery process of the enterprise, achieving a balance of high quality and high efficiency, but also continuously improve the engineering culture within the enterprise, enhancing employee confidence and inspiring their vitality and value creation. As a result, it helps the company gain a competitive advantage in the VUCA era and achieve greater success. If a company can really achieve the above goals through the implementation of DevOps, and it only needs to pay an additional 10% to 20% annual bonus, wouldn’t it be a great deal?

Thought Question #

Finally, I leave you with a thought question: If you think DevOps can solve the current problems of your company and you want to apply for project approval from your leaders, how would you explain the value of DevOps?

Feel free to write down your thoughts and answers in the comments area, and let’s discuss and progress together. If you find this article helpful, please feel free to share it with your friends.