A newsletter that started as a personal learning and getting-in-touch project by Ivan Krnic grew into a sociotechnical newsletter covering topics of technical excellence, organizational improvements, and productivity.
State of DevOps Report
State of DevOps Report is a fantastic read, but to make the most of it, we must consider it in our own context. None of the numbers in the report should be our baseline or goal. What we’re looking at are other people’s journeys of continuous improvement.
Imagine that an organization is a band . Each band has a unique set of musicians playing their own music. They must tune many sliders on their soundboard for their music to sound optimal. And no two bands will have the same soundboard preset because different people play different music.
Organizations are similar: if you consider that 24 capabilities from the Accelerate book are your sliders on the soundboard, then every organization will tune those sliders in its own way to achieve precisely the sound it wants to achieve (i.e., the business goals). Taylor Swift wouldn’t use the same soundboard preset as U2. And neither should any organization copy someone else’s metrics and steps of their improvement journey.
Interview of the Month
State of DevOps Report with Nathen Harvey
This episode is a special one for me since, for the first time, I have a reappearance in the show – my friend Nathen Harvey, the godfather of the DORA community! We talked about the community, the inaugural DORA Summit, and the freshly published 2023 State of DevOps Report. Nathen touched upon a couple of very interesting insights and shared a ton of advice!
An interesting insight is about trunk-based development influencing burnout. Community is working hard to explain this so feel free to join the DORA community trunk-based development discussion that is scheduled for Thursday, December 7 at 6PM UTC. Join the DORA Community of Practice for details and an invitation to the discussion.
Hand picked
DORA core model – “DORA Core represents a distillation of DORA’s most foundational findings: metrics, capabilities, and outcomes that the research has repeatedly surfaced.” In other words, it is a high-level visualization of core concepts and how their relationships lead to better organizational performance. This is the perfect place to start if you’re entering the DORA world.
McKinsey Developer Productivity Review – Much has been said about the McKinsey Report, and I have dedicated the whole last issue to good articles debunking it. Still, I had to add an incredible piece by Daniel Terhorst-North.
9th Annual State of the Software Supply Chain – Chances are your organization is relying heavily on open-source components. Sonatype keeps an annual report on open-source consumption behavior and keeps us aware of possible risks from mismanaging open-source resources.
Shape Up – participating in an open space discussion, I heard a fellow participant sharing how his organization had a good experience using Shape Up as an approach to product development. Shape Up comes from Basecamp, and here you can find more details.
Read with us
Accelerate State of DevOps Report 2023
Every year, we’re looking forward to the latest State of DevOps Report edition. Like no other report, and with extreme scientific rigor, it outlines the DevOps practices that drive successful software delivery and operational performance. It is a must-read for every software delivery organization.
Header photo by Kevin Roche Photo LLC
