2023 State of DevOps Report with Nathen Harvey

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 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.

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.

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