Open Source for DevOps Practices in a Microsoft Environment

14 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in DevOps/OpsDev, Open Source

Tags

Development, DevOps, learning, Open Source, OpsDev

Microsoft have just released the slides and training for Open Source for DevOps Practices via the Microsoft Virtual Academy.

The training covers 4 sessions and uses some Microsoft Tools/Services in the demonstrations/training:

What DevOps Means Here; Common DevOps Practices and Supporting Open Source Tooling
Version Control as a Communication Tool; Issue Trackers as a Coordination Tool
Shareable Development, Test and Deployment Environments and Automated Staging
Automated Testing, Whats Next?

The sessions cover the following topics:

DevOps Overview
Azure Basics + Process Tools
Source Code Repos + Communication
Reproducible Environments
Automated Testing
Deployment & Configuration Management
Release Management
Monitor + Learn

Each session is between an 1 hour and 1 hour 20 mins. Followed by a recommended next steps section at the end.

These are good sessions and demo’s if you want to integrate typical Open Source DevOps products into a Microsoft based estate. The videos and demo’s cover:

Azure
Docker
Vagrant
Packer
Gradle
Grunt
Salt
Hudson
Puppet
Chef
Jenkins
Nagios
Zabbix

Source: http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/open-source-for-devops-practices

Continuous Delivery Visualisations

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in DevOps/OpsDev

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Delivery, DevOps, Visualisation

In one of my researching “DevOps and current state in the marketplace” moments, I came across these 4 drawings by Nhan Ngo (Engineer at Spotify) – (Distributed under a Creative Commons licence), that she created whilst reading a book called “Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Fowler))”

Source link at the bottom of the post in case these versions don’t work well for you.

Source http://continuousdelivery.com/2014/02/visualizations-of-continuous-delivery/

Playing a Game with Innovation and Thinking

19 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Max Hemingway in Architecture, DevOps/OpsDev, Innovation

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Architecture, DevOps, Information Theory, Innovation, OpsDev

I have been looking at ways to assist me with Innovation and Thinking and looking outside of the box. Lots of different methodologies exist and there is no right or wrong way to what method to use or when to apply it.

After studying several methods in this arena and investigating, reading and learning some of these, I have come up with a set of “Playing Cards” that allow me to play games with Innovation and Thinking.

I took a pack of plain/blank playing cards and wrote out cards with different methodologies and ways of tackling/working on innovation.

The Pack is currently based on 3 models and I am looking to add a few more as I develop the pack (Other methodologies are available)

4 Site Model
Peter Drucker Thinking
SCAMPER

I have also added some:

Problem challenge cards – to add different problems to the area you are working on
Lens Cards – to challenge you to look at innovation through different lenses or view points

How to play the game

For the problem or area that I am wanting to tackle I shuffle the pack and apply 4-5 cards then work through it based on what has been dealt.

The lens cards may be shuffled in the main pack or dealt at the side one at a time.

Set a time limit on the cards dealt and then brainstorm writing everything down.

No thought or idea is a bad idea until it is qualified in or out.

When the time is up either play a different lens card against the cards on the table – or collect them up and shuffle the deck and start again.

Results

I have found that using the cards gives me different view across different methodologies rather than just applying one.

Sometimes the cards do not result in too much on the page, but other times they flourish ideas and innovations around the problem or area I have been looking at.

Next I plan to add more methodologies to the pack and expanding the cards already produced, although I don’t think that I will expand this pack much more as it then may become cumbersome and be too large to be effective.

I do have some blank cards left though so may innovate something new around the next thing to do with them.