Is your organization transforming with AGILE, ITSM, DevOps or LEAN and looking forward to optimizing a Continuous Delivery Pipeline?  Do you want to be a Continuous Delivery Architect? This is an amazing and exciting time where you can dream and build upon what you have and develop the “COMB” shaped skills that will shape your future! The “2019 Upskilling Report for Enterprise DevOps Skills” reinforces that organizations not only need “T” shaped skilled practitioners or even “PI” shaped skillsets. Many high-performing organizations are looking for individuals that have “COMB” shaped skillsets. An individual with “COMB” skills would have a broad base of knowledge forming the top of the comb and then also have multiple expertise areas which gives the shape of a comb. You can start developing your skillsets or those of your team to shape individual career opportunities and also to shape the future of your organization. Expanding your skills is particularly needed for those involv

The Age  of Architecture   Architecture is one of those universal roles that no matter the job, it's critical you have a good understanding of the architecture to be successful in both development and operations. As with any architectural role, there are so many moving parts that if you can’t see the machine for the cog you’ll never be able to master your craft. The problem seems that because of the siloed nature of the business, no one but those in architecture gets the lay of the land, it is in this challenge that continuous Delivery Architecture was created to help ALL practitioners understand not only the big picture but the why and how every component is vital to success. What’s In The Toolbox To help you get an idea of the sheer quantity of tools that will be at your disposal I’ll give you the highlights reel. It starts with what we call a collective body of knowledge. This is a collection of materials (books, blogs, websites, etc.) to help you on your journey to lear

Currently, 68% of organizations have begun to adopt or plan to adopt #DevOps within the next two years. If you are reading this because you want to embrace DevOps certification, knowledge and skills be sure to visit the DevOps Campus .  This is all about DevOps skills? Are you ready? DevOps Institute recently generated a very unique and interesting report titled “UPSKILLING: Enterprise DevOps Skills Report”. Below are a few excerpts with some thoughts added. Soft skills and technical skills “There is an equal balance between those who look for soft skills and those who seek technical skills when hiring externally or internally. About 30% of survey respondents said they look for soft skills first, as they believe they can always train or educate on the process and technical skills. And 32% looked first for technical skills to get benefits from the new hire. Thoughts: It’s easy to become absorbed in a need for technical knowledge. Although that is required it is really the people

Many are surprised to learn that ITSM practices ARE compatible with their DevOps pipelines and even more importantly that they are a critical element to ensure the effectiveness, efficiency, and value that is expected. Those that are struggling with silos, us vs. them blame games, or roadblocks and impediments for change and test, are shocked to learn how accelerated, modernized ITSM practices can enable their outcomes!  Topics and discussion from a recent ITSM for DevOps class were exciting as practitioners, managers, and leaders discovered together how It is possible to streamline and even automate their ITSM processes and practices so that people don’t even realize that they are executing ITSM processes. We don’t need to change “what” needs to be accomplished. Policy, Governance, and Compliance are a reality. To achieve true value and business outcomes service providers must change the way that they think. A change in thinking provokes a change in how we do work. How we

According to ITIL 4 best practice, Service Continuity focuses on events that would impede business operations so drastically that it would be considered a disaster. Other events that have a less significant impact on the business might be considered incidents to be managed through the Incident Management Practice or the Major Incident Management Practice. This means that there are different levels of importance and that the distinction between what is a normal incident, major incident, or one that might require disaster recovery must be predefined and agreed upon. Documentation then must include clear thresholds and triggers to provoke the appropriate response and recovery into action without delay and additional risk.  There is no question that your organization is increasingly dependent on services that are tech-enabled. The need for resilient solutions is critical to success. A combination of business planning as well as being proactive with security, incident, and problem mana

To Understand Why and Why NOW, I will use some of the “Guiding Principles” that are the golden chords steaming through all practices defined in ITIL 4. These guiding principles are themes throughout the concepts and precepts that were discussed in a recent ITIL 4 Foundation certification class. Practitioners and thought leaders gathered together from all over the world to discuss and learn more about ITIL 4 best practices There are seven guiding principles discussed in ITIL 4. I will begin with these three to answer the question: Why and Why Now? Focus on Value ITIL 4 is a holistic approach to managing value. Based on the Service Value System and the integration of dimensions that tie together practices, ITIL 4 enables speed to value for all service providers. Value is the result of all of our people, practices, and technology. Value is what we deliver. ITIL 4 stresses the need to co-create value with all stakeholders none more important than with the customer. If we are going

For every system that is utilized to provide a service, there are four dimensions of service management. If we are to think and work holistically that means that every practice, and every aspect of service management for services need to be considered in light of these four dimensions. Organizations and People The aspects of the organization and people dimension are all related to the creation, delivery, and improvement of services. To improve these aspects, everyone in an organization must understand its objectives and how they contribute to those objectives. It is not uncommon to see organizations restructuring in an effort to reap the benefits of Agile, Lean, and DevOps practices. Organizations are increasingly forming cross-functional teams or product teams in an effort to break down silos and enable more effective collaboration. None of this can be accomplished without understanding how powerful the culture is in terms of its influence on organizations and individuals. Fo

The ITIL4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group .   As a service provider, we can’t stop there!   We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer.     Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include:     Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods.   Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you.   You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you.               Note: Goods may not always be provided for every Service Offe

Digital and Cultural transformation is survival.   Every living breathing moving service provider today is challenged to innovate and radically rethink the way that they deliver value.   All services that create value are supported by technology.   Creating, expanding, and improving IT Service Management is not only beneficial but is critical for our future.   ITIL 4 has improved upon and modernized an approach to service management with proven best practices that support a systems approach to the entire value system.   As service providers, we must be able not only to deliver a product at the speed of light but must also be capable of ensuring a resilient and anti-fragile environment. These improved-upon best practices for all aspects of service management give organizations the ability to balance the need for stability and operational agility with increased velocity. Shatter the silos, get real support from your DevOps, Agile, and Lean investment .   Ensure service managem

I was recently asked about VeriSM and ITIL4, and how they fit together... VeriSM aims to elevate service management to the enterprise level. Like ITIL 4, it advocates leveraging Agile, Lean, DevOps, ITSM, etc. as needed to achieve enterprise goals. It also emphasizes understanding emerging technologies and their influence on business and service management. VeriSM introduces the management mesh as a way to bring those concepts together and determine what is required to achieve organizational goals. As the focus is on enterprise service management, the aim is to take service management principles and concepts out of IT and extend them to other parts of the enterprise; specifically in the context of digital transformation. VeriSM introduces a value chain but does not introduce any specific service management processes. ITIL 4 also aligns with Agile, Lean, DevOps, SIAM, etc., and aims to modernize IT service management in an effort to enable digital transformation. To quote the book,

If your organization hasn’t adopted DevOps approaches yet, it probably will soon. In the InteropITX 2018 State of DevOps Report , only 9 percent of the business technology decision-makers surveyed said that their organizations had no DevOps plans. A third said their organizations had already adopted DevOps principles and another 46 percent had plans to do so within the next two years. As DevOps spreads, many IT leaders have questions about which types of employees should get basic training on the fundamentals of the approach. We recommend that at least the following ten types of people get a foundational education about DevOps: 1. Developers In many organizations, DevOps begins with the application development team adopting Agile methodologies. DevOps begins to spread as those in the operations team start to follow some of the same principles. 2. IT operations professionals DevOps is all about closer integration between development and operations, so it stands to r

The opportunity exists to reinvent security and to do this we must redefine the roles and practices of security engineering. Information is available faster than the speed of your connection and cybersecurity risk is everywhere!  Empowerment to change begins with getting level set on what DevSecOps (DSOE) really is and how to move fast to get there.  That is why I am excited to attend the  DevSecOps Engineering  class and to acquire the DevSecOps Engineer certification!  Digital Transformations are not only real, they are accelerating. IT systems and software literally drive the world and that makes every business a digital tech business. Along with that is a proliferation of apps, devices and opportunities. Those opportunities are not always honorable; hackers abound. DevSecOps is a mindset that “everyone is responsible for security” with the goal of safely distributing security decisions at speed and scale to those who hold the highest level of context without sacrificing

T’was a month before Christmas on the pipeline, not a heart was beating not even mine. For the product owner there is work to be “DONE”, so into the “Sprint Log” the work has begun! ­­­­ On Dasher! On Prancer (Development Deer) - QA and Security, they are all here. Red hats worn by all and only one “White”; The teams almost ready, so don’t you fright. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, a massive build from the Ops Engineer! This today, that tomorrow, “Fail Fast” and learn there is no sorrow! Ho Ho Ho! A jolly Scrum Master appears; impediments removed we all give a cheer! Ops leads the way with their nose shining bright; we are agile and fast and we’re out of site! Off with a flash, then “deer-to-deer” review”; here comes the surprise, it's coming to YOU. We stand all amazed and straight is our gaze.  The Christmas tree stands all tall and bright; its branches are massive and covered with lights!  On top is a star that streams long bright bars

There are many frameworks and standards that define best practices for achieving quality IT service management (ITSM) - ITIL, ISO/IEC 20000, COBIT, CMMI, DevOps, Knowledge-Centered Support, etc. While each describes processes and controls (what to do), none provide clear, step-by-step methods and techniques for actually designing, re-engineering, and improving processes (how to do it). IT organizations must not only do the right things, but they must also do the right things right. CPDE takes a practical step-by-step approach to developing and implementing ITSM processes across the entire lifecycle of IT services. It ensures integration with project and program management and the application and software development processes as well. Allowing for strategic, tactical, and operational alignment across the entire organization. CPDE is well suited to utilize these different best practices and additionally play a significant role in the DevOps movement that is taking hold in IT organiza

As a noun, the official definition of the word inclusion is defined as the state of being included or being made a part of something. When a book covers many different ideas and subjects, it is an example of the inclusion of many ideas. When multiple people are all invited to be part of a group, this is an example of the inclusion of many different people. There are many certification classes available for DevOps, Agile, and ITSM. All of them will speak of Inclusion. When considering inclusion in a DevOps Continuous Delivery Pipeline, service providers frequently miss the inclusion of some very necessary elements. In order to ensure real value, and cost-effective solutions fast, it is back to basics. Consider the inclusion of the following: Best Practices and Methodologies: These are the answers for how to. It is not just one best practice, methodology, or standard that will get you there. “There” is where you are trying to go. Consider methods such as DevOps, ITSM, Agile, Lean, an

Originally Published on the DevOps Institute Site It has become a truism within the DevOps movement that embracing DevOps is much more about making a cultural change than about adopting new processes and technologies. But changing an organization’s existing internal culture can be profoundly difficult. As Peter Drucker famously noted, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” All the best-laid DevOps plans in the world might not make a bit of difference if you can’t get your team to shift its mindset. As a DevOps leader, managing this cultural change will likely be one of your most frustrating — but ultimately most rewarding — challenges. Here are five tips from DevOps experts to help manage that change: 1. Cultivate the 5 leadership traits that lead to high performance. Pick up any self-help book, and you’re sure to read some variation on the mantra that you can’t control whether other people change, you can only control yourself. It might be trite, but it’s true. Fort

I looked up “Process Design” and found: “The  activity  of determining the  workflow ,  equipment  needs and implementation  requirements  for a particular  process . Process design typically uses a number of tools including flowcharting, process  simulation   software  and  scale  models.”  Hmm… that is good but “So What”?  Why should a service provider care about process?  I have heard some say that process is secondary to automation.  Okay, sounds good, but then we have to consider, “What are we going to automate?” Every Certified Process Design Engineer knows that when it comes to process we are talking about activity.  The key is that we need just enough process and just enough governance to meet requirements.  Process design contributes to our ability to balance speed and agility with stability.   Having good process design allows for a smooth service belt that delivers value to customers and also gives a service provider the ability to meet business and customer dem

Originally Published on the DevOps Institute Site One of the most interesting trends in DevOps adoption is the evolution of the IT silo into the cross-skilled squad. This is not just a semantical name change. Most IT teams today are comprised of like-skilled individuals such as a Scrum team of developers. The modern squad takes a slightly different approach, is more static than dynamic and is more product-focused than project based. Squads are built around T-shaped professionals –where each member has a specialty competency, but all members have a broad scope of skills across multiple disciplines. A high performing squad essentially has all of the skills needed for the product or feature to which it is assigned and is not generally constrained by the availability of an individual resource. There is enough breadth of knowledge inside and outside the squad to shift more activities to the left so as to allow them to move more quickly and with more agility. While the squad model ori