Skip to main content

Posts

Why I am Excited to Attend the DevSecOps Engineering Class

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

DevOps and the North Pole

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 bar

Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE)

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 organizati

Inclusion – Required for DevOps Continuous Delivery Pipeline

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 answer 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 and st

DevOps Leader: 5 Tips for Managing Cultural Change

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

Process Design

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

Skilling The Squad

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