reigniting the volusion platform

REIGNITING THE VOLUSION PLATFORMA PATH TO A BRIGHTER FUTURE, ONE FEATURE AT A

TIME

INTRODUCTION• IDENTIFYING QUICK WINS• CONTINUOUS DEPLOYMENT• API FIRST APPROACH• SHIFTING FROM MONOLITHIC TO

MICROSERVICES

• FEATURE CANDIDATES FOR REAL IMPACT• GROWING THE TEAMS TO MAKE IT

HAPPEN

PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS!

QUICK WINS FIRSTMAKING OUR CUSTOMERS TRUST US AGAIN!

TYPES OF QUICK WINS• RESOLVE AS MANY BUGS AS

POSSIBLE• UPGRADE THE LOOK AND FEEL TO

CURRENT• TRANSPARENT CUSTOMER

COMMUNICATION• BUILD AROUND THE PLATFORM,

NOT IN IT

FIXING CUSTOMER ISSUESTHERE ARE 900 ”BUGS” IN THE SYSTEM OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS

BUG BASHING FIRST• PLATFORM TEAM IN BUG BASHING

MODE• PRIORITIZING THE LOW HANGING

FRUIT• FIXING THE TOP ISSUES OUR

CUSTOMERS ARE DEALING WITH• COMMUNICATE OUR RE-FOCUS TO

THE CUSTOMERS

“”

DELETED CODE IS DEBUGGED CODE.

- JEFF SICKEL

• THIS EFFORT IS HAPPENING NOW AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH-OUT THIS YEAR

• FOCUSING ON CODE REMOVAL, OR REFACTORING OFF EXISTING PLATFORM

TRANSPARENCY WITH THE CUSTOMER• STATUS PAGE• FEATURE REQUESTS

• OWNING UP TO OUR PAST

MODERNIZE THE PLATFORM UIFRESHENING UP OUR PLATFORM’S LOOK AND FEEL IS AN EASY WIN

APPLYING THE MODERNIZATION

ADMIN UI REFRESH

APPLYING THE MODERNIZATION

ADMIN UI REFRESH

APPLYING THE MODERNIZATION

ADMIN UI REFRESH

APPLYING THE MODERNIZATION

STOREFRONT REFRESH

APPLYING THE MODERNIZATION

STOREFRONT REFRESH

“”

SIMPLICITY IS THE ULTIMATE FORM OF SOPHISTICATION.

- LEONARDO DA VINCI

• ADMIN RESKIN TO BE LAUNCHED IN Q2

• NEW STOREFRONT TO BE LAUNCHED IN Q2

CONTINUOUS DEPLOYMENT

FROM ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS, TO TWENTY TIMES A DAY!

START WITH CONTINUOUS DELIVERY• UNDERSTAND ROAD BLOCKS• WORK TO REMOVE ROAD BLOCKS• AUTOMATE PATH TO PRODUCTION• PERFORM PATH TO PRODUCTION

MANUALLY• TEST AUTOMATICALLY• MEASURE AUTOMATICALLY

THEN CONTINUOUS DEPLOYMENT• AUTOMATE LAST STEPS THROUGH• AUTOMATIC TESTING – RESULTS• AUTOMATIC MEASUREMENT –

RESULTS

CI/CD STRATEGIES• A / B – BLUE / GREEN – CANARY• DARK LAUNCHING• SLOW BLEED OVER OF TRAFFIC• NON-DESTRUCTIVE DEPLOYMENTS• ROLL BACK BECOMES SWAP TO

LAST• EXCEPT DB

• MEASURE ANYTHING / MEASURE EVERYTHING• CREATE AND WATCH BASELINES• LISTEN FOR UNACCEPTABLE DRIFT• EXCEPTIONS, OUTAGES, RESPONSE

TIMES

• DASHBOARD FOR ”ALL THE THINGS”• PROD LIKE EVERYWHERE

“”

PROGRAM TESTING CAN BE USED TO SHOW THE PRESENCE OF BUGS, BUT NEVER TO SHOW

THEIR ABSENCE! - EDSGER DIJKSTRA

• AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE, LESS COMPLEXITY IS BETTER

• PROD LIKE FROM THE START ENABLES NO SURPRISES DOWN THE ROAD

• MEASURE ANYTHING, MEASURE EVERYTHING

API FIRSTTHE BEGINNINGS OF OUR SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE

APPROACH

DOG FOODING MAKES THE BEST API• ENABLES CUSTOMER TO EXTEND

THE PLATFORM• DECOUPLE THE FRONT END FROM

THE BACKEND• OPEN UP MOBILE OPPORTUNITIES• OPEN APP STORE FOR VOLUSION• OPEN NEW MARKETS FOR

VOLUSION

A COLLECTION OF SMALL API’S• CAN BE WEB API• CAN BE NODE.JS AND LAMBDA• FRONTED BY GATEWAY• DEPLOYS SEPARATE FROM FRONT

END• VERSIONED INDIVIDUALLY

From one big code base

To small specific code bases

“”

PLAN TO THROW ONE AWAY; YOU WILL, ANYHOW.

- FRED BROOKS

• SMALL, PURPOSE BUILT APPS, WILL LAST LONGER

• SMALL, PURPOSE BUILT APPS, ARE EASY TO RE-WRITE

FROM MONOLITHIC TO MICROSERVICES

SMALL PURPOSE BUILT SERVICES, RIGHT TECH TO DO THE JOB

WHAT IS A MICROSERVICE?• IT DEPENDS!• CAN BE A 10 LINE LAMBDA METHOD• CAN BE A WEB API PROJECT• ALWAYS – JUST ENOUGH, NO MORE• AUTONOMOUS• HIGH RATE OF CHANGE NOT NECESSARY

N-TIER OF THE 90’S

• A COLLECTION OF LAYERS TO SEPARATE CROSS CUTTING

RESPONSIBILITIES

• ADDING FEATURES GOES SLOWER AS UNDERSTANDING

IMPACT GETS DIFFICULT

• SMALL CHANGES REQUIRE FULL TEST SUITE EXECUTION

DEATH STAR ARCHITECTURE• A COLLECTION OF SERVICES

THAT DO THEIR SINGLE JOB WELL

• EACH SERVICE USES THE TECH THAT BEST SOLVES THE JOB

• WIDTH VS. DEPTH APPROACH

GO FASTER, MOVE THE

COMPLEXITY• INFRASTRUCTURE COMPLEXITY

IS INITIALLY HIGHER WITH MICROSERVICES, BUT CAN ADD

FEATURES FASTER

• LOWER INITIAL INFRASTRUCTURE FRICTION IN

MONOLITH, FEATURES GET HARDER TO ADD OVER TIME

“”

PERFECTION IS ACHIEVED NOT WHEN THERE IS

NOTHING MORE TO ADD, BUT RATHER WHEN THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO TAKE

AWAY - ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY

• JUST ENOUGH CODE, AND NO MORE

• NO PRECONCEIVED TECHNOLOGY CHOICES MADE UP FRONT

• CAN BE 5 LINES OF CODE, CAN BE A VISUAL STUDIO “PROJECT”

FEATURE CANDIDATES

WHERE DO WE START?

HOW TO IDENTIFY• CAUSES INTERNAL CUSTOMERS PAIN• CAUSES EXTERNAL CUSTOMERS PAIN• IMPACTS STABILITY OF THE PLATFORM• NOT PART OF OUR CORE OFFERING• REQUIRES COMPLEX UNDERSTANDING• RIDDLED WITH BUGS

• BUILT ON OLD, NO LONGER SUPPORTED, TECHNOLOGY

• GET OUT OF THE HABIT OF “NOT INVENTED HERE”

WE CAN BUY SOME FEATURES• SEARCH, TAX, SHIPPING, IMAGE RESIZE, APPLICATION ACCELERATION, CDN

VOLUSION SEARCH

• CUSTOM BUILT ON SQL SERVER

• MORE COMPLEX THAN NEEDED

• INDEXING CAN CAUSE OUTAGES

• MISSING FEATURES

• HARD TO SET UP

• CONFUSES CUSTOMERS

SEARCH AS A SERVICE

• ANOTHER COMPANY’S CORE OFFERING

• FACETED & FILTERING OUT OF THE BOX

• RE-INDEXING IN REAL TIME

• MULTI-LANGUAGE SUPPORT

• SUPPORTED BY THEM, NOT US

• PROMOTES EROSION OF OLD TECH

WE CAN BUILD OTHER FEATURES• STORE FRONTS – API’S – ADMIN INTERFACE – STYLE EDITOR – PRODUCT CATALOG

STORE FRONTS CAN BE RE-WRITTEN

REASONS TO REFACTOR• NEW RESPONSIVE BASE THEME• STYLE EDITOR• HTML RESTRUCTURE• HTML 5

REASONS TO RE-WRITE• MOVE OF OF ASP CLASSIC• DECOUPLE FROM THE PLATFORM• SEPARATE DEPLOYMENT

FREQUENCY• ONE TEAM OWNERSHIP

WHERE DO WE START?

LOOK AT THE PLATFORM

IDENTIFY TARGET:SEARCH

• SEARCH AS A SERVICE

• ADDS FEATURES: BOOST, FILTERING, FACETING, AUTO-INDEXING

• STABILIZES PLATFORM

• REDUCES DATA FOOT PRINT

• REDUCES INFRASTRUCTURE FOOTPRINT

DO THE WORK• BUILD NEW SEARCH UI

• SYNC STORE DATA TO SEARCH SERVICE

• HOOK INTO DATA UPDATES

• HOOK INTO DATA IMPORTER

• ADD FEATURE TOGGLES

• SLOWLY ROLL STORES OVER TO NEW SEARCH

IDENTIFY TARGET:

STOREFRONT• ALREADY UPDATING THE

STRUCTURE

• ADDING NEW THEME STRATEGY

• ADDING STYLE EDITOR

• API’S COMING ON LINE

DO THE WORK• STOREFRONT AS STAND ALONE

APP

• BUILT FROM THE API OUT

• STRUCTURED FOR FLEXIBLE THEMING

• HEAVILY CACHEABLE (CDN)

THE GOAL IS TO ERODE THE PLATFORM

WE ARE STILL AFLOAT BUT WE NEED TO

RE-PLATFORM AS QUICKLY AS WE CAN

• SMALLER AND LIGHTER COMPONENTS

• BUILD A FEELING OF OWNERSHIP

• GET IN FRONT OF OUR COMPETITION

from oil tankerto

container ship

NOT LESS FEATURES!

JUST LESS COMPLEXITY IN THE FEATURES

THINK LEGO!

GROWING THE TEAMS

THAT LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF

WORK!• WE’VE ALREADY STARTED:• BUG BASHING• ADMIN REFACTOR• STYLE EDITOR• CONTENT BUILDER• SEARCH AS A SERVICE

WE WANT TO GO FASTER!• FORMALIZING THE “API TEAM”

• EXPANDING THE FRONT END TEAM

• EXPANDING THE PLATFORM TEAM

• GROWING QA

• ADDING DEVOPS

• REALIGNING PROCESSES

BUT WE CAN’T FORGET

• WE NEED PASSION

• SELF DRIVEN

• HIGHLY MOTIVATED

• EAGER TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

QUESTIONS?@ASIEMER