conway's law: the skeleton of devops
DESCRIPTION
Devops is about communication. In order to make better software, we seek out diverse viewpoints, use a common vocabulary, and encourage transparency. But despite all this focus on communication, we don't have much of a framework to guide our decisions. "Should we do continuous integration?" "Why not? People seem to like that." "What about ChatOps?" "Sure, yeah; it works for GitHub." Well, there's a half-forgotten rule -- first stated 46 years ago -- that can guide us through these decisions. It's called Conway's Law: Organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations. I'll show how Conway's Law is derived, how it's been empirically tested, and how it informs so much of what we do in devops. I want my audience to walk away with a new tool for spreading devops, shaping cross-team communication, and moving forward with confidence.TRANSCRIPT
the skeleton of devopsconway’s law
hello i am dan slimmon
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github.com/danslimmon
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hello i am dan slimmon● i’m in ops● exosite● blue state digital
what works in devopsLET’S DO CHATOPS!
k
what works in devops
what works in devopsLET’S DO CHEF!
k
what works in devops
what works in devops
what works in devops
theory
theory gets a bad rap
theorya theory is a set of rules
that generates predictions
about the behavior of a system
theoryexperimentsweed outfalse theories
theoriestell us whatexperimentsto do
theoryhydrogen emission lines
theoryrydberg formula derived in 1888
theory
1888 -1913in atomicphysics:
theory
theory
whoa
oh mans
HOLY SHIT
Z O M G
theorytheories can be tested
theories allow us to share understanding
theories point the way to innovation
devops theory
devops is a system
devops theory● silo destruction● infrastructure as
code● continuous
integration● empathy
● blameless post-mortems
● measure all the things
● chatops
devops theory● silo destruction● infrastructure as
code● continuous
integration● empathy
● blameless post-mortems
● measuring everything
● chatopscommunication
conway’s law
“How Do CommitteesInvent?” Melvin Conway, 1968
http://tinyurl.com/conwayslaw
conway’s law
organizations which design systems…are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations
conway’s law
to the extent that an organization is not completely flexible in its communication structure, that organization will stamp out an image of itself in every design it produces
conway’s lawif you have 4 groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler
eric s. raymond
conway’s law
proof
conway’s law
“proof”
conway’s lawconsider some system
and the organization which designed it
conway’s lawsystem: organization:
conway’s lawsystem: organization:
conway’s lawsystem: organization:
?
conway’s lawsystem: organization:
conway’s lawnew system: organization:
um...
conway’s lawnew system: organization:
conway’s lawyour org structure isn't solving your problem.
it's an artifact of how you've solved it before.
adam jacob
conway’s lawarchitectural innovations destroy the usefulness of the architectural knowledge of established firms
architectural innovation: the reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms. henderson, r. & clark, k. 1990.
conway’s law in devops
what’s this got to do with devops?
conway’s law in devopswe continuously redesign our systemsto make them betterand to adjust to changing stimuli
so we must do the same for our team structures
conway’s law in devops
chatops
chatopssystem: organization:
?
chatopssystem: organization:
chatopssystem: organization:
conway’s law in devops
infrastructure as code
infrastructure as coderubby rubby rubby #!/bin/bash
infrastructure as code
conway’s law in devopsdevops is a special case of conway’s law
we mold our communication structure into the shape we want for our system
theory is a conversation
agree with me
or, even better, disagree with me
theory is a conversation
organizations which design systems…are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations