Session 409: DevOps 101: What the Service Desk Needs to Know

David MoskowitzProductivity Solutions, Inc.Twitter: @DavidM2LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidm2/

DisclaimerThis presentation addresses long term success with DevOps. There are no references to technology. DevOps is acknowledged to be a cultural movement. This presentation address the culture and related capabilities that are required to have success, not just with DevOps, but with any new and significant initiative. You may not have control over all factors. With awareness, you can raise questions.

Agenda• Introduction

• The Model

• The Organization

• Flow Model

• Summary

IntroductionOverview

How did we get here?• Software development

• …focus on “writing code”

• Software projects• Too big, too long

• Emergence of Agile• Deliver value faster

• Adapt to changing requirements

• Raised PMO concerns

• Agile as a “quick fix” failed

Worth

ImportanceMerit

Worth

ImportanceMerit

Relevance

Value

Symptoms Not Problems

Where are we now?• The Phoenix Project popularized DevOps

• No mention of Agile

• No real discussion about support

• Nothing about the service desk

• DevOps conferences dominated by tools & process

• No “end-to-end” view

• The Phoenix Project surfaced• Need for cultural change … almost a hit

• Automation is tactic not capability

• Doesn’t consider support

DevOps: Portmanteau of Development & Operations. DevOps is more movement than method. Combines agile development with agile infrastructure and aspects of ITSM.

Notice anything?• Missing

• Support

• Design for use

• End user communication

• ???

• How can the service desk provide support?• Avoid: duck sucker

• Creates waste if service desk in the dark• Easy win for Lean

Cultural Change, Systems Thinking• Learning Organization creates a

culture of experimentation & risk taking

• Opportunities to learn from everything

• Ask questions• What worked? What didn’t work? • What do we want to repeat? • What is the larger context

(vision/mission)?• Progress toward that goal?• What did we learn?

• Systems view the flows of improvement, communication & work

• See “the whole” -- not “a hole”• Structure influences behavior

“Systems thinking is a conceptual framework, a body

of knowledge and tools that have been developed over

the past fifty years, to make the full patterns clearer,

and to help us see how to change then effectively.”

Peter Senge

Metanoia• “Metanoia” [met-uh-noi-uh]

• A transformative shift of mind

• Move from just execution to generative thinking

• Leads to new way of thinking & new assumptions

• Metanoia requires• Experimentation & risk taking (value never static)

• Improve feedback loops between all stakeholders

• Avoid single purpose teams

• Critical to support different perspectives & diversity of thought

• Precursor to intentioned paradigm shift

If the organization doesn’t know

about metanoia and doesn’t apply

it; if the people don’t recognize the

types of management Westrum

described in his paper, then they

are victims.

However, once they know and

don’t act, they become volunteers.

The Learning Organization• Look at all of the things that make up the system.

• Separate symptoms from problems

• Characteristics• Systems thinking: Conceptual framework that allows people to study businesses as

a whole, not pieces.

• Personal mastery: Individual commitment to the process of ongoing learning.

• Mental models: Assumptions held by individuals and organizations.

• Shared vision: Important to help motivate the staff to learn

• Team learning: Accumulated individual learning within the team.

“What do we mean by ‘What do we mean’?”• Organizational capability is the practice of a set of disciplines

• Structure [INFLUENCES] Behavior

• Systems thinking requires the interaction of

• Personal mastery

• Mental models

• Shared vision

• Team learning

• Metanoia similar to “Grok”• Grok [verb] (used with object)

• def. “to understand thoroughly and intuitively.”

“I should estimate that in my experience most trouble and most possibilities for improvement add up to proportions something like this: 94% belong to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special”

“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”

- W. Edwards Deming

The ModelAn Approach to Improvement

Agile CSI Model

• Describes a Service Management System in terms of• Systems Thinking (structure influences behavior)

• Seeks to continually improve value of service enabled business outcomes

• Accelerates the rate of improvement (people, process & tech)

• Manifested by three flows (improvement, Communication & Work)

• Goal is to seek optimal• Service value created (business value)

• Service value delivered (value consumed)

This seeks optimal business outcomes enabled by services.

This seeks optimal CoP, QoP & QoS based on VCD criteria.

DevOps an Open Systems Conceptual Model

Act

Plan

Do

Study

Internalize

Describe

Discover

Evaluate

internalizationOf

EvolutionaryChange

Agile ApproachTo

PDSA

Outcome Seeks toClose the Gap

“ImprovementCycle”

This step describes the “new normal.”

This creates the “new now.”

This cycle manages change “ripples.”

This step makes “new” “normal.”

This determines how “new” impacts desired outcomes.

“EvolutionCycle”

Value GapCriteria

The OrganizationPatterns of Behavior that Map Organizational Cultures

Based on a paper by:

Professor R. Westrum

Department of Sociology

Easter Michigan University,

Ypsilanti, MI 48197

Every organization is a reflection of its culture. Organizational cultures

shape patterns of thought, emotion, action and responses to challenges;

both in a crisis or dealing with a latent problem.

Westrum’s definition of culture:The organization’s pattern of response to problems & opportunities it encounters

The Three Cultures Model

• Cultures & information (3-Cultures)• Pathological (Personal power)

• Bureaucratic (Rules, positions & turf)

• Generative (Concentration on the mission)

• Leaders shape organizational culture• Actions, reward & punishment

• Communication

• “Generative” organization exhibit• Performance orientation &

cooperation

• Creates a “cultural climate” that shapes• Communication & Cooperation

• Innovation

• Problem solving

• Information flow• “Marker” for organizational culture

Generative

ThreeCulturesModel

Generative Organization• Mission alignment & identification

• Individual buy-in

• Impacts• What to do

• How to do it

• When do it

• Who to work with … etc.

• Develop sense of ownership• Try harder

• Care more

• Empowerment• Required for maximum performance

• Culture of “conscious inquiry” (a “learning organization”)

• Banishes: “Not my job”

• Generative culture• Make best use of its resources

• Built on trust

What is Trust?• Trust (noun): “Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of

someone or something”• Trust equals confidence; lack of trust equals suspicion about

• Integrity & follow through• Ability & capability• Track record

• Culture & trust linked• Part of the system• Structure influences behavior

• Generative cultures• Demonstrate higher levels of trust• Required for sustainability• Less than generative means address culture & trust first

Trust & Why It Matters• Trust impacts culture

• Economics of trust• When trust goes up, speed of execution goes down.

• Learning organizations exhibit higher trust • Lack of trust subverts long-term success.

• Enables organizational capability to improve faster• Every part of the organization trusts every other part to do the right thing.• Critical aspect for high performance teams

Source: Stephen M. R. Covey: The Speed of Trust

Organizational trust levels impacts the way feedback from the service desk is accepted, used or ignored.

Implications & Key Messages• Leadership shapes culture

• Change culture with new leadership

• Differ in response to• Problems & Opportunity

• Three typical styles of cultures• Pathological

• Bureaucratic

• Generative

• Generative culture exhibits better response to danger signals

• Trust critical to success

“(W)hen Microsoft's board of directors announced

that I would become the next CEO, I put the

company's culture at the top of our agenda. I said

we needed to rediscover the soul of Microsoft, our

reason for being. I have come to understand that

my primary job is to curate our culture…”

Satya Nadella CEO Microsoft

Role of the Service Desk• Single (primary) point of contact

• Force multiplier

• Identify gaps

• Good flows & processing impact the mission.• Service desk work flows

• Service desk communication flows

• Service desk improvement flows

• Know what’s what

• Track patterns over time

The FlowsIntegrating Improvement, Communication & Work

Principles Expanded• Consider opportunity to improve

everything• Turn business gaps into activities that

improve

• Start where you are (no choice)• Value drives improvement

• Seek to simplify• Improve what provides most value, now

• Customer drives value• Think outside-in

• Improve quickly in small increments

• Apply systems thinking (see whole, not hole)• The three flows are integral to every

system

• Feedback is critical (inter- & intra-flow)• Value & quality determined by the

business

• Define & communicate “Constancy of purpose”• Clarity & focus about what matters most

• Shift behavior balance: reactive to proactive• Change behaviors to change outcomes

• Treat DevOps (change) as a cultural thing (metanoia)• Requires a driver-role as flow & value

stream coach

• Define & broadcast set of organizing principles• Support the mission/vision

Principles

Flows• Improvement

• Continually seek to minimize the gap

• Optimize resources (context)

• Communications• Underpins improvement & work

• Ensures shared stakeholder objectives

• Work• Selected, Prioritized and Valued

• Performed and Tracked

How work flows focuses on how work is selected,

prioritized, valued, performed and tracked. Flow of

communication is determined by what is communicated,

by whom, under what circumstances and it's interaction

(as trigger(s)) for work and improvement. Does the

communication add value or impede, etc. Flow of

improvement is examined starting with the identification

of size and conditions under which improvement(s) is(are)

triggered. How is work improved; how is communication

improved; how is improvement improved? - David Moskowitz

Flow of Improvement• Make improvements

deterministic & measurable• Capitalize on SPOC

• Apply filter: “Does it…?”• …add value?

• …simplify?

• …narrow (or expose a gap)?

• …support appropriate automation?

• …provide appropriate feedback & communication?

• Commit to become a learning organization• For each filter ask: “What is the learning

opportunity?”

• Improve improvement

• Develop feedback channels• Thresholds

• Triggers

Flow of Communication• Identify & engage appropriate

stakeholders • Business

• Developers & Operation

• Partners/suppliers

• Create feedback channels (positive & negative)• Base feedback on value

• Feedback may trigger improvement

• Ensure everyone knows:• Goals, priority & expected outcomes

• “What is most important value producing thing to do now?”• Principles support clarity & ensure

everyone knows answer

• Aspect of “Constancy of Purpose” [unwavering]

• Ensure communication supports ongoing small increments of work• Measure it to be sure (formally query

stakeholders)

Flow of Work• Guiding principles ensures work:

• Valued & Prioritized

• Selected & Performed

• Tracked (monitored & measured)

• Optimize work gap size• Enable on-the-fly correction or

modification(fail fast)

• Supports continual deployment

• Allows mid-course corrections

• Use information radiators• Make progress visible

• Surface new work

• Links work, improvement & communication

• Use automation to scale work • Automation = by-product of

applying principles

Examine How “Stuff” Flows• Work

• Notified about work in progress• When & how

• Input sought (or accepted) for support

• Communication• In the loop?• Is loop easily changed? • Is automated timely notification possible?

• Improvement• Messenger status (shot, ignored, trained)• Map stakeholder involvement• Service Desk informed about intended value

Flows & Patterns• Flows

• Describe patterns of repeatable behaviors

• Bounded by a specific context.

• Patterns involve• One or more flows

• Work, Communication, Improvement

• Coordinated patterns optimized to produce value• Discard waste, including ignoring principles

• Typical to subvert one or more

• Integrate service desk into flows

Don’t assume: acknowledgement of flows is necessary but not sufficient for cultural change

Discard: “That’s how we do things here.”“That’s not how we do things here.”

Value & Flows

Value is the function of the coordination

of the flow of improvement,

communication and work to identify the

value gap (opportunity to improve) and

seek to accelerate the rate at which the

organization closes that gap by turning the

value gap into actionable improvements

in people, practice & technology.

Simply: coordinated flows contribution to

value: identify gaps sooner and respond

faster.

Conceptual Model - Flows

Act

Plan

Do

Study

Internalize

[Plan]

Describe

{Do]

Discover

[Study]

Evaluate

[Act]

internalizationOf

New Work(Change)

Agile ApproachTo

PDSA

Outcome Seeks to Close the Gap

Work Cycle

This step describes the “new normal.”

This creates the “new now.”

This cycle manages change “ripples.”

This step makes “new” “normal.”

This determines how “new” impacts desired

outcomes.

Work Flow

Communication Flow

Improvement Flow

Value GapCriteria

“The Model seamlessly

integrates the flow of

communication, work and

improvement into a single

systems architype that create

a “reinforcing loop.” this

“system” is driven by the gap

between current and desired

business value and translates

that into actionable

improvements of the people

(skills & capabilities),

practices (what & how well)

and technology (enabling)

that create a “new normal” in

business value.”David Nichols

itSM Mentor, LLC

Flow Integration Only If…• Appropriate governance

• Create multidirectional flows

• Replace one-way or late notification

• Necessary controls cascade from policy

• Stakeholders included in flows• Must be timely

• Tickets & calls reveal possible gaps

• Turn incident management into productivity management• Builds trust

• Get to the “if only’s” sooner

SummaryThe beginning, middle & end.

The Beginning

• Where good ideas go bad• Change the way we write code

• Streamline software development

• Agile (a point solution for bad management)

• DevOps: if tech-focused, it’s quintessential vapor thought

• Treated symptoms, didn’t solve problems

• Ignored support issues

Today• Separate symptom from problem

• Automate for scale & value

• Determine sources of waste (things that don’t add value)

• Adopt & adapt: governance & management• Assess existing controls (support or

impede?)

• Assess organizational culture• Establish & build trust

• Focus on value created & delivered• Integrate service desk into value stream

• Eliminates wasted time

• Increases customer satisfaction

• Start with metanoia• Realize a paradigm shift

• “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”• Author - Wayne Dyer PhD.

Tomorrow• Improve everything to:

• Accelerate business value with continual improvement• Make on-going improvement an organizational capability

• Determine what adds value• Enhance service desk role to identify value• Ensure service desk integrated into flows

• Accept flow from the outside-in• Make service desk vital to flows

• Enable value creation & delivery; improve• People• Practice• Technology

Questions & Considerations to Get Started• Where to start?

• Risk assessment included as part of determination?

• Is there a strategy and cascading polices to achieve the creation and delivery of value?• Is effective governance in place?• Do we have an accepted & acknowledged shared vision/mission?• Is there committed and supportive management?

• Are heroes required or rewarded?

More Questions & Considerations to Get Started• Is the role of people, practice & technology understood?

• Do people create policies, controls and processes to manage/execute?

• Is technology an end or a means to an end?

• Is everything is subject to improvement?

• Who should/will lead an effort? Why?

• Is your organization ruled by a tool, or does it rule the tool?• Are tool capability compared to the organization’s need, fit & culture, before

acquisition?

Resources• Covey, Stephen M. R., The Speed of Trust, Free Press (division of Simon &

Schuster, Inc), New York, NY, 2006

• Deming, W Edwards, Out of the Crisis, MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study, Cambridge, MA copyright 1982 and 1986

• Drucker, Peter F, Management, Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, Harper & Row, New York, NY, copyright 1973 and 1974

• Kim, Gene et al, The Phoenix Project, IT Revolution Press, Portland, OR 2013

• Kotter, John P, Leading Change, Harvard Business Review Press, Boston Massachusetts, 1996 & 2012

• McCrystal, Stanley, General et al, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, Penguin Random House, LLC, New York, NY, 2015

Resources• Nadella, Satya, Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and

Imagine a Better Future for Everyone, HarperBusiness, New York, NY, 2017

• Senge, Peter M, The Fifth Discipline, Crown Business (imprint of Crown Publishing Group, division of Penguin Random House, LLC), New York, NY, copyright 1990 & 2006

• Surowiecki, James, The Wisdom of Crowds, Anchor-Doubleday (division of Random House), New York, New York, copyright 2004 & 2005

• Professor R. Westrum Department of Sociology Easter Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1765804/pdf/v013p0ii22.pdf

• http://systems-thinking.org/arch/arch.htm

• https://thesystemsthinker.com/palette-of-systems-thinking-tools/ and others