Fudge Sunday - Everything Counts in Ops Amounts
A look at portmanteaus of Development and Operations (DevOps) making inroads toward operationalizing Finance, Data Management, Machine Learning, Communications, and more
This week we take a look at portmanteaus of Development and Operations (DevOps) making inroads toward operationalizing Finance, Data Management, Machine Learning, Communications, and more
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts (Official Video)
Getting Informed
Let’s get started. To begin, here are two tweets for inspiration.
Nick DeJesus 🛒🎉 - Unpaid CTO @BTPipeline
Developer experience is so much more than using the product itself.
Debugging is part of dev exp.
Documentation is part of dev exp.
Your error messages SHOULD NOT be coming back looking like cryptic metaphors.
I should be able to find what I need in your docs in minutes.
One opportunity I see across the industry is to be more considerate of hidden costs:
- interviewing
- developer experience gaps
- perf
- ramp up/down
- internal training
- process with little outcome/value
The more we account for friction, the more purposeful we can become
Common thread related recommended reading based on these two (2) tweets from six (6) interesting companies:
- Debugging: Debugging + continuous observability (o11y) via Lightrun
- DevX: Developer experience resources via WorkOS
- Interviewing: Your interviews should exhibit humanity via Prefect
- Documentation: Documentation is a game changer via Swimm
- Onboarding: Ways to implement better onboarding via Sourcegraph
- Ramp Up: Ephemeral development environments via GitPod
Generally speaking, there are a variety of SomethingOps where Something is a variation on the “Dev” in DevOps. Newer entrants are viable as a function of the name, definition, and a reasonably timed gaining of traction in multiple practitioner circles.
There are other examples of borrowing from functional groups outside of software development. This borrowing seems to draw from preceding maturity models for established groups as software becomes an increasingly visible component of organizations.
When FinOps meets DataOps meets MLOps and becomes expressed as DevX things will get very interesting. Until then, there will likely be additional new phrases being tested and projects that deliver utility at the junctions of different groups or disciplines within organizations.
Survey: The State of FinOps 2021
Assuming that the survey respondents are also concerned with DevX, it’s fascinating roughly half have not instituted FinOps automation.
Source:
Infracost = Cost Policies + Terraform
Infracost is just one example of the tools being used to bring a FinOps view to decisions made in the overall DevX.
Source:
In 2019, a Google Season of Docs (GSoD) activity workstream for Apache Airflow was completed. Many more such MLOps related documentation endeavors will be required on the journey to infuse MLOps into the DevX.
Another example? Perhaps the DevX group borrowed the sales and procurement familiar bill of materials (BOM) by placing “S” for software in front (SBOM). Yet another example is sales enablement and now there is developer enablement.
That last example, developer enablement, makes you think.
What does good look like? What does GREAT look like?
Well, there’s always a tweet or two that captures the moment…
hey Twitter people!
What are some of your favourite documentation websites? And why do you like them? (features? Design?)
Looking to beef up the planned todos for https://t.co/wEjdkI7xEp 🔥
(RT for reach 🙏)
@bencabanes @juristr Firebase, Stripe, Twilio, Apollo GraphQL and MongoDB have pretty good docs.
What I like about them is that they offer functional code samples and demos on how to do XYZ but also bug-free, copy-pastable code snippets.
Twilio Developers (Twilio Docs Team Stan Account)
as an unofficial official Twilio Docs Team stan account, the specifics bring such joy 🥺😭 https://t.co/2r4NZE7Oh5
@TwilioDevs CodeExchange is baller! Twilio is amazing at Developer Enablement! 🥺❤️ Y’all have been role models to me. I’ve always wanted to connect with your Demo Team. ☺️
Twilio is amazing at Developer Enablement!
@getDanArias @TwilioDevs I’m glad to hear that you enjoy CodeExchange 😊 I’m the interim Product Manager for CodeExchange. If you have any feedback don’t hesitate to send it my way 😊
@getDanArias @TwilioDevs 👋 I work on the demos team at Twilio and would love to connect – feel free to DM me!
@getDanArias @TwilioDevs I work for the Developer Experience Foundations and Interfaces teams - ditto to what @dkundel and @ememshen said - don’t hesitate to send feedback my (our) way? 🥰
First – this is amazing teaming/swarming by the team at Twilio Product Management. Second – this is genuine authentic engagement that shows the DevX developer enablement kudos are as earned as the earned media.
Getting to this kind of high NPS public dialog earned media takes cultural and capital investing in the “ables and the ables”
When I referenced “the ibles and the ables” it was to illustrate the steps for getting a great product from ideation to market adoption. As such, product lifecycles capture value through a continuous ruthless removal of annoyance.
- Gaps in the brand pledge are unacceptable.
- A product experience and brand pledge cannot be divergent.
- Any sufficiently advanced product should be indistinguishable from marketing.
Source:
Getting to this kind of high NPS public dialog earned media also takes cultural and capital investing in DevCommsOps.
Hire. Great. Technical Writers.
Retain. Great. Technical Writers.
Why?
- If your documentation is indexed well, it will be discovered.
- If your documentation is written well, it will be consulted.
- If your documentation is done well, it will be enduring.
Source:
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