ibm - build and release best practices

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IBM Software Group

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IBM - Build and Release Best Practices

Jesse Tilly, IBM5 September 2007

IBM Software Group | Rational Software | Build Forge

Introduce a set of fundamental building blocks – best practices

Objectives



Discuss the practices - focus on measurement

Objectives



Discuss the practices – focus on measurement

Provide some suggestions to apply the practices

Objectives


Free Food


Discuss the practices – focus on measurement

Provide some suggestions to apply practices

Objectives


How am I doing?


NFL Starts Tomorrow

How to Measure Success


Roster Status Report

Draft Complete



Draft Complete

No Deadweight



Draft Complete

No Deadweight

Know the rules



Draft Complete

No Deadweight

Know the rules

Know key players



Draft Complete

No Deadweight

Know the rules

Know key players

Entertainment Purposes Only


Stop!! Take a Step Back!!

Are these good measures?


Take a Step Back

My Business Objectives


Take a Step Back

My Business Objectives Score most points every week


Take a Step Back


Avoid bye-week gaps


Take a Step Back


Avoid bye-week gaps

Pick high-return/low-profile players


Take a Step Back


Avoid bye-week gaps

Pick high-return/low-profile players

Avoid injury risk


What’s NOT on this list

Bad Business Objectives Know every player (e.g. every backup QB)

Use only high-profile players

Use only rookie free-agents

Ignore obvious warnings


Blah?

BLAH BLAH BLAH?

Blah blah blah?

Blah blah blah?


Blah!

BLAH BLAH BLAH!

Blah blah blah!

Blah blah blah!


Where were we?


What are these “Best Practices”:

1) Measure performance against business objectives

2) Establish complete reproducibility

3) Centralized access & collaboration for all stakeholders

4) Build early and often

5) Link to deployment environments



What is it:



Align tasks to business objectives

What is it:



Align tasks to business objectives

Leverage data to measure objectives Release frequency Compliance Quality Aggregations

Communicate to the business

Uncover trends

Show value of software investment

What is it:



Why It’s Important



You cannot improve what you cannot measureWhy It’s Important



You cannot improve what you cannot measure

Process improvement requires good measurements RUP, CMMI, ISO, ITIL, Six Sigma, etc. Many organizations lack the ability

So do regulatory requirements PCI, HIPPA, SOX

Global trend is to align business and IT

Efficiency of “built-in” vs. “ad-hoc” Scrambling to assemble data is not scalable High risk

Communicate the value of your organization to others




What You Get



Improved visibility

Better business decisions

What You Get



Improved visibility

Better business decisions

Establish baselines for comparisons

Forecast improvements

Justify software value Number of on-time releases Fixes per release Shorter audit requests Increase project volume Continuous monitoring

What You Get


Back to the List





5) Link build processes to deployment environments


2) Establish Complete Reproducibility

What is it:



The ability to recreate (or duplicate) a task or series of tasks so that future instances produce the same results (aka precision). *

What is it:

* Source: Wikipedia



Cause A -> Result A What is it:



Opposite of Insanity - the conviction that repeatable behavior will result in different outcomes

What is it:



Opposite of Insanity - the conviction that identical behavior will result in different outcomes

Logically….if you don’t have complete reproducibility, you and/or your project is insane.

What is it:



Why it’s important:



Why it’s important: Takes too Long to Do it Again



Takes too Long to Do it Again

Consider all the components (think release not builds)

Complexity grows with previous versions and multiple platforms

Regulations and legislation mandate reproducibility

“It often takes development teams twice as long to detect/reproduce a problem as it does to repair it.”

-- Standish Group

Why it’s important:



What youget



Short-Term Troubleshooting speed

Reliable baselines

Audit and security

Long-Term Higher responsiveness (Releases, SLA’s)

Increased productivity

Critical for compliance

What youget


The Best Practices:








What is it:



Share without chaosWhat is it:



Share without chaos

Essential for any team-oriented software projects

Essential for disperse environments (e.g. across street, across ocean)

Global view, yet still able to enforce policies

What is it:



Centralization allows for consistent policies and processes




Centralization allows for consistent policies and processes

Silos compromise security and policy requirements

No way to aggregate data or see the “big picture”

Without centralized control, teams cannot easily share or leverage others’ work

Communication and handoffs may fail, impacting release schedules and quality




What You Get



Greater participation

No compromising security or productivity

Centralized data is more secure and protected

Better visibility,

Better accountability

Eliminate the human bottlenecks Self-Service capabilities, real-time data available via web

Faster feedback loops

What You Get


The Best Practices:








What is it:



Take advantage of the reproducibility

Uncover problems early in the cycleWhat is it:



Take advantage of the reproducibility

Uncover problems early in the cycle

More turns of the crank Minimum once a day; more frequent is common Can happen in conjunction with scheduled weekly or

milestone builds

Continuous integration

Common to integrate testing Test early and often

What is it:



If it can’t build….Why It’s Important



If it can’t build…

Early release cycles make the difference between success or failure

Feedback becomes immediate – correct problems early

You cannot test if your application does not build!




What You Get



Higher quality releases delivered on time

Problems are addressed earlier in the development lifecycle, when they are quicker to resolve and less costly

More accurate forecast and status of remaining work to complete

Higher confidence that deliverables will meet requirements

Customer participation is possible earlier in the project, when adjustments are easier to make

What You Get


The Best Practices:








What is it:



Integrate release and delivery

What is it:



Integrate release and delivery

Releases are stages within the life cycle Integration, Test, QA, Staging, Production, etc.

Target environments can be final destinations, or intermediate “drop zones” for another application to pick up

Focus on “development-centric” release deliveries

Warning! Can be confused with deployment A release process is not an IT operations solution Lacks deployment management/monitoring

What is it:



Trace software assets end-to-endWhy It’s Important



Trace software assets end-to-end

“Over the wall” deliveries are high risk

Quickly identifying inputs (e.g. code) for a particular output (ie release) reduces troubleshooting time

Supports audit and compliance requirements

Integration deployment environments further reduces manual handoffs and human error




What You Get



Higher quality deployments

Eliminate incomplete transfers

Uncover unexpected application behaviors

Meet compliance and governance objectives Track the “chain of possession”

Reduce troubleshooting efforts

Get end-to-end visibility

Bridge between development and operations Remember the Buisness Goals thing?

What You Get


Whew


Almost there….


Roster Status Report – Take 2

Measurements for my Business Objectives




No rookies on Day 1




No rookies on Day 1

Two franchise players in key positionParker, Westbrook




No rookies on Day 1

Two franchise players in key positionParker, Westbrook

Process to monitor and change in place


You Are Invited!

Business Driven Development with Build Forge

Location:

IBM Atlanta Technical Exploration Center

4111 Northside Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30327

Date: Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Time: Track 1—The Business Case 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Track 2—Build Forge Test Drive 8:00 a.m. – 12 noon

For more information and online registration:

www.islandtraining.com/info/AtlantaRegistration

ibm - build and release best practices

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