Agile + DevOps USA 2024 - DevOps

The DevOps movement is here. Companies across many industries are breaking down siloed IT departments and federating them into product development teams. Testing and its practices are at the heart of these changes. Traditionally, IT organizations have been staffed with mostly manual testers and a limited number of automation and performance engineers. To keep pace with development in the new “you build it, you own it” environment, testing teams and individuals must develop new technical skills and even embrace coding to stay relevant and add greater value to the business. DevOps really...

Much attention is given to machine learning model training and testing in the industry. While these activities are essential for producing a production-ready machine learning model, organizations face some critical business challenges that must be addressed when building and testing machine learning models. Things like the reproducibility of results, accuracy of predictions, reusability of components, and trackability of experimentation are all vital to the success of any application.  The term MLOps has emerged as a method for applying DevOps practices and automation to the machine...

One of the great things about using the cloud is how easy it is to spin up resources and use them. The downside is it is really easy to spin up resources and forget about them. Sprawl becomes a real problem. You waste money if you fail to shut them down when you finish with them or even overnight. And it isn’t just costs. Managing a cloud infrastructure can be a real pain. Who spun this up? What project is it for? Does it need to be shut down? When? Shouldn’t it be encrypted? Cloud Custodian is an easy-to-use framework that allows simple YAML files to specify how to gather, filter,...

In the rapidly evolving landscape of agile and DevOps, traditional methods of testing business-facing features often struggle to keep pace with the demands for faster and more thorough testing. However, the fusion of traditional testing wisdom with cutting-edge AI presents a unique opportunity to enhance software quality and delivery speed, offering innovative solutions to longstanding challenges. Join Philip Daye and examine key test design techniques—such as equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision table testing, and state transition testing—and explore how Generative...

The challenges of managing test environments in the fast-paced world of software development are numerous, ranging from complexity and resource limitations. Traditional on-premises solutions often offer limited scalability and cause bottlenecks that hinder continuous testing. This presentation tackles these challenges head-on by proposing a shift to cloud-based test environments underpinned by Infrastructure as Code. By embracing the cloud, organizations can dynamically create and tear down test environments as needed, freeing up valuable resources. Integration with CI/CD pipelines...

Our industry has been transformed by new technologies, radically changing how we work. Thirty years ago, deployment cycles took 3-5 years; today, they happen in seconds. This rapid pace is largely due to our focus on investing in tools that boost developer productivity. We're still driven to create tools that simplify developers' work and make it easier for others to join the field. Many companies are heavily invested in enhancing productivity. However, the abundance of productivity tools doesn't automatically lead to increased productivity. Companies need to examine and adapt their...

Cloud-native architecture involves breaking down software components into smaller, loosely coupled applications known as microservices. While this approach can effectively address scalability issues in the cloud, it can also introduce greater complexity. Identifying the root cause of a microservice failure can be challenging if there is not enough data available. As such, a well-designed cloud-native system should incorporate logs, metrics, and traces to facilitate effective root cause analysis. OpenTelemetry offers simple and effective tools for implementing observability in a...

In today's rapidly evolving tech landscape, transitioning to agile and DevOps practices is crucial for organizational growth. However, many teams struggle to gauge their progress effectively within these methodologies. In this insightful session, Cholette will explore the key metrics that drive success in agile and DevOps adoption, focusing on best practices that can be applied across various organizational settings. Delving into essential metrics drawn from industry best practices, Cholette will shed light on the critical indicators for understanding progress and fostering...