A Businessman's View

In a previous article, entitled DevOps as the Ultimate Panacea? , I described how developing code without thinking about the current needs of the end user as well as the future needs once they've become accustomed to using your application ends up not only frustrating them but also can result in customer churn and ultimately lower revenues.  In this article, I'd like to describe something simple that I came across today that shows a definite degree of effort to do quite the opposite. Recently, we had a severe snowstorm, one with blizzard-like conditions, which is unheard of in central New Jersey.  Being responsible adults, my wife and I went to the grocery store to stock up on essentials (read:  chips, chocolate, etc.) in case we get stuck at home. As we were ringing up our order, the cashier mentioned to us that the store has a mobile application.  Since both of us are in technology oriented professions, we were skeptical about the need for a grocery store mob...

Slippery when wet Since the term DevOps was coined in Belgium back in 2009, it is impossible to avoid the term whether in discussions with colleagues or in professional trade magazines.  And during the years while this movement has gained momentum, many things have been written to describe what elements of a DevOps strategy are required for it to be successful. Yet in spite of this, there is an interesting data point worth noting: not many organizations feel there is a need for DevOps.  In a Gartner report entitled DevOps Adoption Survey Results (published in September 2015),  40%  of respondents said they had no plans to implement DevOps and 31% of respondents said they hadn't implemented it but planned to start in the 12 months after the survey was conducted. That left only 29% who had implemented DevOps in a pilot project or in production systems, which isn't a lot. "Maybe it's because there truly isn't a need for DevOps," you say.  While t...