HOW DEVOPS IS RESETTING THE ECOMMERCE LANDSCAPE

Transcription

1 TECH TRENDS WATCH Q HOW DEVOPS IS RESETTING THE ECOMMERCE LANDSCAPE AND FREEING UP BUSINESSES FOR RAPID GO-TO-MARKET DELIVERY 1

2 // INTRODUCTION Neil Stewart CEO, Salmon Ltd. Wouldn t it be great if complex ecommerce platform challenges could be solved in minutes, or hours, rather than days, weeks, or months? How about fixing pain-points on the go, improving the customer journey near-instantly? Bring up these ideas with your IT department, and you might be met with scepticism, or resistance, particularly if you've offshored IT development. But "DevOps" is changing the development playing field, and business leaders and IT departments would do well to take note and embrace it. In a digital-first world, the ecommerce landscape has changed. Speed is the currency. Today s leading multichannel enterprises are dependent on rapid go-to-market, achieved by super-fast software delivery. Dynamic collaboration is now a critical consideration as businesses digitally transform, and look to serve their mobile-oriented customers more effectively. Businesses that decided to offshore have found that their priorities have now changed, and, like many traditional businesses, have no choice but to reboot their processes and methods of software delivery, freeing themselves from restrictive operations that introduce delays and inefficiency*. Welcome to DevOps. DevOps is a practice and culture that fosters an agile relationship between Development and IT Operations. It improves the relationship between business units by promoting better communication and collaboration. It's not new, yet within ecommerce, DevOps hand has been strictly underplayed. Most importantly, DevOps works. Remarkably well, in fact, allowing businesses to test new ideas fast, and get into the market more quickly than ever before. This guide focuses on DevOps for ecommerce. It s been written for business leaders with varying attitudes to change, and is a crucial resource for leaders who seek clear competitive advantage in commercial sectors that are experiencing disruption. I hope it piques your interest, and drives actionable debate. With proven delivery of some of the world-leading ecommerce platforms, Salmon welcomes the opportunity to be part of that discussion. *Read Salmon s PoV on the Death of Offshore 2

3 // PAGE INDEX 4 Why Business Leaders Cannot Ignore Tech. Or How I learnt to stop worrying, and love DevOps 8 Big Improvements in Short Timeframes 5 DevOps Flips Traditional Thinking on its Head 10 A Top Ten DevOps Checklist for your Organisation 6 Outstanding Ecommerce Software, Delivered Fast 11 Concluding Comments // ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS Craig Harper-Ashton Multichannel Director Salmon Ltd. David Potts Head of Project Consultancy Salmon Ltd. Craig joined Salmon in 2002 and is responsible for delivering high quality ecommerce and multichannel solutions, spanning business analysis, architecture, design, development and testing. Prior to joining Salmon, Craig was Technical Director at Reveda Ltd and Logsys Solutions. David has worked in ecommerce with many of the biggest names in retail for over 15 years. He enjoys helping businesses define their multichannel proposition, designing and delivering global ecommerce platforms, while managing a team of consultants at Salmon. Having previously set up and managed ecommerce fulfilment operations, David offers Salmon clients a unique breadth of knowledge and experience. 3

4 // WHY BUSINESS LEADERS CANNOT IGNORE TECH. OR HOW I LEARNT TO STOP WORRYING, AND LOVE DEVOPS If you ve been involved with ecommerce over the last 15 years or so, you ll be acutely aware that the pace of change is increasing. Ecommerce is now the core component in most retailers multichannel strategies. Strategy is one thing, but the real battleground is in software delivery; specifically, speed to market. Salmon believes that this is rarely communicated to the board in the forceful terms it warrants. And that s a worry, because organisations must be able to respond rapidly to the demands of the market and consumers. Inability to do this challenges their very existence. For many this can mean disrupt or be disrupted. At Salmon, we are transforming the way we deploy technology solutions. DevOps is driving that transformation. It s accelerating software deployment, and decreasing time to market. It also flips the speed vs. quality argument, with both being enhanced at the same time. For most Salmon clients, this is music to their ears. It's sweet music too: a well known high street retailer is already experiencing impressive improvements in deployed code quality and site stability, and reduction of post-deployment issues within 2-3 months of adopting DevOps. Pages 8-9 show what's behind this. Ecommerce deployment is now a key differentiator, enabled by software that can be built rapidly, adapted quickly, and iterated at low cost. Code is built collaboratively, and in close proximity to the business, the market and the customer. ECOMMERCE IS NOW THE CORE COMPONENT IN MOST RETAILERS MULTICHANNEL STRATEGIES 4

5 // DEVOPS FLIPS TRADITIONAL THINKING ON ITS HEAD DevOps, a compound of Development and Operations, is a philosophy that drives cultural change. Its purpose is to automate and optimise delivery of software, while fostering teamwork across software developers and other IT professionals. In DevOps, all members of teams constantly receive feedback from each other. It removes barriers, complexity, bottlenecks and unplanned work. Crucially, it lets the team deliver small pieces of software very quickly, and to a high standard. By contrast, in the old world it was not uncommon to have features that had been written but never delivered. DevOps is a driver for continuous integration, which is a two-fold process. It lets us constantly update software and deliver new features, and it simultaneously achieves continuous process improvement. It lends itself to agile, lean and collaborative ways of delivering enterprise software too. Teams focus on a simple, shared objective: To deliver great software, fast. Automation is central to DevOps. Automation allows us to deploy new features to a live website very rapidly, and with 100% confidence. Clients don t have to wait weeks for a new feature that customers want now. System downtime is minimised, or even eradicated. And testing is automated, as far as possible; tests are swift and repeatable, with reduced risk of error. DEVOPS IS AKIN TO A SPRINT RELAY TEAM, WHERE THE HIGHEST PERFORMANCE LEVELS ARE DELIVERED SUSTAINABLY AT HIGH PACE. 5

6 // OUTSTANDING ECOMMERCE SOFTWARE, DELIVERED FAST Salmon s DevOps programme ensures the delivery of outstanding and reliable software. This is accomplished quickly and painlessly, significantly reducing risk and the constant rounds of re-iterations for clients. At the same time, we are continuously making improvements to our processes, so clients are always in the best possible position. They re better equipped to respond to ever-increasing rates of technological and market change, and better positioned to meet the demands of their customers. And they're better placed to move ahead, disrupting the market on their terms. Salmon s clients are seeing outstanding results through DevOps: Major, large-scale deployments are delivered in weeks, not months. Interim testing is delivered in days, not weeks. Pre-deployment quality checks are delivered in hours, not days. Problem fixes are made in minutes, not hours. All of the small efficiency gains that we achieve through DevOps add up to significant resource savings. We can then repurpose this time, delivering more features and value for clients and their end users. DEVOPS IS REDEFINING THE VERY UNITS OF MEASUREMENT: Major deployments = months weeks Code changes into production = months days Interim testing = weeks days Shipping code = weeks days hours Problem fixes = hours minutes 6

7 When we think about quality and cost, we sometimes assume that they are opposing forces. But DevOps is proving we can achieve great results while reducing cost. The key is maintaining a constant commitment to quality throughout the entire project lifecycle, and abolishing the system of hand-offs that introduces inefficiency, waste and duplicated work. The perception of quality is raised because results are more visible, and new features can be delivered much more quickly, continuously. The secret is to maintain high quality all of the time, rather than retro-fitting quality at the end. Other industries have known this for some time, but IT has by and large taken some time to catch up. THE QUALITY PERCEPTION MODEL The DevOps principle - and outcome - as mapped in the chart is to maintain high quality all of the time: continuous improvement in other words. Perceived Quality Contemporary Quality Quality Salmon DevOps Quality Development System Test User Acceptance Testing Project Lifecycle Stage 7

8 // BIG IMPROVEMENTS IN SHORT TIMEFRAMES Since adopting DevOps, our teams are reporting improvements so significant that we are redefining the very units of measurement. The comparative 2014 vs view for Problems Closed is similarly remarkable. When we work towards continuous improvement, problems are fixed more quickly. Let s look at actual Salmon client data to demonstrate these trends. When we compare results over a 12-month period for a client, the difference is striking: Quality is not just heading up: it s being sustained at a high level. A culture of quality is being established, and the results are clear to see: Problems Blacklog 2014/ /16 Problems Closed 2014/ / Volume of Problems Volume of Problems Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 0 Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 DevOps is responsible for the sustained reduction in the Problems Backlog illustrated above. Indeed, over a 6-month period, we have almost halved the backlog. In practice, this translated into significantly improved website reliability and stability for the client an obvious benefit. 8

9 Looking at Early Life Support (ELS), we measured the number of new problems and incidents found in production, after code had been deployed. Again, the significant reduction over the period is entirely attributable to Salmon DevOps: Problems Backlog, Problems Closed and ELS figures are CONTINUALLY IMPROVING. ELS Issues 20 Volume of Problems Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Source information for charts is based on Salmon client data taking account of: Release Frequency : number of releases per month Cycle Time : average number of days between full code deployments to production Problems Backlog : total number of problems/issues/defects in support backlog Severe Incident Rate : number of severity 1 incidents per month MTTR ( Mean Time To Repair ): average time to resolve severity 1 incident Average Release Downtime : number of minutes the website cannot take orders during a release/deployment YoY Monthly Sales Ratio : +/- % sales growth against same time previous year Conversion Rate - volume of orders expressed as % of customer visits Build Tolerance - Number of post-build quality errors/warnings Sustained QUALITY IMPROVEMENT is clear through better SITE RELIABILITY and STABILITY THE DEVOPS PARADOX: BY BEING FASTER, QUALITY IMPROVES 9

10 // TOP TEN CHECKLIST Let s be clear. DevOps is not a super-fast, go-to-market enabler for all organisations. And it has been met with resistance in some IT teams that are content with the status quo. But if digital is significant for your organisation either as a threat, or as an opportunity DevOps should be on your radar as you forge ahead, or keep up with dynamic markets. CAN DEVOPS BENEFIT YOUR ORGANISATION? Ask yourself the following questions: 1 With high confidence can you move fast to make more money from your current platform? 6 Can the stability, performance and reliability of your platform be increased without additional cost? 2 Are you able to introduce high quality deliveries for new features and enhancements at pace? 7 Can you adopt Agile principles fully, rather than simply paying lip service to them? 3 Can your current operations support faster, easier, zero outage releases? 8 Are you ready to automate testing, deployments, metrics, measurement and other processes? 4 Do you get high transparency, visibility and feedback throughout your development cycle? 9 Are you willing to review regular playbacks of what is being delivered to avoid unwelcome surprises? 5 Can your culture adapt to embrace change and continuous optimisation? 10 Do you understand the metrics that identify problems and drive improvements? If you've answered no to 3 or more (or don't know to 5 or more) questions: info@salmon.com or speak with your account manager to assess how DevOps can make a difference. 10

11 // CONCLUDING COMMENTS WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Salmon has clear evidence of outstanding outcomes from DevOps. It s moving towards using DevOps for everything, automating testing, performance and security. This is enabling customers to introduce new features quickly, and to get code changes into production within days, rather than months. We are breaking the time-consuming release cycle approach that the rest of the market is still using. Indeed, few ecommerce providers are working in this way. If your ecommerce programmes require tight collaboration to support shortening timeframes, evaluate the impact on quality outcomes if you can t fully meet the Forward-thinking organisations have done their calculations already. They are consolidating operations closer to their teams and markets. They re bringing development back home to support the digitisation of their business strategies. And DevOps is increasingly centre stage. If you d like to discuss how Salmon DevOps can help you get ahead, get in touch with your account manager today, or info@salmon.com.. PA 11

12 ABOUT SALMON Salmon is a global digital commerce consultancy the largest in WPP s network of companies. We define and deliver market-changing solutions and customer journeys for the world s leading brands. Established in 1989, with operations in London, New York, Melbourne and Beijing, Salmon clients include AkzoNobel, Argos, Audi UK, DFS, Halfords, Premier Farnell, Sainsbury s and Selfridges. For more information, info@salmon.com or visit: Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. Samuel Langhorne Clemens AKA Mark Twain 2016 Salmon Ltd. All rights reserved. All company and product names, brands and symbols mentioned herein are brand names and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. 12