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DevOps @ Wotif: Making Easy = Right

Abstract:

We know the “right thing” to do is to work together, to remove bottlenecks, to automate, automate, automate. But when the status quo is finger-pointing, mistrust, blame, and over-exhaustion from increasingly complex manual releases, it seems impossible to find a way to climb out of the downward spiral. How did an IT department turn this around to become a harmonious department with common goals and over 10x faster cycle times?

Winning the hearts and minds needed for lasting DevOps change requires something more than just great automation. This is the story of how local Brisbane success story, Wotif Group, found a way to incentivise a DevOps transformation across an entire IT department, resulting in cycle times measured in hours instead of weeks/months. While this journey involved tools such as Puppet, Hiera, Fabric & ZooKeeper, Matt (dev) and Alexandra (ops) extract principles that they hope can be applied to any organisation at grassroots and leadership levels using existing toolchains to support not only the best ideas of the present but also the legacy of the past and the unknown innovation of the future.

Speaker:

Alexandra Spillane is a systems administrator with more than ten years experience administering Linux and Unix systems. She has been a member of Wotif Group's Continuous Delivery team since its inception in 2013. She loves using tools like Puppet to solve thorny problems in creative ways and will be speaking at PuppetConf 2014.

Matt Callanan is a senior software developer in the Continuous Delivery team at Wotif Group. He has over 14 years development experience including DevOps implementation and agile mentoring in small teams and large enterprises. He is most passionate about helping companies realise their potential through automation and reducing feedback cycles to quickly deliver value to customers. Matt has spoken internationally on DevOps, is a well-received presenter to IT departments and executive teams, and co-organises the DevOps Brisbane Meetup.