DevOps Business Class: Do you have a great idea? Don’t wait, but test it now!

On March 19 the first DevOps Business class, organised by CA Technologies and us, took place in the inspiring environment of the Nyenrode Business University.

21 participants joined to learn more about how to cope with the high market demands, while saving costs. The group of participants consisted of members of a diverse group of organisations such as banks, energy and insurance companies. This diversity led to some interesting discussions.

Gert Jan van Halem, one of our senior consultants, started the day with a presentation about Continuous Delivery. Hij stated that many organisation find it hard to take risks. “But when something has such a high risk, why make it this big?” he asked. His advice: “When it hurts, do it again”. By taking risks more often problems become recognisable and easier to solve. By splitting up the delivery process in parts and automating it, the releasing process becomes quicker and organisations receive feedback from the market a lot faster. “What’s new now, may be obsolete in six months. So whenever you have a great idea, you want to put this idea into production straight away. Don’t wait until your competitor comes with your idea,” said Gert Jan. “If you have a great idea today, don’t start to research if your idea is good or not. But test it immediately,” adds Kees van Bekkum, CA Country Manager.

After the lunch break it the floor is taken by Robin Bleeker, Process Chain Manager for Innovation at KPN. He tells the group about his experiences with CA Technologies Service Virtualisation (LISA). He explains that KPN has virtualized its back-end solutions, such at the postal code check. The test environments are now 95% of the time available. “The system is made for “non-programmers” and is comparable to the answer sheet of a math test,” explained Robin. “CA Service Virtualization knows all the answers, but not the calculations. The test manager tells the system what he wants to test and which virtual services must be shown”. The system offers many possibilities, it can for example be designed in a way in which each team has its own virtual test environment.

After the presentations it was time to let the group speak their mind about DevOps, Continuous Delivery and innovation. Kees van Bekkum presented several statements to which the group reacted. An example of a statement: The optimisation of my software delivery process is more an organisational than a technical challenge.

We and CA Technologies look back on a successful event and are hoping that their upcoming events will be just as well-received as this one. Do you want to join one of our upcoming events? Please contact us for more information.