Abstract:

So you work in a startup, the field is green and you aim for Continuous Delivery and Zero-Downtime Deployments. Of course you do, anything else would just be foolish!

But what if not?

Let's say you work in a large, globally distributed Enterprise environment, with a long company history (including an IT history), organically grown systems, lots of heritage (aka legacy) and a "traditional" IT organisation, where some folks do Software Development while others do what is known as "Ops".

How can Continuous Delivery and DevOps practices become a reality in such a context? How do you start a successful Change Initiative, and - even more importantly - how do you make it stick?

This talk will be an experience report that focuses on the second and arguably more difficult scenario.

It will present a journey taken at Kuehne + Nagel, a global leader in transportation services - with more than 60.000 employees, hundreds of offices, distributed teams and millions of transports serviced around the globe each year.

We will go back in time a few years: Where was Kuehne + Nagel five years ago and what is the situation today? Spoiler Alert: Yes, Continuous Delivery is now a reality and Zero Downtime Deployments have made releases a Non-Event (we all miss the parties).

We will mention some tools and techniques in passing. However: The focus of this talk will be different:

  • What influence can experienced developers and leaders have for a successful outcome?
  • How can management and IT support the effort - how to engage the business side?
  • What is the mindset that you want to share and how can hiring and coaching play out in favour of the expected change?

Among the properties that distinguish this change initiative from some others may be the following:

  • Less disruptive - more evolutionary
  • Don't try to change the world all at once
  • Understand the realities of "Ops" life in a complex and grown environment
  • Make sure you take everybody along and make it a shared success

We will end the talk with the latest and greatest of what we have achieved so far, an outlook into the future and some honest statements about the pains that still remain.

Speaker: Markus Krogemann, Sascha Krüger

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