The document describes the many challenges that can arise when resolving incidents in production systems. It shows how resolving a single issue requires coordination across various teams including NOC, SREs, developers, middleware, and management. This process involves opening tickets, collecting logs, troubleshooting, waiting for access or approvals, and context switching - all of which can introduce delays and interruptions.

1. Operations: The Last Mile
Damon Edwards
@damonedwards

2.
Developers have had an unfair advantage.

3. Ops
Ah-ha!
Dev
Ka-ching!

4. Ops
Ah-ha!
Dev
Ka-ching!
Agile
2001

5. Ops
Ah-ha!
Dev
Ka-ching!
Agile
2001
ITIL
1989

6. OpsBusiness
Idea
Shorter Time-to-Market
Fast Feedback
from Users
Dev Ops
Running
Services
Improved Quality
Digital and DevOps
Availability Auditing
Security Compliance
"Go faster!"
“Open up!”
“Lock it down!”
2018

7. Story time….

8. Digital
Agile
DevOps
SRE
Cloud
Docker
Kubernetes
Microservices
CHANGE
Wow
That is cool
I wish I could
work there

9. But nobody was talking about what
happened after deployment…

10. It was just another Tuesday…

11. NOC
NOC
Biz
Manager
Escalate!
NOC NOC
NOC
(Bob)
Open
Incident
Ticket
9:30am 10:00am
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Ticket
Context Wagon
Yes, but this
looks different
Hasn’t there been
some intermittent
errors this week?
v3
?!

12. NOC
(Bob)
Open
Incident
Ticket
Ticket
Biz
Manager
App-specific
SREs
“Try this.”
“Try that.”
SRE
SysAdmin
with Prod Access
(Steve)
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
fixed?
fixed?
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
SysAdmin (Steve)
7 x SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon

13. NOC
(Bob)
Open
Incident
Ticket
Ticket
Biz
Manager
App-specific
SREs
“Try this.”
“Try that.”
SRE
SysAdmin
with Prod Access
(Steve)
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
fixed?
fixed?
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
SysAdmin (Steve)
7 x SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
Interruption

14. NOC
(Bob)
Open
Incident
Ticket
Ticket
Biz
Manager
App-specific
SREs
“Try this.”
“Try that.”
SRE
SysAdmin
with Prod Access
(Steve)
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
fixed?
fixed?
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
SysAdmin (Steve)
7 x SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Interruption

15. NOC
(Bob)
Open
Incident
Ticket
Ticket
Biz
Manager
App-specific
SREs
“Try this.”
“Try that.”
SRE
SysAdmin
with Prod Access
(Steve)
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
fixed?
fixed?
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
SysAdmin (Steve)
7 x SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Interruption
Waiting

16. NOC
(Bob)
Open
Incident
Ticket
Ticket
Biz
Manager
App-specific
SREs
“Try this.”
“Try that.”
SRE
SysAdmin
with Prod Access
(Steve)
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
fixed?
fixed?
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
SysAdmin (Steve)
7 x SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
“Dog Pile”
Interruption
Waiting

17. NOC
(Bob)
Open
Incident
Ticket
Ticket
Biz
Manager
App-specific
SREs
“Try this.”
“Try that.”
SRE
SysAdmin
with Prod Access
(Steve)
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
fixed?
fixed?
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
SysAdmin (Steve)
7 x SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
“Dog Pile”
Disconnected
Access
Interruption
Waiting

18. NOC
(Bob)
Open
Incident
Ticket
Ticket
Biz
Manager
App-specific
SREs
“Try this.”
“Try that.”
SRE
SysAdmin
with Prod Access
(Steve)
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
fixed?
fixed?
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
SysAdmin (Steve)
7 x SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Distraction
“Dog Pile”
Disconnected
Access
Interruption
Waiting

19. SRE
“It’s a problem
with the Foo
service”
SRE
SRE
Foo
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
Foo
Service
No.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Foo
Lead Dev
+ add
12:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Foo SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Can you
fix it?

20. SRE
“It’s a problem
with the Foo
service”
SRE
SRE
Foo
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
Foo
Service
No.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Foo
Lead Dev
+ add
12:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Foo SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Can you
fix it?
Partially
Done
Work

21. SRE
“It’s a problem
with the Foo
service”
SRE
SRE
Foo
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
Foo
Service
No.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Foo
Lead Dev
+ add
12:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Foo SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Can you
fix it?
Partially
Done
Work
Escalation

22. SRE
“It’s a problem
with the Foo
service”
SRE
SRE
Foo
SRE
SRE
SRE
SRE
Bridge
Call
Biz
Manager
Foo
Service
No.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Foo
Lead Dev
+ add
12:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
Foo SRE
Ticket
Context Wagon
Can you
fix it?
Partially
Done
Work
Escalation
Waiting

23. o
Dev
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
ding!
Ignore.
App
Manager
Hey did you see
that ticket?
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
sigh.
I’ll take a look
I’m go
mor
pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
Scrum
Ticket
Context Wagon

24. o
Dev
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
ding!
Ignore.
App
Manager
Hey did you see
that ticket?
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
sigh.
I’ll take a look
I’m go
mor
pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
Scrum
Ticket
Context Wagon
Interruption

25. o
Dev
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
ding!
Ignore.
App
Manager
Hey did you see
that ticket?
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
sigh.
I’ll take a look
I’m go
mor
pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
Scrum
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Interruption

26. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon

27. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Disconnected
Access

28. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Disconnected
Access
Waiting

29. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Interruption
Disconnected
Access
Waiting

30. k
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
I’m going to need
more log files
Ticket
SysAdmin Team
+ add
Update
Ticket
Chat
“Can someone with
access to Foo Service
in Prod01 help me with
ticket #42516?”
SysAdmin
(Lee) Ticket
“logs
attached”
Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Ticket
“no the
other ones”
Le
(K
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Interruption
Disconnected
Access
Waiting
Context
Switch

31. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W

32. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
Partially
Done
Work

33. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
Partially
Done
Work
Waiting

34. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
Partially
Done
Work
Waiting
Interruption

35. Foo
Lead Dev
(Karen)
Logs
-Who restarted these services? (and why?)
-They didn’t use the correct environment
variables!
-This entire service pool needs to be restarted!
Ticket
Update
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Middleware Team
+ add
“Middleware, please
urgent restart this entire
app pool with the correct
environment variable”
2:00pm
Ticket
Context W
Partially
Done
Work
Waiting
Context
Switching
Interruption

36. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm

37. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
Extra
Process

38. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
Extra
Process
Misaligned
Priorities

39. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
Interruption
Extra
Process
Misaligned
Priorities

40. ase
s entire
e correct
able”
NOC
(Bob)
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
No way. It’s the middle
of the day! You need
business approval.
NOC
(Bob)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
(S
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
NOC (B
Biz Ma
App Ma
Lead D
Foo SR
Ticket
Context Wagon
Ticket
Context Wagon
2:30pm
Context
Switching
Interruption
Extra
Process
Misaligned
Priorities

41. Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
SVP
(Susan)
Chief of
Staff
Tech VP
Tech VP
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Restart approved”
Customer
impact?
Ticket
Middlewa
Manage
(Melissa
Wh
prod
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Ticket
Context Wagon

42. Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
SVP
(Susan)
Chief of
Staff
Tech VP
Tech VP
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Restart approved”
Customer
impact?
Ticket
Middlewa
Manage
(Melissa
Wh
prod
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Ticket
Context Wagon
Interruption

43. Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
SVP
(Susan)
Chief of
Staff
Tech VP
Tech VP
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Restart approved”
Customer
impact?
Ticket
Middlewa
Manage
(Melissa
Wh
prod
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Interruption

44. Update
Ticket
Ticket
SVP for Line of
Business
+ add
SVP
(Susan)
Chief of
Staff
Tech VP
Tech VP
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Restart approved”
Customer
impact?
Ticket
Middlewa
Manage
(Melissa
Wh
prod
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Ticket
Context Wagon
Context
Switching
Interruption
Disconnected
Context

45. Share
point
proved”
Ticket
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Who knows these
production services
the best?
Ellen!
Middleware Middleware
(Scott)
Ellen
to
Europe
office
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Ticket
Context Wagon

46. Share
point
proved”
Ticket
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Who knows these
production services
the best?
Ellen!
Middleware Middleware
(Scott)
Ellen
to
Europe
office
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Waiting

47. Share
point
proved”
Ticket
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Who knows these
production services
the best?
Ellen!
Middleware Middleware
(Scott)
Ellen
to
Europe
office
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Waiting
Siloed
Knowledge

48. Share
point
proved”
Ticket
Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Who knows these
production services
the best?
Ellen!
Middleware Middleware
(Scott)
Ellen
to
Europe
office
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
5:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Waiting
Manual
Siloed
Knowledge

49. Share
point
Middleware
(Scott)
Trial and error
.doc
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
ket
Context Wagon
Middleware
(Scott)
Bar
Service
10 min Middleware
(Scott)
Waiting for
Acme Service
Acme startup
failed
Bar
Service
6:00pm

50. Come on.. no.no.no.
What? Why?
Middleware
(Scott)

51. Come on.. no.no.no.
What? Why?
Middleware
(Scott)

52. 8888888
Come on.. no.no.no.
What? Why?
Middleware
(Scott)

53. -Bar app startup timed out. Error says can’t
connect to Acme service.
- I looked at Acme but it seems to be running
-Is this error message correct? Why can’t Bar
connect?
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Middleware
(Scott)
Bar SRE
+ add
Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
6:45
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)Ticket
Context Wagon
The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.

54. -Bar app startup timed out. Error says can’t
connect to Acme service.
- I looked at Acme but it seems to be running
-Is this error message correct? Why can’t Bar
connect?
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Middleware
(Scott)
Bar SRE
+ add
Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
6:45
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)Ticket
Context Wagon
The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Escalation

55. -Bar app startup timed out. Error says can’t
connect to Acme service.
- I looked at Acme but it seems to be running
-Is this error message correct? Why can’t Bar
connect?
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Middleware
(Scott)
Bar SRE
+ add
Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
6:45
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)Ticket
Context Wagon
The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Escalation
Task
Switching

56. Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
Bar
Lead Dev
6:45pm
ob)
ager
nager
ev (Karen)
E
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Bar
Lead Dev
(Liu)
Business
Managers
I can comment out
the test… But the
CD pipeline only
goes to QA ENV!

57. Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
Bar
Lead Dev
6:45pm
ob)
ager
nager
ev (Karen)
E
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Bar
Lead Dev
(Liu)
Business
Managers
I can comment out
the test… But the
CD pipeline only
goes to QA ENV!
Escalation

58. Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
Bar
Lead Dev
6:45pm
ob)
ager
nager
ev (Karen)
E
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Bar
Lead Dev
(Liu)
Business
Managers
I can comment out
the test… But the
CD pipeline only
goes to QA ENV!
Escalation
Task
Switching

59. Bar SRE
(Linda)
Middleware
(Scott)
-URGENT: Network
connection issue
between Bar and
Acme
Ticket
Update
Ticket
Network
SRE Team
+ add
Bar
Lead Dev
6:45pm
ob)
ager
nager
ev (Karen)
E
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?The new environment pre-flight
check is preventing startup.
Looks like Bar’s connection to
Acme is being blocked.
Bar
Lead Dev
(Liu)
Business
Managers
I can comment out
the test… But the
CD pipeline only
goes to QA ENV!
Escalation
Task
Switching
Disconnected
Process

60. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!

61. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
Distraction

62. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
Distraction
Finger
Pointing

63. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
Distraction
Finger
Pointing
Heroics

64. Network Dir
(Carlos)
Middleware
(Scott)
Carlos, I need a favor.
Can you escalate?Middleware
Manager
(Melissa)
Customers are
calling. What
is going on?
Last week..
Net SRE
VP
VP
Priority!
Different
Incident!
Net SRE Net SRE
Net SRE
Its the network!
Business
Managers
Your
network is
broken!
Business
Managers
We are already
working on it!
Network VPs
out
he
ly
V!
Distraction
Finger
Pointing
Heroics
Waiting

65. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon

66. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Escalation

67. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Escalation Interruption

68. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Escalation
Task
Switching
Interruption

69. Network
SRE
(Hari)
The firewall is
blocking the traffic
You’ll have to take
it up with the
Firewall Team
-URGENT: Firewall is
blocking connection
between Bar and Acme
Ticket
Open
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall
Team
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Paging on-call…
Open bridge…
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
8:00p
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Ticket
Context Wagon
Escalation
Task
Switching
Siloed
Knowledge
Interruption

70. Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
There was a rule change last
Thursday that would stop Bar
from talking to Acme.
Can you change it back?
Sure we make changes on
Thursday…
Chief of
Staff
SVP and VPs are livid… this was
supposed to be a safe change!!
Freddie, we’ve got customers calling.
ES
Em
pro
rul
Update
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
8:00pm

71. Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
There was a rule change last
Thursday that would stop Bar
from talking to Acme.
Can you change it back?
Sure we make changes on
Thursday…
Chief of
Staff
SVP and VPs are livid… this was
supposed to be a safe change!!
Freddie, we’ve got customers calling.
ES
Em
pro
rul
Update
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
8:00pm
Extra
Process

72. Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Can’t be the firewall, it hasn’t
changed since last Thursday.
No its the firewall.
There was a rule change last
Thursday that would stop Bar
from talking to Acme.
Can you change it back?
Sure we make changes on
Thursday…
Chief of
Staff
SVP and VPs are livid… this was
supposed to be a safe change!!
Freddie, we’ve got customers calling.
ES
Em
pro
rul
Update
Firewall
Ticket
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
8:00pm
Extra
Process
Misaligned
Priorities

73. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon

74. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
Extra
Process

75. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
Extra
Process
Escalation

76. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
Extra
Process
Escalation
Task
Switching

77. d VPs are livid… this was
sed to be a safe change!!
we’ve got customers calling.
ESCALATE:
Emergency
production firewall
rule change review
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
+ add
Firewall Engineer
(Freddie)
Paging on-call…
NetSec
(Nicole)
This is production so I’ll have
to get others on the Network
CAB…
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
9:00pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAd
Middle
SVP
Chief o
2 x Tec
Ticket
Context Wagon
Extra
Process
Escalation
Task
Switching
Misaligned
Priorities

78. I’ll have
Network
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
APPROVE: Emergency
firewall rule change
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
(Nicole)
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middl
(Sc
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
9:30pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Firewall (Freddie)
Ticket
Context Wagon
NetSec (Nicole)

79. I’ll have
Network
Chief of
Staff
Firewall
(Freddie)
Middleware
(Scott)
Customer outage!
APPROVE: Emergency
firewall rule change
Ticket
Update
Firewall
Ticket
NetSec
(Nicole)
… I’ll call SVP Susan
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middl
(Sc
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
9:30pm
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Firewall (Freddie)
Ticket
Context Wagon
NetSec (Nicole)
Waiting

80. Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Customer Engagement
Manager
+ add
Policy
!!
“Ready for
API tests”
9:45pm
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
I think we
are good!
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
You
“think?”
pm

81. Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Customer Engagement
Manager
+ add
Policy
!!
“Ready for
API tests”
9:45pm
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
I think we
are good!
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
You
“think?”
pm
Manual

82. Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Customer Engagement
Manager
+ add
Policy
!!
“Ready for
API tests”
9:45pm
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
I think we
are good!
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
You
“think?”
pm
Manual
Partially
Done
Work

83. Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Customer Engagement
Manager
+ add
Policy
!!
“Ready for
API tests”
9:45pm
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
I think we
are good!
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
You
“think?”
pm
Manual
Partially
Done
Work
Escalation

84. Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Customer Engagement
Manager
+ add
Policy
!!
“Ready for
API tests”
9:45pm
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
I think we
are good!
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
You
“think?”
pm
Manual
Partially
Done
Work
Escalation
Task
Switching

85. Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
Customer Engagement
Manager
+ add
Policy
!!
“Ready for
API tests”
9:45pm
Firewall
(Freddie)
Net L2
(Bob)
Middleware
(Scott)
Firewall
change
Restart Bar
I think we
are good!
Middleware
Manager
VP
VP
Bar
Lead Dev
You
“think?”
pm
Manual
Partially
Done
Work
Extra
Process
Escalation
Task
Switching

86. et
gement
“Ready for
API tests”
Customer
Engagement
Manager
(Varsha)
NOC
(Bob)
Customer Engagement
Manager
(Varsha)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“APIs OK”
Middleware
(Scott)
Upda
Tick
11:00pm
Ticket
Co

87. et
gement
“Ready for
API tests”
Customer
Engagement
Manager
(Varsha)
NOC
(Bob)
Customer Engagement
Manager
(Varsha)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“APIs OK”
Middleware
(Scott)
Upda
Tick
11:00pm
Ticket
Co
Life
Interruption

88. et
gement
“Ready for
API tests”
Customer
Engagement
Manager
(Varsha)
NOC
(Bob)
Customer Engagement
Manager
(Varsha)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“APIs OK”
Middleware
(Scott)
Upda
Tick
11:00pm
Ticket
Co
Life
Interruption
Extra
Process

89. e
Ticket
“APIs OK”
Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Services
restarted OK”
NOC
NOC
Lights are green…
I guess it is fixed.
Close
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Zzz
11:30pm
N
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Firewall (Freddie)
Ticket
Context Wagon
NetSec (Nicole)
Cust. Engmt. (Varsha)

90. e
Ticket
“APIs OK”
Middleware
(Scott)
Update
Ticket
Ticket
“Services
restarted OK”
NOC
NOC
Lights are green…
I guess it is fixed.
Close
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Zzz
11:30pm
N
NOC (Bob)
Biz Manager
App Manager
Lead Dev (Karen)
Foo SRE
SysAdmin (Lee)
Middleware Manager
SVP
Chief of Staff
2 x Tech VP
Middleware (Scott)
Bar SRE (Linda)
Network PM (Carlos)
Network SRE (Bob)
Firewall (Freddie)
Ticket
Context Wagon
NetSec (Nicole)
Cust. Engmt. (Varsha)
.

91. NOC
Lights are green…
I guess it is fixed.
Close
Ticket
NOC
(Bob)
Zzz
Next Day
SVP
(Susan)
Whose fault is this?!
Why are we so bad at change?
What additional processes
and approvals are you
adding to never let this
happen again?!
VP
VP
Dir
Dir
VP
Dir
VP
Scott)
da)
Carlos)
(Bob)
die)
NetSec (Nicole)
Cust. Engmt. (Varsha)

92. Later…

93. We’ve invested in Cloud, Agile,
DevOps, Containers…
Why does everything still take too
long and cost too much?
Executive Team
Our transformation has
largely ignored Ops

94. Most companies chase the symptoms…

95. …by following the conventional wisdom:

96. “We need better tools”
…by following the conventional wisdom:

97. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
…by following the conventional wisdom:

98. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
…by following the conventional wisdom:

99. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
“We need more change reviews/approvals”
…by following the conventional wisdom:

100. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
“We need more change reviews/approvals”
…by following the conventional wisdom:
“We’ll wait and see what ITIL v4 says”

101. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
“We need more change reviews/approvals”
…by following the conventional wisdom:

102. “We need better tools”
“We need more people”
“We need more discipline and attention to detail”
“We need more change reviews/approvals”
…by following the conventional wisdom:

103. Challenge the conventional
wisdom about operations work

104. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

105. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

106. Where are decisions made? Who can take action?
escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor

107. Where are decisions made? Who can take action?
escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor
Decisions made here

108. All work is contextual
John
Allspaw

109. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
John
Allspaw

110. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME Is this dangerous?
John
Allspaw

111. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
John
Allspaw

112. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
John
Allspaw

113. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
Is this dangerous?
John
Allspaw

114. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
John
Allspaw

115. All work is contextual
rm -rf $PATHNAME
Answer is always
“it depends”
John
Allspaw

116. escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor
Context
Where are decisions made? Who can take action?

117. Psychological safety
Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk taking. It can be defined as "being able to show
and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of
self-image, status or career.
- William Kahn
Boston University
1990

118. Psychological safety
Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk taking. It can be defined as "being able to show
and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of
self-image, status or career.
- William Kahn
Boston University
1990
Google: most important characteristic
to predict team effectiveness?
2016

119. Psychological safety
Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk taking. It can be defined as "being able to show
and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of
self-image, status or career.
- William Kahn
Boston University
1990
Google: most important characteristic
to predict team effectiveness?
2016
Psychological safety!

120. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

121. Toil: Name For a Problem We’ve All Felt

122. Toil: Name For a Problem We’ve All Felt
“Toil is the kind of work tied to running a production
service that tends to be manual, repetitive,
automatable, tactical, devoid of enduring value, and
that scales linearly as a service grows.”
-Vivek Rau
Google

123. Toil vs. Engineering Work
Toil Engineering Work
Lacks Enduring Value Builds Enduring Value
Rote, Repetitive Creative, Iterative
Tactical Strategic
Increases With Scale Enables Scaling
Can Be Automated Requires Human Creativity

124. Excessive Toil Prevents Fixing the System
Toil Engineering Work
E.W.Toil
Reduce toil
Improve the business ǡ
No capacity to reduce toil
No capacity to improve business
Toil at manageable percentage of capacity
Toil at unmanageable percentage of capacity (“Engineering Bankruptcy”)

125. Excessive Toil Prevents Fixing the System
Toil Engineering Work
E.W.Toil
Reduce toil
Improve the business ǡ
No capacity to reduce toil
No capacity to improve business
Toil at manageable percentage of capacity
Toil at unmanageable percentage of capacity (“Engineering Bankruptcy”)

126. Excessive Toil Prevents Fixing the System
Toil Engineering Work
E.W.Toil
Reduce toil
Improve the business ǡ
No capacity to reduce toil
No capacity to improve business
Toil at manageable percentage of capacity
Toil at unmanageable percentage of capacity (“Engineering Bankruptcy”)
Downward spiral is inevitable!

127. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

128. Silos
Backlog Information
PrioritiesTools

129. Backlog Information
I need X
PrioritiesTools
Silos

130. Backlog Information
I need X
PrioritiesTools
Silos
Backlog
I do X
Requests
for X
Silo A
Information
Priorities
Silo B
Tools

131. Silos cause disconnects and mismatches
Backlog Information
I need X
PrioritiesTools
Backlog
I do X
Requests
for X
Silo A
Information
Priorities
Silo B
Tools
Context
Context
Process
Process
Tooling
Tooling
Capacity
Capacity

132. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

133. How do we cover for our silos’ disconnects and mismatches?
Silo A Silo B

134. How do we cover for our silos’ disconnects and mismatches?
Silo A Silo B
Ticket
Queue

135. ??
Silo A Silo B
We all know how well that works
Ticket
Queue

136. Ticket queues are an expensive way to manage work
Ticket
Queue
Queues Create…
Longer Cycle Time
Increased Risk
More Variability
More Overhead
Lower Quality
Less Motivation
Adapted from Donald G. Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development

137. What do queues do to value streams?

138. What do queues do to value streams?
Queue
A
Queue
B

139. What do queues do to value streams?
Queue
A
Queue
B
Queues disintegrate and
obfuscate value streams

140. Ticket queues are “snowflake makers”
??
Silo A Silo B
Ticket
Queue

141. Ticket queues are “snowflake makers”
??
Silo A Silo B
Ticket
Queue
Snowflakes
Technically acceptable, but brittle and unreproducible

142. Ticket queues are “snowflake makers”
??
Silo A Silo B
Ticket
Queue
Snowflakes
Technically acceptable, but brittle and unreproducible

143. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

144. So what can we do differently?

145. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

146. “Shift Left” the ability to take action
escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor

147. “Shift Left” the ability to take action
Push the ability to take action this direction
escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor

148. “Shift Left” the ability to take action
Push the ability to take action this direction
escalate
1° 2° 3° 4°
escalate escalateor
Tools
Enablement and tooling

149. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

150. Reduce Toil

151. Reduce Toil
1. Track toil levels for each team

152. Reduce Toil
1. Track toil levels for each team
2. Set toil limits for each team

153. Reduce Toil
1. Track toil levels for each team
2. Set toil limits for each team
3. Fund efforts to reduce toil (with emphasis on teams over toil limits)

154. Reduce Toil
1. Track toil levels for each team
2. Set toil limits for each team
3. Fund efforts to reduce toil (with emphasis on teams over toil limits)
Bonus: Use Service Level Objectives, Error Budgets, and other lessons from SRE

155. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

156. Obvious: Get rid of as many silos as possible
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D

157. Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Obvious: Get rid of as many silos as possible

158. Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Obvious: Get rid of as many silos as possible
“Horizontal” shared
responsibility, not
everyone do everything!

159. Shared and dedicated responsibility is key
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Development Team n
SRE
Team
Clear handoff requirements
Error budget with consequences
“Netflix"
Model
“Google”
Model

160. Shared and dedicated responsibility is key
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Development Team n
SRE
Team
Clear handoff requirements
Error budget with consequences
“Netflix"
Model
“Google”
Model

161. Shared and dedicated responsibility is key
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Development Team n
SRE
Team
Clear handoff requirements
Error budget with consequences
“Netflix"
Model
“Google”
Model
Same
high-quality,
high-velocity
results!

162. But what about the cross-cutting concerns?
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities

163. But what about the cross-cutting concerns?
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue

164. But what about the cross-cutting concerns?
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Specialist
Capabilities
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue
Ticket
Queue Ticket
Queue

165. Forces That Undermine Operations
Silos Queues
Excessive ToilLow Trust

166. Self-Service Operations: Turn handoffs into self-service
Self-Service Operations
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
Ops
(operates platform)
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops
(embedded)Cross-Functional Product Team 1
Cross-Functional Product Team n Ops
(embedded)
Cross-Functional Product Team 2 Ops
(embedded)

167. Self-Service Operations: Works with any org model
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Development Team n
Ops/SRE
Team
Self-Service Operations
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
Ops
(operates platform)
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist

168. Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Ops/SRE
Team
Self-Service Operations
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
Ops
(operates platform)
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Cross-Functional Product Team n Ops
(embedded)
But, what about security and compliance?
Build-in
Security
Here
Build-in
Compliance
Here

169. Are all tickets bad?

170. Are all tickets bad?
Ticket
System
No. Just use tickets for what they are good for

171. Are all tickets bad?
1.Documenting true problems/issues/exceptionsTicket
System
No. Just use tickets for what they are good for

172. Are all tickets bad?
1.Documenting true problems/issues/exceptions
2.Routing for necessary approvals
Ticket
System
No. Just use tickets for what they are good for

173. Are all tickets bad?
1.Documenting true problems/issues/exceptions
2.Routing for necessary approvals
Not as a general purpose work management system!
Ticket
System
No. Just use tickets for what they are good for

174. Strategy: Self-Service improves response times
https://youtu.be/USYrDaPEFtM
Jody Mulkey at DOES ‘15 SF

175. Strategy: Self-Service improves response times
https://youtu.be/USYrDaPEFtM
Jody Mulkey at DOES ‘15 SF
Services Monitoring Scripts/Tools Services Monitoring Scripts/ToolsServices Monitoring Scripts/Tools
DEV STAGE PROD
Dev & QA NOC/Ops Dev
Promote
approved
jobs
Self-Service Self-Service
Empower

176. Strategy: Self-Service improves response times
https://youtu.be/USYrDaPEFtM
Jody Mulkey at DOES ‘15 SF
Services Monitoring Scripts/Tools Services Monitoring Scripts/ToolsServices Monitoring Scripts/Tools
DEV STAGE PROD
Dev & QA NOC/Ops Dev
Promote
approved
jobs
Self-Service Self-Service
Empower

177. Strategy: Self-Service improves consistency &compliance
Shaun Norris at DOES ‘18 London
https://youtu.be/d5IMvK0YHTg

178. Strategy: Self-Service improves consistency &compliance
Shaun Norris at DOES ‘18 London
https://youtu.be/d5IMvK0YHTg
Optimized for compliance
• 86,000+ employees
• 60+ countries
• Highly regulated

179. Strategy: Self-Service improves consistency &compliance
Shaun Norris at DOES ‘18 London
https://youtu.be/d5IMvK0YHTg
Optimized for compliance
• 86,000+ employees
• 60+ countries
• Highly regulated
LOB #1
LOB #2 LOB #3
LOB …n
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Self-Service
ComplianceConsistency

180. Strategy: Self-Service improves consistency &compliance
Shaun Norris at DOES ‘18 London
https://youtu.be/d5IMvK0YHTg
Optimized for compliance
• 86,000+ employees
• 60+ countries
• Highly regulated
LOB #1
LOB #2 LOB #3
LOB …n
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center
Services Scripts/Tools
Data Center Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Services Scripts/Tools
Cloud
Self-Service
ComplianceConsistency
12 months: 13,000+ ops tasks in privileged
environments that didn’t require a review

181. rundeck.com/self-service
Read for free online:
Working on documenting the Self-
Service Operations design pattern.
Where I need your help…

182. Recap
Don’t forget about Ops.
Challenge conventional wisdom.
Leverage the Self-Service
Operations design pattern
“Shift-Left” control and decision
making.
Old Silo A Old Silo B Old Silo C Old Silo D
Cross-Functional Team 1
Cross-Functional Team 2
Cross-Functional Team n
Focus on removing silos and
queues
Learn from SRE: Reduce toil to
create capacity to change
Toil Engineering Work
E.W.Toil
Reduce toil
Improve the business ǡ
No capacity to reduce toil
Toil at manageable percentage of capacity
oil at unmanageable percentage of capacity (“Engineering Bankruptcy”)
Understand the forces
undermining operations work
Development Team 1
Development Team 2
Ops/SRE
Team
Self-Service Operations
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
On
Demand
Ops
(operates platform)
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Ops Capability
SRE, Dev, or
Specialist
Cross-Functional Product Team n Ops
(embedded)

183. Let’s talk…
@damonedwards
damon@rundeck.com
rundeck.com/self-service