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Architecting for uncertainty - part 5: DevOps defines how a fast-flow organization works

This is the fifth in a series of articles based on my talk Architecting for Fast Flow: Thriving Amid Uncertainty. In this series, I define the term fast flow and explain why it has become an essential software delivery capability. I discuss how fast flow emerges from a socio-technical architecture, which consists of a software architecture and its development organization. Finally, I describe how to design and evolve a socio-technical architecture in order to sustain fast flow.

The articles in the series are:

  1. Thriving in a VUCA world requires frequent deployment
  2. Fast flow defined
  3. GenAI as an amplifier
  4. Team topologies organizes for fast flow
  5. DevOps defines how a fast-flow organization works

Part 4 explained that fast flow is an emergent property of a socio-technical architecture, and described how Team Topologies structures the development organization for fast flow. In this article, I describe DevOps, which defines how a fast-flow organization gets work done. You will learn about three key DevOps practices: continuous delivery, monitoring production telemetry, and hypothesis-driven development.

A fast flow socio-technical architecture consists of a development organization and an architecture. In the development organization, Team Topologies defines how the organization is structured and The DevOps Handbook defines how the organization gets work done. The organization shapes the architecture, and the architecture, which has six properties such as team-sized elements, a fast deployment pipeline and observability, enables and constrains the organization

Let’s start by discussing what DevOps is and is not.

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Published by:

Chris Richardson