Michael Nygard on "Agile Operations in the Enterprise" (InfoQ)

InfoQ has an excellent article on Agile Operations in the Enterprise by Michael Nygard. (posted 2010-05-21)


In the introduction, Nygard defines Agile Operations, and how they are all about the principles, not just tools or procedures.

One paragraph in the intro stands out, as it addresses a major misconception about agile operations (or #devops):

Like agile software development, agile operations emphatically does not equate to cowboy administrators running amok on the systems, without plan or documentation. Quite the opposite, agile operations requires great self-discipline. Operators must commit to putting everything into version control. They must accept nothing less than 100% automation. Manual actions must never be permitted.

The article goes on about typical enterprise issues like Audit and Compliance (SoX), and ITIL.
And the quote above already implies about how Agile Operations deals with these challenges.

Nygard continues with the bigger challenges of History and Culture before concluding with a couple of warnings.

[... ]a team without the agile principles can emulate the practices but will not derive the benefits

Focus on the agile principles and automate everything.