Heather Downing: Retooling for the Future - Episode 190

This week, Jeffrey Palermo is joined by his guest, Dave McKinstry. Dave is a Program Manager with the Azure DevOps Services Community Team — connecting with partners and customers, spreading modern practises, and helping developers succeed with DevOps and Azure. Prior to his position at Microsoft, he has been in software services and technical sales for over 18 years. As a consultant, principal consultant, co-owner, and manager, he has always helped people efficiently build better software. He loves what he does as a technologist and enjoys being a part of today's rapid technology evolution. In this episode, Jeffrey and Dave talk about changes for Dave since the launch of Azure DevOps, what his journey has been like in the DevOps industry, his thoughts on companies looking to integrate Azure DevOps and move forward with automated deployment and reaching the continuous integration mark, how he thinks developers can move forward in terms of quality and Agile 101, and the modern skillset of what a developer and/or system engineer should look like in today's DevOps environment. Topics of Discussion: [:39] About today's guest, Dave McKinstry. [1:00] Jeffrey welcomes Dave to the podcast. [1:14] How it has been for Dave since the launch of Azure DevOps. [1:25] Which side does Dave work on? Azure DevOps Services or Azure DevOps Server? [2:58] Is Dave going to be at the Ignite event? [3:10] What has been Dave's journey through (what we now talk about as) modern practices and shipping software? [5:25] How is it with Dave's customers in regards to getting to continuous delivery and the continuous integration mark. [8:03] The general nature of smaller and larger companies from a business perspective. [10:03] Dave's thoughts on the companies integrating Azure DevOps looking into moving forward with automated deployment. [12:20] A word from Azure DevOps sponsor: Clear Measure. [12:48] How developers can move forward with quality and Agile 101. [15:10] How did the culture of DevOps (Dev and Ops) come together? [17:57] Dave's take on the relevant tasks of 15 years ago, no longer being relevant in today's DevOps environment. [20:28] The modern skillset of DevOps and what developers and system engineers need to be doing in the current DevOps world. [21:29] About the benefits of Dave's standing treadmill desk (that he's currently using during the recording of the podcast)! [25:40] Dave and Jeffrey's early schooling, programming, and typing experiences! And the contrast with modern day schooling and the changing world. [28:59] Dave describes the term 'machine learning' and the impact it has. [33:15] What Dave recommends listeners should do next. Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Azure DevOps Services Azure DevOps Server Microsoft Ignite eventApplication Lifecycle Management (ALM)Team Foundation Server (TFS) CICD Better Business Bureau Clear Measure (Sponsor) Agile 101 Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, by Fred Brooks IoT aka.ms/devops Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes. Follow Up with Our Guest: Dave McKinstry's LinkedIn

8 Okt 201834min

Welcome to the 4th episode of the Azure DevOps podcast! Today, Jeffrey Palermo is joined by special guest, Steven Murawski. Steven is the Lead Cloud Ops Advocate at Microsoft and leads the Cloud Ops Advocacy team focused on DevOps SRE and Cloud Native scenarios with Azure. He is an active member of the Chef and WinOps communities and a maintainer for several open source projects including Chef, Habitat, and Test-Kitchen. Steve focuses specifically on infrastructure within Azure DevOps. This episode, Steven Murawski explains the basics of infrastructure, which tools and infrastructures he recommends for those putting together their DevOps tool belt, the value in defining your infrastructure as code, where to get started and how to modify your infrastructure on the fly, and how to minimize your opportunities for failure. Topics of Discussion: [:51] About today's topic and guest. [1:31] What is Steve currently up to in regards to work? [4:49] The basics of infrastructure. [8:11] As people are putting together their DevOps tool belt, which tools and infrastructures does Steve recommend for the Microsoft shops? [9:21] Steve explains what Terraform is and what you can do with it. [11:35] How Steve sees the value in defining their infrastructure as code. [13:31] Where to get started in this "infrastructure as code" world (and modifying your infrastructure on the fly.) [18:07] A word from Azure DevOps sponsor: Clear Measure. [18:33] Steve speaks about tweaking infrastructure, minimizing opportunities for failure, and applying testing principles to the infrastructure's code. [20:00] What format do these tests live in and where are they running from? [23:55] At what level of granularity do you break up the ARM files? [28:45] Once an application has been running for a while, what does the path look like to change something that's already there when you don't want to start completely fresh? [31:20] When do you release a new build? [33:47] Do you push a new release through the release part of the Pipelines with an existing build? [36:55] Steve speaks about the Chef and WinOps communities he is a part of, as well as the open source projects he helps maintain. [44:41] Where to get started with infrastructure as code. Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Chef WinOps Habitat Test-Kitchen ARM Templates TerraformAzure DevOps Portal Visual Studio Code JSON GitHub Azure QuickStarts on GitHub Clear Measure (Sponsor) InSpec for Chef Pester Azure Powershell Azure CLI Working Effectively with Legacy Code, by Michael Feathers Puppet Donovan Brown's project: yoTeam Stack Overflow Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes. Follow Up with Our Guest: Steven Murawski's Website Steven Murawski's LinkedIn

1 Okt 201841min

This episode, Jeffrey Palermo welcomes his guest Sam Guckenheimer, to the podcast! Sam is the Product Owner for the Azure DevOps product line at Microsoft, and has been with the Microsoft team for the last 15 years. He has 30 years of experience as an architect, developer, tester, product Manager, project manager, and general manager in the software industry worldwide. His first book, Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, was translated into 7 languages and recognized as a de facto guide for teams adopting Agile practices. He's also a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Sam explains the exciting new offer around Azure Pipelines for open source teams, changes he has seen in the industry from his many years of working at Microsoft, and some of the biggest changes in how users work with Azure DevOps. He also provides tons of key insights into the findings and research around predicting the impact Microsoft's changes will make on user interactions, good practices around gathering live site telemetry and data collection, architectural (or design decisions or patterns) that help or hurt the live site supportability of a complex system, and key takeaways from his own internal learnings and the State of DevOps Report. Topics of Discussion: [:50] About today's topic and guest. [2:00] What is Sam focusing on now? [3:11] With many years at Microsoft, IBM, and Rational Software, what changes stand out in the industry in Sam's mind? [5:51] What's the most exciting part of the Azure DevOps release for Sam? The open source capabilities of course! [9:29] Why Sam loves open source frameworks. [11:05] What makes Azure DevOps so successful? And the biggest changes in how engineers work with it. [15:15] A word from Azure DevOps sponsor: Clear Measure. [15:43] The findings and research around predicting the impact Microsoft's changes will make on user interactions, their feedback cycle, and applying the "rule of thirds" to make data-informed decisions. [19:42] Good practices around gathering live site telemetry and data collection through Azure Log Analytics and Azure Application Insights. [22:42] Other internal learnings: the notion of a production first mindset, designated responsible individual (DRI), and repair items. [26:56] Has Sam found any architectural or design decisions or patterns that help or hurt the live site supportability of a complex system? [30:42] Sam's take on APM software and traditional monitoring tools. [32:36] Sam speaks about the State of DevOps Report and why it is so important. [36:39] Key takeaways from Sam on the State of DevOps Report and his own internal learnings. Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, by Juan J. Perez and Sam Guckenheimer Azure Pipelines Agile Github Git Node Golang .NET Framework 4 Clear Measure (Sponsor) Azure Log Analytics Azure Application Insights AKA.MS/DevOps Buck Hodges APM Tools The State of DevOps Report Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes. Follow Up with Our Guest: Sam Guckenheimer's LinkedIn Sam Guckenheimer's Amazon Book Page

24 Sep 201841min

Welcome to the second episode of The Azure DevOps Podcast — with your host, Jeffrey Palermo. Jeffrey is joined by his guest, Donovan Brown, to discuss how to use Azure DevOps services. Donovan is a Principle DevOps Manager at Microsoft, helping developers do great things with DevOps methods on the Microsoft platform. He has been with Microsoft since December of 2013, and has been a developer for 20 years. This episode, Jeffrey and Donovan talk about the whirlwind it's been since the launch of the new Azure DevOps, key information new developers might want to know when beginning to use or incorporate Azure DevOps, some of the changes to their services, what's available for packages in DevOps, the free build capabilities Microsoft is giving to open source projects, some of the new capabilities around GitHub integration, and more! Topics of Discussion: [:52] About today's topic and guest. [1:02] Jeffrey welcomes Donovan to the podcast and he speaks about the name change and what it's been like since the launch. [4:25] Donovan shares his background in developing and his day-to-day duties at Microsoft. [11:47] How the Team Foundation System has morphed through the phases to Azure DevOps. [14:59] The key things new developers need to put into the various pieces (the continuous integration build, the deployment, etc)? What concepts should they think of? [19:27] Donovan explains some of the changes to Azure DevOps services that allow you to pick and choose what you want to use. [21:08] A word from Azure DevOps sponsor: Clear Measure. [21:37] Donovan talks about some of the new capabilities around GitHub integration. [24:00] What is YAML? [27:44] How developers manage YAML. [29:10] Donovan speaks about what's available for Packages in DevOps. [34:22] About the new open source pipeline listing. [36:20] About the free build capabilities Microsoft is giving to open source projects. [37:00] What Jeffrey and Donovan love about the free availability of Azure DevOps for open source projects. [38:58] Donovan explains the concept of an unbreakable pipeline, its capabilities, and what makes it so exciting. [43:30] Donovan's suggestion for listeners to go do after listening to this week's episode. Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps yo Team VSTS @DonovanBrown on Twitter PowerShell XAML Clear Measure (Sponsor) GitHub YAML NuGet Dynatrace Dynatrace's Podcast: PurePerformance Docs.Microsoft.com #LoECDA on Twitter (for any questions on Azure DevOps) Channel 9 Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes Follow Up with Our Guest: Donovan Brown's LinkedIn @DonovanBrown on Twitter DonovanBrown.com

10 Sep 201845min

Welcome to the first edition of The Azure DevOps Podcast! Your host, Jeffrey Palermo is joined by guest, Buck Hodges, to announce the global release of Azure DevOps Services. Buck is the Director of Engineering for the Azure DevOps product group and has been at Microsoft for over 15 years. Azure DevOps Services (previously known as Visual Studio Team Services) aims to help developers ship faster. With Azure DevOps Services comes a full set of services that you can use separately, with other non-Microsoft services, or together as a suite. In this episode, Jeffrey and Buck dive into all the key differences that come along with the rebranding and new services. Buck also gives a rundown of the system (from how it's organized to how to mix and match with other devops tools on the market) and many of the new, exciting features available for developers. Episode Sponsor: Clear Measure is a software engineering firm and Microsoft Gold Partner empowering development teams to be their best. Clear Measure equips developers with the devops tools, methods, and automation necessary to focus on building their applications rather than wrestling with builds, deployments, or environments. Click clear-measure.com to see whether a devops implementation is right for you. Topics of Discussion: [:30] About today's topic and guest. [1:00] Buck Hodges announces the new Azure DevOps Services. [2:44] Buck's background in DevOps and career progression at Microsoft. [10:00] Key differences with the rebranding to Azure DevOps, and its 5 main services: Pipelines, Boards, Artifacts, Repose, and Test Plans. [14:49] Can Jira (and other similar softwares) users adopt Azure DevOps? [16:48] About Microsoft's commitment to open source and giving back by offering free use of Azure DevOps to run free builds for open source projects. [20:02] About the ease of getting started with Azure Pipelines through the GitHub Marketplace, and some of the big users with Pipelines. [20:49] A word from Azure DevOps sponsor: Clear Measure. [21:19] About the internal transformation of the Azure DevOps team and what it looks like today. [24:04] How many developers are part of Buck's organization? [24:54] Buck gives a rundown of the system (how it's organized, how many team projects, how many Git repositories, how many independent services, etc.) [28:58] Do they build all the services together in the same Git repository or do they split them into different build configurations? [32:45] What's coming next for Azure DevOps? [36:34] Buck addresses some general misconceptions. [40:00] When will customers be able to get their hands on the new Azure DevOps 2019 server? [41:30] Where to learn more or get started with Azure DevOps. Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps VSTS Azure Pipelines Azure Boards Azure Artifacts Azure Repose Azure Test Plans Team Foundation Server (TFS) Jira GitHub Visual Studio Code TypeScript Dev.Azure.com Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes Follow Up with Our Guest: Posts by Buck Hodges on Microsoft Azure Buck Hodges' LinkedIn

7 Sep 201843min