It’s Covent Garden baby! The BCS Configuration Management Group held their annual conference on Tuesday. The CMSG was set up in 1995 to provide a forum for the promotion of Configuration Management as a discrete management process. The group now covers the transition areas of Change, Release and Software Asset Management, including the specialist UK SAM Networking Group.
At the BCS #2016CMSG today to get my #SAM geek on and explain the benefits of SAM to delegates. pic.twitter.com/wqKPRWg8XM
— David (@SAMBeastDavid) June 7, 2016
The theme of the conference was “transitioning the future” and the event had three streams:
- DevOps
- Change Configuration & Release Management
- SAM Licensing & Strategy
Roo Reynolds, Chief Operating Officer at Digi2al Limited – Driving Transformation In A Government Environment
Just in time for the first session at @BCS_CMSG Annual Conference presented by @rooreynolds #2016CMSG
— Duncan Watkins (@duncanwatkins) June 7, 2016
First up was Roo Reynolds on driving transformation in a government environment. Roo’s first task was a quick public service announcement on Larry, the cat that lives at Number 10 (where the Prime Minister lives for non UK readers). Apparently, whilst appearing cute and fluffy. Larry actually has a vicious streak so if you’re ever invited to Downing Street, consider yourself warned – the last thing you want is a Rabbit of Caerbannog scenario.
Roo talked about the challenges of working in a government environment and his transformation mission:
Hard challenges and transformation will always attract great people #culture @rooreynolds #2016CMSG
— Richard Josey (@Richard_Josey) June 7, 2016
.@rooreynolds the govmnt wanted to create #digital services that were so good people WANTED to use them. #2016CMSG pic.twitter.com/c0xZBTEhZd
— David (@SAMBeastDavid) June 7, 2016
Roo shared how using Agile transformed the environment:
"Your plans that you come up with at the beginning of your project will be wrong" Keynote @ #2016cmsg
— Connor the Grey (@drakekin) June 7, 2016
The next part of Roo’s session focused on practical guidance.
User engagement start to finish @rooreynolds #2016cmsg #agile pic.twitter.com/DBHsQ8r53G
— Patrick Bolger (@patb0512) June 7, 2016
Roo talked about the importance of putting your customers at the centre of the requirements gathering phase “your users are unlikely to grow wings so they no longer need lifts” As Roo put it “transformation doesn’t have to be huge, the smallest things can make a difference.”
Here are Roo’s top tips for driving transformation:
- Start with the needs of the user; genuinely put the user first
- Work with people who are committed
#2016cmsg be the pig not the chicken in the agile delivery. Have some skin in the game. #bcscmsg
— Marilyn Birt (@MazBirt) June 7, 2016
- Show the thing. Minds out of the gutter people! Roo was talking about having prototypes and getting regular customer feedback.
- When getting feedback for a prototype, feedback from five people is often enough (hits 75_80% of issues)
- Walls are important
Why walls matter #2016cmsg pic.twitter.com/V5DbxzGFXo
— The ITSM Review (@itsmreview) June 7, 2016
"walls are important, I'm not a civil engineer but you need walls on your building" #2016cmsg
— Connor the Grey (@drakekin) June 7, 2016
Vawns Murphy Senior ITSM Analyst, Enterprise Opinions – Going From Good To Great Using ITIL & DevOps
I was up next talking about my practical experience of using ITIL and DevOps to make things better in the real world. My session focused on a real life client engagement where we went from IT Ops and Dev teams literally snarling at each other from different sides of the room to a happy, collaborative environment with a 99.91% Change success rate and a 50% reduction in deployment time. There was also a lot of talk about Star Wars , the Avengers and erm, Frozen. You can check out the slides here.
Connor Shearwood, Developer, Springer Nature – Managing Continuous Delivery
Up next was Connor from Springer Nature on continuous delivery. Connor talked about the need for common sense in a delivery environment: “keep things simple, have conventions around how software is built and tested.”
Connor went on to explain the importance of automation explaining “we need to make doing the right thing easy and the wrong thing impossible.
Security is internal and external. DDoS can be legislate testing caused by unmet needs. Listen and respond. @drakekin #2016CMSG
— Richard Josey (@Richard_Josey) June 7, 2016
Connor gave practical guidance on continuous delivery, talking about the benefits of consumer driven contracts for micro services, and why automated testing is so important “most of your tests should be automated because people are fallible”.
Security is internal and external. DDoS can be legislate testing caused by unmet needs. Listen and respond. @drakekin #2016CMSG
— Richard Josey (@Richard_Josey) June 7, 2016
Connor talked about how there’s no silver bullet; “you need discipline and willpower but having good processes makes things easier. If you make it easy for people to try new things there will engage and they will try”
My favorite piece of wisdom from Connor’s session was this: “You need to have an exit process, broken gets fixed, crappy lives on forever”. Be warned people!
Patrick Bolger, Chief Evangelist, Hornbill – Rethinking Your ITSM
Here comes trouble! Up next @patb0512 on rethinking your ITSM #2016CMSG pic.twitter.com/95D7yWqE1T
— The ITSM Review (@itsmreview) June 7, 2016
Patrick’s session was all about rethinking your ITSM from Shadow IT to Agile. He started by talking about being schooled by his daughter on iPhone usage:
IPhone tips from @patb0512 millennial approach to tech. Trial and improve. #2016CMSG pic.twitter.com/AVwgbifNtc
— Richard Josey (@Richard_Josey) June 7, 2016
The first part of Pat’s session focused on the rise of Shadow IT and how we risk alienating our customers if we don’t keep up. The first step to sorting it out? Investing in your Service Desk
Shadow IT won't go away. It will only increase (significantly). If you want to stay relevant invest in Service Desk. @patb0512 #2016CMSG
— Duncan Watkins (@duncanwatkins) June 7, 2016
Pat talked about major trends impacting 21st century IT departments and what it means for IT decision makers:
- User Experience
- IT Delivery
- Information & Communication
- Innovation & Usage Models
- Data
Breaking silos, collaboration and a good consumer experience are the ITSM goals of the future. @patb0512 #2016CMSG
— Duncan Watkins (@duncanwatkins) June 7, 2016
The upshot? Next generation IT is all about people.
Latest version and 'OK got it' are the new way to provide user training.@patb0512 #2016CMSG
— Richard Josey (@Richard_Josey) June 7, 2016
Always being on the latest version means less need for retaining due to continual improvement #2016CMSG
— Connor the Grey (@drakekin) June 7, 2016
. @patb0512 Embed your collaboration into a core tool to ensure users go there and engage. Otherwise you'll fail. #2016CMSG
— Duncan Watkins (@duncanwatkins) June 7, 2016
Pat concluded by talking about the importance of being inclusive when driving transformational: “change is a threat when done to us but an opportunity when done by us”. A very powerful message and a great way to maintain focus on the customer when managing change.
Robert Cowham, Consultant, Perforce Software – DevOps In The Cloud, A Pathway To Heaven?
The last session we attended was Robert’s presentation on DevOps and the cloud. Robert opened by talking about the background of DevOps and how it links into Agile. Robert then went on to explain the impact of DevOps on continuous delivery on development and discussed the impact of cycle times.
The next part of Robert’s session focused on the impact of the cloud, advantages and the big players including Microsoft, Amazon and Google.
Robert went on to talk about the practicalities of applying DevOps in a cloud environment discussing how to maximise pipeline flow, automation, feedback, micro services and release technology & containers.
Robert finished his session by demonstrating a functioning pipeline – a fascinating example of real life application.
Robert demonstrating a functioning pipeline #2016cmsg pic.twitter.com/GWmLU27vEh
— The ITSM Review (@itsmreview) June 7, 2016
For our money the CMSG conference was a great day, informative, lots of practical guidance and lots of subject matter expertise. A huge thanks to the BCS for inviting us and we hope to be back next year.
Did you attend the CMSG conference? Let us know in the comments!