February 2016 Summaries

PagerDuty has announced the beta release of its updated REST API v2, which promises enhanced speed, consistency, and ease of use. Current users have already experienced its benefits through the PagerDuty web application, and the new version aims to refine and simplify existing API patterns without drastically altering them for the user community. Key improvements include simplified API URLs, standardized resource types, a new on-calls API for easier access to call information, adherence to REST architectural constraints, and the introduction of resource summaries for better identification. Developers can explore the new API via a developer portal and test it directly from their browser, with comprehensive documentation and a migration guide available for assistance. While the Events API remains unchanged, users are encouraged to experiment with API v2 in non-production settings and provide feedback, as the beta phase progresses.

User Reporting, part of PagerDuty's Advanced Analytics suite, has been enhanced to provide deeper insights into individual workload and team efficiency by nearly doubling its computing power and adding three new dimensions. The updated report now includes metrics like Time on Call, which tracks the total time a responder is on call, Reassignments, which measures the number of times incidents are reassigned, and Mean Time-to-Acknowledge (MTTA), which assesses the average time taken for a user to acknowledge an incident. These metrics enable managers to better understand and balance workloads, identify bottlenecks in incident response, and recognize exemplary performance by on-call engineers, thereby improving team efficiency and individual quality of life. The User Reporting tool is available on PagerDuty's Standard and Enterprise plans and is designed to optimize incident response and resource allocation within teams.

IBM is embracing the DevOps movement by introducing the Bluemix Garage Method, a strategy aimed at helping organizations of all sizes build and deploy applications quickly and efficiently. Traditionally not associated with agile culture, IBM showcased this initiative at the IBM Interconnect event in Las Vegas, highlighting its commitment to blending speed and innovation with enterprise-level scaling. The Bluemix Garage Method includes seven tested methods, each with best practices and DevOps tools designed for specific operational needs, such as incorporating management principles into applications. This approach aims to facilitate organizations in adopting a DevOps methodology, enabling them to innovate like startups while scaling like large enterprises. The partnership with PagerDuty underscores the belief that the principles of agility, shared responsibility, and continuous innovation should be accessible to all teams, regardless of their size, encouraging those new to DevOps to consider IBM's offerings as a starting point.

PagerDuty has introduced a new user role called Team Responder to enhance incident management and reduce the impact of accidental actions during incident response. This role allows users to focus on incidents specifically related to their team, thereby mitigating risks associated with unauthorized access and control over the entire account. Team Responders can only acknowledge, re-assign, and resolve incidents on services linked to their team or those directly assigned to them, reducing alert fatigue and burnout for engineers by allowing them to concentrate on relevant issues. This addition enables companies, particularly larger ones with complex structures, to better organize their incident response by aligning with internal organizational structures and refining permissions for on-call responders. The Team Responder role is available to users with Standard and Enterprise accounts, promising fewer missed alerts and accidents while improving the quality of life for on-call engineers.

The text discusses the concept of "Continuous" in software delivery, emphasizing the benefits of rapid release cycles like Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, and Continuous Deployment. It highlights the value of being able to break and fix applications quickly, which enables teams to implement new features without fear of failure, thus fostering innovation and responsiveness to user demands. The extreme version of this approach is the canary release, which allows for parallel testing of new functionalities by diverting traffic to new releases and quickly reverting if issues arise. This iterative model necessitates robust tools for release automation, on-demand cloud environments, and smart alerting systems to manage multiple parallel releases effectively. While the technology exists to support this rapid cycle, the text underscores the importance of organizational readiness and the journey required to integrate such processes into existing systems, ultimately leading to increased build frequency and innovation in software development.

IBM InterConnect is expanding its focus to include DevOps, offering a dedicated track at the event to cater to this growing area of interest. Attendees can explore the DevOps zone in the Solution EXPO, visit booth 787 for demos and swag, and attend sessions such as "Driving Service Quality and Availability for Hybrid Cloud" by David Hayes from PagerDuty. The event also provides a reading list to help participants prepare, covering topics like outage communication, ChatOps, the democratic culture fostered by DevOps, creating data-driven workplaces, and enhancing empathy skills within teams. Participants can arrange meetings with PagerDuty representatives by emailing [email protected].

Continuous deployment (CD) is a critical aspect of modern DevOps practices, distinct from continuous delivery in that it involves direct releases to production following successful testing, necessitating robust alerting and log analysis for swift issue resolution. The feasibility of CD depends on the application type and architecture, with factors such as transaction volume, user base, and the use of full-stack deployments or microservices influencing its success. Additionally, the organizational environment plays a crucial role, as existing delivery chains and processes must adapt to incorporate CD without becoming unsustainable. Effective CD implementation requires collaboration across development, QA, and IT teams, emphasizing strategic planning, test coverage, and rapid response mechanisms. Organizations may find it beneficial to build new application versions in parallel with CD principles from the start, drawing on continuous integration practices to refine their approach and ensure sustainable execution.

The Roman Pillar of Justice Hackday project at PagerDuty is a playful yet technically challenging integration involving a USB turret that fires foam darts at on-call engineers whenever there is a PagerDuty alert, with the additional feature of recording the event via a webcam. The project, designed to add humor and a sense of accountability, was developed using a Raspberry Pi, libusb for turret control, and a Heroku application to manage alerts and target coordinates, allowing for integration with other tools like Slack. The turret, humorously branded with the photo of a manager named Roman, could be operated remotely by any employee, adding an element of surprise and fun across the company. Despite occasional technical glitches, such as duplicate webhooks causing repeated firings, the project is regarded as a creative and entertaining addition to the company's internal hackday initiatives.