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9 Out of 10 Experts Can’t Believe the Most Hated Feature in DevOps

Andrew Fullen
November 14, 2018

The Good, the Bad and the…

*Cough* that’s the clickbait headline out of the way but, I do have a serious point to make, and its one that I think risks defeating many of the good things that DevOps brings to the industry, our customers and their customers. Nevertheless, it needs to be said. We’ve had a computer industry for 70 years or so (feel free to disagree, but it’s a reasonable number). We have built things that are, to previous generations, little short of magic, and we continue to push and try new things to seek out what is probable and make it possible. That’s good. Really good. But we’ve also done somethings that haven’t gone too well.

Why Viable Simply isn’t Good Enough

DevOps has been the answer to the question of “how do we get things changed fast in live?” (And to other questions). 70 years of research, development and refinement, and eighteen years into the 21st Century, we have DevOps and that most hated part of it. It has three letters: M V P Minimum. Viable. Product. Yay! Go us. Let’s break out the flags. We’ve created something that just about works, and we are proud of it. Well done. Well done. Well done indeed. Is it really something to be proud of? Is it really something that we should be shouting about as a great feature behind DevOps? Is that the best we can do? Shipping something that is just about acceptable?

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

So, why have we set the bar so low? Do we have no pride? No ambition to be better; to strive, to seek, to achieve something greater? I think we do, and we owe it to our customers, our co-workers and to people yet to join the industry, to aim for more. To aim for better. To aim for the MLP!

The Minimum Loveable Product!

Something that brings happiness; that makes the world a little better than before. Something that takes away a little of the pain and replaces it with that H word “Happiness”. So, let’s strive for beyond viable, to create products and services that people really love to use, and spread a little love and digital happiness throughout our work and social interactions.

About the author

Head of Technology and Innovation | Sogeti UK
Andrew’s the Head of Technology and Innovation for Sogeti UK, joining the group back in 2009. In this role, he has worked with major clients across government and private sectors. Andrew joined Sogeti UK back in 2009 and is currently the UK’s head of technology and innovation. He is an enthusiastic speaker at events and commentator on using technology for the benefits of the business and has a spe

    Comments

    One thought on “9 Out of 10 Experts Can’t Believe the Most Hated Feature in DevOps

    1. We also had that problem with MVP, we didn’t want to deliver just the stuff that is barely viable. Therefore we switched to MAP, minimum awesome product

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