Love it or hate it, it's time for that Software Power Meeting again

One of the more wickedly astonishing findings from the current DevOps Report is that change review or advisory boards have little effect on a company’s performance. In fact CABs – as they are called – tend to slow down IT’s ability to release software quickly and regularly, negatively affecting organisational performance. I …

[Anonymous Coward]

Link to 12 factors

Rather than the link in article that was to a promotion of an event that has passed, this link actually lists the 12 factors - albeit as they apply to apps:

http://12factor.net/

It would be fascinating to hear how they apply to teams, but short of time-travel...

[hellwig]

"It’s not like these fast-moving DevOps people are just shipping code gleefully, they’re testing and reviewing at almost a nauseating level for old timers who enjoyed throwing the testing tasks over the wall to QA."

Oh, that's the step we're missing.

"That said, pair programming was only in place 23 per cent of the time: that’s apparently still a weird meal for most to swallow despite the praises its practitioners sing."

Isn't there a phrase for this? Knowing that something is bad, but still singing its praises? Kind of like how a parent regrets having kids, but still tries to convince their friends it's the best thing ever? "If everyone does it, then I'm not the only fool!"

[Long John Brass]

"It’s not like these fast-moving DevOps people are just shipping shitting code gleefully, they’re testing and reviewing at almost a nauseating level for old timers who enjoyed throwing the testing tasks over the wall to QA."

There fixed that for you

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm assuming el'reg is being paid for promoting this stuff?

[SecretSonOfHG]

Everyone knows CABs are useless at preventing issues

But how pretty CAB meeting minutes look on your SOX compliance report.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: Everyone knows CABs are useless at preventing issues

And there I was thinking CAB stood for Computer Aided Bullshit...

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Everyone knows CABs are useless at preventing issues

There was I thinking that the post was about something important... like the MS Cab file structures.

[P. Lee]

Missing the point of Change Control and dev/test/prod environments.

It isn't there to check your work. It's there to make change so painful that you check your work.

The idea is that you never want to go through it twice (even, that if you have to go through it twice you endanger the project) so you make sure you know exactly what you're doing before you do it rather than trying to wing it.

No-one wants to be in the situation of having a patch released and finding out it breaks something because the testing wasn't adequate, but there is a natural tendency in organisations to cut corners.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please for the love of God...

...stop the bloody DevOps articles. They are beyond tedious.

[Chris King]

"The idea is that you never want to go through it twice (even, that if you have to go through it twice you endanger the project) so you make sure you know exactly what you're doing before you do it rather than trying to wing it".

If making a change twice endangers a project, then your CAB processes are probably the least of your worries.

Some companies do go over the top with their CAB processes, in others I've seen "rockstar coders" overdose on alphabet soup and crap out code that should never have gone near production environments. Striking the right balance isn't easy, and not many folks get it right.

Oh, and I don't care what you call it - "DevOps" or "Agile" doesn't mean you've got a note from your mum that excuses you from PE^H^Hactually testing stuff.

[Wings2i]

Meetings

Agreed, that review boards and management meeting have no or little effect most of the times...