A conversation with Cynthia Stoddard, SVP and CIO of NetApp, about DevOps and agile.
THe Enterprisers Project (TEP): You’re a big proponent of DevOps. How did it become a reality at NetApp?
Cynthia Stoddard: It started when I joined NetApp about three years ago and I was running the delivery organization. We had a project going on to implement Salesforce.com and I partnered with the business VP at the time. Using a DevOps approach we were able to get the initial Salesforce.com release up and running within seven months. It met the requirements and we started to build on that framework.
We wanted to keep up the momentum and that's when we started transitioning from project mode into DevOps mode. We had a number of scrum teams, but when we went into steady state we cut it down to four and took two of those scrum teams aside and said ‘You're really the operational support.’ And they would work any issue tickets or questions that came in, but if they weren't doing that they would go into the scrum backlog and work small initiatives in their spare time.
TEP: How did that process work?
Stoddard: It worked out really well. When you go through the process of developing the user stories with IT in the same room as the business these projects end up being a lot more successful.
TEP: Why is that practice of collaborative user storytelling so critical?
Stoddard: Because it works to eliminate cultural resistance. I've seen it a couple of times when I’ve gone down this path. The investment in DevOps involves a concept of getting user stories to a pretty fair amount of detail. That takes time when you compare it to the traditional method where you write stuff down and throw it over the fence to IT.
Getting people from the businesses on board about the time investment at the front end can be a lot of work. The initial reaction is, ‘This is a waste of my time. Just go off and program.’ I’ve had to say, ‘Just trust us and bear with us a little bit. Let's go into a room and get through the requirements and have the team go off and do a little bit of a prototype of what the request is.’ And when they see the prototype the business users typically say, ‘Well that's not going to work.’ Of course, if we had gone off the old way and done this we would have invested more than a day, and then we would have delivered something that was not really what they had imagined.
TEP: It sounds like this is a common challenge, getting business users out of waterfall habits.
Stoddard: I think it happens a lot. There's a disconnect when you’re envisioning something that might work. However, when you actually see it, it doesn’t quite gel. So, there's a need for an education process, a change management process and a training process, on both the IT and business side. You need to emphasize the importance of working together as a team and spend the right time on the right communications. You can’t just jump into agile practices without IT training or IT knowledge, but there’s an equally important role on the business side with the product owners because the business people that are part of the scrum teams are helping to define the user stories and requirements. When collaboration happens the teams tend to work together better because they have common goals and objectives. There are a lot of benefits to pooling them together.
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Cynthia Stoddard is the Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer (CIO) at NetApp. In her role as CIO, she is responsible for providing a long-term technology vision that supports and is aligned with the company’s strategies and goals, business plans, operating requirements, and overall efficiencies. She provides leadership to the Global IT organization to enable delivery of worldwide business solutions and infrastructure that support the company’s growth.
