Observability in Sociotechnical Systems: Using Telemetry Data to Inform Software & Org Design

- Matthew Skelton, Head of Consulting at Conflux
- Jessica Kerr, Developer Advocate at Honeycomb

Is your organisational model hindering business and holding back engineering? How would you know? Observability gives us insight into our sociotechnical systems, people, and code.

Join Matthew Skelton, co-author of Team Topologies, and Jessica Kerr, Developer Advocate at Honeycomb, December 1 at 3 p.m. GMT for a conversation about structuring software teams for fast flow of change.

We’ll talk about team structure, observability, and when more collaboration is not better. We’ll also cover site reliability engineering (SRE) and tooling, and when helpful tools lead us to dark patterns that hurt us, along with the sociotechnical nature of software engineering and how observability connects the human and digital sides of this world. Join us to grow your perspective on software, and learn how to make better decisions about software architecture and organisational structure by answering questions like:

- How much collaboration is too much?
- When is it time to address risk and technical debt?
- How can we find the natural boundaries in our systems?
- Which SRE practices can help you and which won’t?
- What can observability do for the business as a whole?

From a webinar organized by Honeycomb

Transcript

1. V6-21 Observability in Sociotechnical Systems: Using Telemetry Data to Inform Software & Org Design
2. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2 Matthew Skelton Head of Consulting, Conflux Co-author of Team Topologies @matthewpskelton Jessica Kerr Principal Developer Advocate, Honeycomb @jessitron
3. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Today’s Landscape (new way) Yesterday’s View (old way) • Distributed computing • Single machines (or groups) • Detect what is needed and what works • Specify up-front • Emergent behavior of people and tech • Predictable behaviors • Mindset: Machine • Mindset: Ecosystem
4. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Why are reliability and observability needed?
5. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Enhancing your org’s ability to sense
6. V6-21 Sensing runtime behavior of technology: empowering teams
7. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Follow the value stream
8. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. … even asynchonously
9. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Find your places in the value stream
10. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Finding good boundaries Figure 7.5 from Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Used with permission. Flow of change
11. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Traces help explain what’s happening
12. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Platform teams can show consequences
13. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Which trace is worth looking at?
14. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mark significant events, cross-team
15. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mark significant events, cross-team
16. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. See what others are asking
17. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Enhancing your org’s ability to sense
18. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Does your ‘SRE team’ help or hinder sensing? Figure 4.3 from Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Used with permission.
19. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Final thoughts
20. V6-21 © 2021 Hound Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Symmathesy
21. V6-21 Questions? Sign up for HNY{DEV}WEEK: Learn how to get started with observability w/ hands-on training and snackable sessions Sign up to get started with Honeycomb today–for free! Team Topologies is the leading approach to organizing business and technology teams for fast flow: see more at teamtopologies.com ✨ Use code 20offhoneycombwebinar at the online Team Topologies Academy for 20% discount on training: academy.teamtopologies.com
22. V6-21 www.honeycomb.io