Automated Release Notes

As a team practicing DevOps for Xfinity Mobile, we are always looking for opportunities to increase the velocity in which we move software through the deployment pipeline. This becomes increasingly important as we begin to discover production issues which are impacting our customers and require immediate attention.

A common side-effect of increasing speed is a reduction in quality. We MUST avoid this as much as possible. Through automating processes which are good candidates for automation, we can actually increase both speed and quality at the same time.

We identified Software Release Notes as a highly repeatable process that was a good candidate for automation. Since we automated the process, not only did we save hundreds of hours worth of manual work, but we also have increased the accuracy of our releases.

Transcript

1. != • Not THAT “Michael Winslow” • Xfinity Mobile! • Consistency > Spaces > Tabs Automated Release Notes @michaelswinslow michael_winslow@comcast.com michaelswinslow
3. YOU FOOL! It’s not about Dev+Ops, it’s about CULTURE!
4. Find something small to AUTOMATE. Then MEASURE, CODE and DELIVER it!
5. What to AUTOMATE?
6. Change Acceptance Board Software Release Notes Software Release Notes Every Sprint we manually create Software Release Notes for the Change Acceptance Board (CAB)…
7. developers deployment scrum master 6 hours 3 hours 2 hours • Veracode Scanning Change Acceptance Board • Create Release Notes Page • Create Summary (tickets) • Links to QA Tests • Verify Completeness • Add List of Artifacts • Verify Versioning • Verify Rollback Version • Create MOP Software Release Notes Software Release Notes 9 People 11 Hours Measure it!
8. Code it!
9. <1 minute < 1 minute < 1 minute • Veracode Scanning Change Acceptance Board • Create Release Notes Page • Create Summary (tickets) • Links to QA Tests • Verify Completeness • Add List of Artifacts • Verify Versioning • Verify Rollback Version • Create MOP Software Release Notes Software Release Notes 0 People ~1 minute Code it!
10. Deliver it!
11. Now it’s FAST What about the QUALITY?
12. scrum master 2 hours 1 hour Change Acceptance Board • Copy / Paste Errors • Incorrect Versioning • Missing Artifacts • Unscanned Code • Other Human Errors Software Release Notes 1.0 1.1 1.1
18. Results • Over 900 man hours saved (as of 10/5/2017) But Even Better: • Release Management Team TRUSTS the validity of the Release Notes • Security Team BELIEVES that security scans are always performed • QA Team COORDINATES with the Development teams • Senior Leadership INVESTS in automation (tools + development)
19. YOU WONDERFUL COLLEAGUE! We just scored a big win for DEVSECOPS!
20. != THANK YOU Michael Winslow @michaelswinslow michael_winslow@comcast.com michaelswinslow