Noted Release Management expert, Eric Kunkel of MMA Technologies, shares his considerable DevOps experience. Over the last 15 years, Eric has designed and implemented release management processes and solutions for several different organizations. Benefits that these organizations have received include 1) reduced application deployment time by 90%, 2) reduced application failures by 80%, and 3) reduced application delivery costs.

1. Achieving DevOps Nirvana: Insights from a
Release Management Expert
Eric Kunkel, MMA
Ash Owen, Serena Software
18Apr 2013

2. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
Transitioning from Release Management
to DevOps
“Bridging the Agility Gap and
Industry Best Practices”

3. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
Background
• Release Management / DevOps Professional for over 17
years
• Implemented and Built Release Processes at various
Fortune 1000 Companies
–As an employee of D&B (Dun & Bradstreet), US Trust (Charles
Schwab), and Merrill Lynch
–As a consultant - TriZetto Corp, Apartments.com, DTCC, TIAA
CREF, Safeway, TD Ameritrade…
• Participate in many forums that include DevOps
professionals

4. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
MMA Pillars for Release Process
Success
• A Release Management Process needs to be a standard
process that is simple to use, predictable, and
repeatable
• The same process can be used regardless of your
Software Development Life Cycle Methodology
• Building the right process is the first step
Software tools are meant to augment your process; not define it…

5. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
Release Management at Merrill
Lynch
• Time Frame – December 1996 – August 2005
• Definition – Release Management
• Implementation:
– Deployments (Manual Dev & QA automated Pre-Prod & Prod)
– Testing (Mostly Manual but some automation)
– Standard Environments
– Standard Repository (PVCS)
– Mix of home grown and COTS tools (SCM & PVCS)
• Key Points Learned:
– Home grown utilities are not always better
– Mixing multiple application suites requires tight integration
– Having the right data to make informed business decisions

6. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
Release Management at US Trust
• Time Frame – August 2005 – August 2006
• Definition – Release Management
• Implementation:
– Deployments (Manual)
– Testing (Manual)
– Standard Repository (ClearCase)
– COTS tools (Rational Suite)
• Key Points Learned:
– Lack of standards stifles productivity
– Management buy-in is not always enough

7. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
Release Management at D&B the
beginning of DevOps
• Time Frame – August 2006 – August 2011
• Definition – Release Management trending towards DevOps
• Implementation:
– Deployments (Manual then automated)
– Testing (Mostly Manual with some automation)
– Standard Environments
– Standard Repository (Dimensions CM)
– COTS tools (Serena Release Manager)
• Key Points Learned:
– Business buy-in is key
– Provide an automated tool to free up resources
– Development process look more like production requirements

8. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
Rolling out Automated DevOps at a
HealthCare IT Company
• Time Frame – November 2011 – April 2012
• Definition – Release Management
• Implementation:
– Deployments (Automated) (SRA)
– Testing (Manual)
– Standard Environments
– Standard Repository (Dimensions CM)
– COTS tools (Serena Release Manager)
• Key Points Learned:
– Understanding of Out of the Box Capability
– Utilizing the full of power of Serena Release Manager
– Environment Management

9. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
Bringing a DevOps Methodology to
Apartments.com
• Time Frame – November 2012 – Present
• Definition – Continuous Delivery
• Implementation:
– Deployments (Manual) (Serena Release Automation)
– Testing (Mostly Manual but some automation)
– Standard Environments
– Standard Repository (Microsoft TFS)
– Mix of home grown and COTS tools (SSM and SRA)
• Key Points Learned:
– Prove the capability prior to building in complexity
– Use a mixture of Open Source, COTS, and homegrown utilities
– Invest in automation to free up resources for higher value
activities

10. CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
This material is confidential and proprietary to MMA Consulting Corporation and may not be reproduced,
published or disclosed to others without the express authorization of Anthony Ciavaglia or the General Counsel of
MMA Consulting Corporation.
Applying Serena Tools to Automated
DevOps
• Serena Dimensions CM
– Golden Repository
– Main Source Code Repository
• Serena Release Control
– Manage Release Process and Run-books
• Serena Release Automation
– Manage Release Artifacts
– Streamline deployments
• Serena Service Manager
– Implement ITIL standards and governance
• Serena ChangeMan ZMF
– Mainframe Application Development and Release with Source Code Repository

11. How to Achieve DevOps Nirvana
Ash Owen
18Apr 2013

12. Application Delivery Challenges
Audits
Increasing
Demand
Manual
Process
Errors
Release
Bottleneck
Visibility &
Coordination
Issues
Business
Demand
Faster Agile
Delivery
Many
Deployment
Platforms
IT Ops
12

13. Adaptable Release Management
Dev
Business
Ops
DEV TEST UAT PROD
CONTINUOUS DELIVERY RELEASE TRAIN
Self-Service Controlled
INTEG STAGING
Serena Release
Automation
Serena Release
Manager
13

14. Serena Release Manager/Automation
14
Support for Subversion, Hudson & Maven
Self Service requests to:
• Provision virtualized & cloud environments
• VMWare, Windows Azure, Amazon EC2
• Deploy components to environment
Plug-in updates: VMware, PVCS, Remedy
Schedule Application Releases
Automate Release Tasks
Visualize & Share Release Calendar