CloudBees presents software delivery management (SDM)

CloudBees has given DevOps World | Jenkins World attendees an advance look at the emerging category of Software Delivery Management (SDM). At the same time, the company demonstrated an early preview of its CloudBees SDM Platform along with its Product Hub and Value Stream Management modules. CloudBees also announced access to an early preview program that will enable attendees to start to adopt SDM. The CloudBees solution will uniquely integrate CloudBees’ advanced DevOps capabilities with new features designed to create the industry’s first end-to-end SDM system.

While most DevOps teams have made significant strides through the implementation of CI/CD and application release orchestration (ARO) automation to power software delivery, many organizations still operate with siloed development and delivery teams that are disconnected from broader business functions. Disparate and disconnected tools and processes within, across and beyond the DevOps tool chain also get in the way of the organization treating software delivery as a core business process and enabling value creation efforts to create maximum business impact. CloudBees is responding to this challenge by introducing a set of capabilities to support SDM. The capabilities bi-directionally tie together all artefacts, data and events across an organization’s DevOps tool chain into a unified system of record. Doing so enables meaningful collaboration between all teams through universal insights, common connected processes, workflows and governance to truly develop and deliver software at an elite level.

According to a Forrester Research report by analysts Christopher Condo, Diego Lo Giudice and Bill Seguin, getting all teams collaborating on the software delivery lifecycle (SDLC) is important. “As in a play, no process would be possible without actors; and the SDLC has a huge cast. To do software delivery right, the SDLC needs to involve people with diverse expertise across the company, led by a core product team.” ¹

The key pillars of SDM are:

●        COMMON DATA - All information within and around software delivery activity is captured and stored with a consistent domain model to enable and facilitate connected processes, shared insights and collaboration.

●        UNIVERSAL INSIGHTS - Visibility and insights enable understanding and continuous learning from data across, up-and-down and throughout all functions in the organization.

●        COMMON CONNECTED PROCESSES - Processes orchestrate software delivery and connect functions together to efficiently bring ideas to market with maximum value and adoption.

●        ALL FUNCTIONS COLLABORATING - All functions and teams within and around the software delivery organization work together to amplify value creation efforts.

At DevOps World | Jenkins World today, CloudBees announced availability of a preview program for its CloudBees SDM Platform, along with the Product Hub and Value Stream Management modules, and demonstrated some of the new, integrated capabilities that CloudBees will offer to support SDM, including:

●        Product hub – a central place for integrated visibility and orchestration of all data, resources, development and delivery activity around products

●        Policy engine – to provide a flexible, general purpose policy and rules engine with automated suggestions allowing alerting and enforcement to support scenarios ranging from team-based continuous improvement to regulatory compliance

●        Efficiency dashboard – to support continuous product team improvement and retrospectives

●        Contributions dashboard – to give developers and other product team members unique insights into work prioritization and blockers

●        Real-time value stream management – to provide immediate visibility and awareness into feature and contribution status and value delivery blockages

●        Integrated feature flag management – to enable policy-driven progressive delivery and rollout control based on business and operational metrics

“Software delivery has come a long way, but it’s still fragmented,” said Sacha Labourey, CEO and co-founder of CloudBees. “Organizations need a way to eliminate silos – to truly realize their vision of becoming software-first companies. This vision is Software Delivery Management and we are building the cohesive system our customers want. It will connect product stakeholders and development teams with the rest of the business, provide the intelligence and insights they all need to build software faster and provide increased value to their customers.”