Digital Transformation Awards 2025: Accepting Entries till 14th May
Organised and hosted by 31 Media, the Digital Transformation Awards is an independent awards program that recognises and celebrates businesses, teams and individuals that are revolutionising the digital landscape as we know it with their digital transformation projects. After a successful gala night in London this year, the awards programme is officially open for entries for the 2025 edition. The entries will be open until 14th of May 2025 and the gala night is scheduled to take place in June 2025. Please find more details here: Digital Transformation Awards 2025 About the Digital Transformation Awards CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE The Digital Transformation Awards stand as an independent program that confidently recognises and celebrates the outstanding achievements of businesses, teams, and individuals who have excelled in delivering digital technologies to enhance or modify business processes, customer experience, or cultural change. A HOLISTIC PROGRAMME The Digital Transformation Awards welcome participants from all businesses, individuals, teams, and groups, irrespective of their location, size, or discipline. The sole requirement is that the digital transformation project must have occurred or been completed within 12 months prior to entering. IMPARTIALITY & TRANSPARENCY The Digital Transformation Awards are judged with absolute impartiality and complete transparency to ensure a level playing field for all. To achieve this, each entry submission is meticulously stripped of any reference to a product, service, company name, individual, or otherwise. This process empowers the judging panel to assess each entry without influence, solely on the merit of the project at hand. PROJECT RECOGNITION The time, energy, and commitment invested in each project are significant. It is essential to receive internal and external recognition for these efforts. Participating in the Digital Transformation Awards ensures that each project, team, or individual receives the necessary acknowledgment, leading to increased visibility for the entire business. NETWORKING & BUILDING RELATIONS Attending the gala dinner and participating in the winner’s ceremony is a delightful and rewarding experience. It provides the opportunity to mingle with numerous professionals who share similar aspirations, fostering connections and expanding your professional network. WINNING & CELEBRATION Making it to the finals of the Digital Transformation Awards is a remarkable accomplishment. Winning one of the coveted trophies is an extraordinary achievement that should be celebrated. To be judged by a panel of your peers, all of whom agree that your submission is head and shoulders above all others, creates enormous pride and a wonderful sense of achievement. Transmitting the win internally reinforces the success and commitment of the business to Digital Transformation, and further marketing yourselves as an award-winning company truly represents the ultimate celebration and pinnacle of success. For more information on the entry process and guidelines, visit Digital Transformation Awards Entry Process. Upcoming events and contact information Register for The National DevOps Conference and Awards taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2024 in London. For sponsorship enquiries, please contact calum.budge@31media.co.uk Foe media enquiries, please contact vaishnavi.nashte@31media.co.uk
How AI is revolutionising DevOps
In theme with The National DevOps Conference and Awards, we collaborated with Matt Healy, Director of Intelligent Automation Strategy at Pegasystems. In this article he explores how Artificial Intelligence is revolutionising DevOps. The National DevOps Conference & Awards takes place in London on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2024. To exhibit your products at the event, please get in touch here. Is AI the end of never ending DevOps transformations? For almost a decade, I was a release manager for large scale development teams –supporting 1000’s of developers across 100’s of teams working on 10’s of products and initiatives. For that whole decade, my focuses were two-fold, managing the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and improving the SDLC. Managing and improving the SDLC The management part consisted of making sure that we were getting secure, high quality, releases out the door on time. In order to support developers, teams, and the overall programme with better and better tools, practices, and processes, the SDLC had to be improved, so the second part of the role. It was in the ‘improving the SDLC’ aspect which highlighted how DevOps could transform and create a place where big initiatives were planned early and often, enabling teams with full backlogs. User stories could be quickly elaborated on, to ensure that teams cover all considerations, acceptance criteria, standards, and unhappy paths as they plan without taking weeks. As well as ensuring that developers had the tools and knowledge they needed at their fingertips to surface best practices, how-to’s and suggestions for both new and experienced developers. Further, it is key to make sure that there was healthy automated test coverage, in which developers had the test frameworks and starting points they needed to quickly generate automated tests at every level. Merges and deployments also need to be fully automated. This would enable change to be pushed from a developer’s system through to a pre-production or even production environment with confidence in automated controls around quality, security, and performance. Finally, an aggregated and actionable feedback loop is important across sources like usage analysis, user interviews, and market data, so teams could have insights into how they could improve features and drive adoption. AI in DevOps: Automating repetitive tasks for efficiency While we made significant progress against all of these goals, it never felt like we were ‘done’, and we probably never will be. But artificial intelligence (AI) will bring us closer to the DevOps promise land at every stage across the SDLC. The opportunity for AI to help large scale development teams is clear. AI will offload repetitive manual development tasks, which has already been seen with development efficiency gains in copilot capabilities with AI being able to take a first pass at workflows, integration mapping, user experience components, and more – and this is expected to become even more omnipresent. For developers, AI will put knowledge at their fingertips. There has already been a rise of AI-driven search, and even now personalised AI tutors who can help developers of all levels get up to productivity fast. Looking at operations more generally, AI will be able to synthesise product optimisation opportunities through analysing historical process mining data to uncover and prioritise the biggest inefficiencies and opportunities for product teams to go after. Planning with AI: Transforming large-scale initiatives Working on large-scale initiatives, which involved dozens of teams, and required buy-in from multiple leaders, it felt impossible to get ahead in the planning stage and for this to be optimised. With weeks of meetings, workshops, documents, spreadsheets, roadmaps, architecture diagrams, all to get to a list of user stories which teams could actually start developing, but AI has even started to transform how we plan. With generative AI, IT teams now have a discovery and planning assistant, which can aid them in evolving legacy assets into future-ready workflows. AI can help across planning stages looking at: Level setting: analysing historical analyses and legacy assets like workflow diagrams and user manuals to understand the current state. Research: combing through industry expertise to understand the best practices and possible approaches. Alignment: capturing all business goals and considerations from across stakeholders and synthesising them into a coherent, all-encompassing vision. Essentially, generative AI can be the spark to get started. Setting a foundational design for new initiatives which lets teams hit the ground running and collaborate on, fast. Over the past 12 months, great progress has been made with tangible value in some of the toughest-to-manage areas across the SDLC, so we are on the way to the AI promise land – this is just the beginning. Explore AI and automation at the National DevOps Conference in London Join us for an in-depth discussion on the scope and future of AI and automation at The National DevOps Conference and Awards, happening in London on October 22nd and 23rd, 2024. This premier event will feature expert insights into how AI is transforming DevOps practices and the broader tech industry. View the Full Agenda: The National DevOps Conference and Awards Agenda Exclusive Offer: Gain free entry to the conference by submitting your project to the DevOps Awards before the September 16th deadline. Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your innovation and network with industry leaders. For exhibit at the conference, please contact calum.budge@31media.co.uk Foe media enquiries, please contact vaishnavi.nashte@31media.co.uk
Embracing CI/CD for Improved Software Deployment and Developer Health
This article is published in collaboration with The National DevOps Conference and Awards.To be a speaker at the conference or to exhibit your solutions to our delegates, please get in touch here. As part of the #LeadersInTech series, we collaborated with Rob Reid, Technical Evangelist at Cockroach Labs on how developers can embrace CI/CD for improves software deployment and developer health. I’ve never been woken up at 2 a.m. by a company that uses CI/CD. Put another way, for software developers, the use of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD), or CI/CD, for software development, testing and deployment is a game changer for maintaining code quality, smooth processes, and ensuring reliable releases. It transforms the development lifecycle, allowing teams to focus more on innovation rather than firefighting issues. And for preventing those 2 a.m. fire drills. Continuous Integration involves the integration of code changes into a shared repository multiple times a day. Automated tests are run to detect errors early, ensuring that the codebase remains stable. This continuous integration supports a proactive approach to problem-solving, substantially decreasing the likelihood of disruptive, last-minute discoveries. Continuous Deployment, on the other hand, focuses on automating the release of validated code to production environments, streamlining the entire deployment process. This tightly integrated testing and deployment process ensures high compatibility and operational reliability, which are critical for our users’ success. This approach also ensures that every version of the application works harmoniously with CockroachDB before reaching production. Benefits of CI/CD The primary benefit of CI/CD is maintaining a clean main branch of code, ready for release at any moment. This practice instills confidence in developers, knowing that their code is always in a releasable state. Additionally, CI/CD ensures reproducibility, allowing the deployment process to be consistent across different environments. The importance of automated testing in CI/CD cannot be overstated. Automated regression tests catch bugs early, enabling developers to make bold changes without fear of breaking the codebase. This leads to a more dynamic and innovative development environment. Best Practices for CI/CD: Treat Infrastructure as Disposable: Adopt the mindset of treating infrastructure like “cattle, not pets.” For example, use automated scripts for provisioning that quickly replace faulty instances without manual intervention, enhancing scalability and reliability. Automate Everything: From testing to deployment, automate as many processes as possible. This reduces the risk of human error and ensures consistency across deployments. Comprehensive Testing: Ensure that tests are integral to the process. Proper test coverage provides confidence in the codebase, allowing for more significant changes and refactoring. Feature Flags: Use feature flags to safely release new features. This allows for “dark releases”, where features are deployed but not activated until needed, providing a quick rollback mechanism if issues arise. Eliminate Bureaucracy: Avoid unnecessary release reviews and approval processes. Focus on building a robust CI/CD pipeline that allows for high-velocity development and deployment. The impact of CI/CD on developer health The adoption of CI/CD not only improves technical operations but also has a profound impact on developer well-being: no more fear that you will bring your company’s IT to a grinding halt because of a “fix” or addition that broke the codebase! Automated processes and the ability to trust the tools rather than relying solely on personal interventions leads to a more balanced work-life experience and better overall results. I have also found that when the CI/CD mindset gets set from the top, at the executive level, there is a healthier work balance for the developer. Counter to this are companies that reward the “hero culture” of software releases which start at 2 a.m.. A culture of being rewarded for fixing production issues rather than preventing them not only increases stress but also slows down development as manual interventions become the norm. CI/CD processes are not just technical practices; they represent a shift towards a healthier and more efficient development culture. By automating processes, ensuring comprehensive testing, and eliminating bureaucratic hurdles, companies can create a more dynamic and innovative environment. For organisations still on the fence about adopting CI/CD, it’s crucial to understand that the initial investment in building a robust CI/CD pipeline pays off significantly in the long run. The result is not only a more reliable and scalable codebase but also a happier, healthier team ready to tackle the challenges of modern software development. Learn more about CI/CD practices at the National DevOps Conference 2024 Join us for an in-depth presentation on CI/CD practices at The National DevOps Conference and Awards, happening in London on October 22nd and 23rd, 2024. This premier event will feature expert insights into how AI is transforming DevOps practices and the broader tech industry. View the Full Agenda: The National DevOps Conference and Awards Agenda Exclusive Offer: Gain free entry to the conference by submitting your project to the DevOps Awards before the September 16th deadline. Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your innovation and network with industry leaders. For exhibit at the conference, please contact calum.budge@31media.co.uk Foe media enquiries, please contact vaishnavi.nashte@31media.co.uk
