Accelerate DevOps with GitHub
Enhance software delivery performance with GitHub Issues, Projects, Actions, and Advanced Security
Michael Kaufmann
BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI
Accelerate DevOps with GitHub
Copyright © 2022 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Group Product Manager: Rahul Nair
Publishing Product Manager: Vijin Boricha
Senior Editor: Athikho Sapuni Rishana
Technical Editor: Nithik Cheruvakodan
Copy Editor: Safis Editing
Project Coordinator: Ashwin Kharwa
Proofreader: Safis Editing
Indexer: Tejal Daruwale Soni
Production Designer: Sinhayna Bais
Marketing Coordinator: Nimisha Dua
Senior Marketing Coordinator: Sanjana Gupta
First published: September 2022
Production reference: 2180822
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham
B3 2PB, UK.
978-1-80181-335-8
Foreword
In 2011, entrepreneur Marc Andreessen famously claimed in the Wall Street Journal that “Software is eating the world,” predicting that the rise of software would digitally metamorphose every industry and every sector of the world as we know it. As I sit here writing this a decade later, there is nothing to say except “Marc was right.” Software has transformed our lives, and with that, it has also transformed every company and organization. Look at how it has fundamentally changed entertainment with Netflix, or travel and hospitality with Airbnb, or quite nearly everything purchasable under the sun with Amazon. Grocery stores now have a digital experience, parking meters are being replaced by phone apps, the oldest and most traditional banks have moved to the cloud, and cars get over-the-air updates more frequently than your mobile phone.
Every company is becoming a software company. Millions of lines of code already represent the foundation of the global economy. Software developers are the architects of this new, digital world. No longer can any organization, no matter the size or the industry, compete and thrive without software and developers.
And this trend isn’t showing any sign of slowing down. According to the World Economic Forum, an estimated 70% of new value created in the economy over the next decade will be based on digitally enabled platform business models. To harness this opportunity, every organization will need to tap into the power of open source. Without open source, they won’t stay competitive. Companies will also need to adopt DevOps practices to help refresh and strengthen their internal culture and continuously enhance software delivery performance. Naturally, as GitHub’s CEO, I believe that GitHub is the best place for every organization to achieve this.
When Marc wrote his article in 2011, GitHub was still in its early days, focused on the hosting of git repositories. Today, GitHub has evolved to a full DevOps platform with features that support developers in every step of the developer lifecycle. With more than 83 million developers using our platform, we provide the home for the world’s developers. GitHub is the place where every project - open source, cloud native, mobile, or enterprise - can be created, modernized, and deployed to its destination. It’s the place where the interconnected community of developers builds the world of tomorrow.
I am thrilled that somebody as experienced as Michael has penned Accelerate DevOps with GitHub. Whether you are a professional software developer, computer science student, solutions architect, or site reliability engineer, this book is for you. Accelerate DevOps with GitHub provides clear, concise, and practical ways for you and your organization to harness the power of DevOps and GitHub. I think it will help you in the years to come, preparing you for the golden era of software development.
I am so proud of the long hours of hard work that you spent writing this book, Michael, but beyond this, I’m even more proud of all the meaningful change and progress I know it will help create for others.
Thomas / @ashtom
CEO GitHub Inc.
Foreword
Michael and I first met at a conference where we were both speaking on DevOps. We bonded over our shared passion for DevOps, and met often on the speaking circuit. It became a tradition for us to take selfies together each time we met. Our friendship and his passion for DevOps are why I was so excited to see that he was going to share his knowledge with the world by writing this book.
As time passes, the tools we use may change. However, the information shared in this book applies universally to organizations embarking on their DevOps transformation.
With COVID driving the world to remote, I really appreciated Michael covering asynchronous work. This has quickly become our new normal and teams must develop this muscle to stay agile and productive on remote and distributed teams.
It was great to read about the use of feature flags, which can be a game changer. Feature flags separate delivery from releasing and enable more advanced deployment strategies. It also reduces the need to rollback and drastically reduces the time to recover from bad code. However, as with anything, there is a cost. Michael does a great job covering the cost of using feature flags and how to mitigate it. This allows the reader to make an informed decision about whether feature flags are right for them.
Many teams I meet assume that going faster means cutting corners, but Michael explains the importance of infusing quality and security into your process. Additionally, he provides practical guidance about how to accomplish this. When DevOps is implemented correctly, you deliver secure, higher-quality code faster.
Often, to harness the true power of DevOps, your application must be refactored. Michael covers software architecture and the impact it has on your process and your team. He also covers the trade-offs of each option to help teams decide which is best.
I am confident that the readers of this book will find it to be an indispensable tool to support their DevOps transformation.
Donovan Brown
Partner Program Manager, Azure Incubations, Azure Office of the CTO
Contributors
About the author
Michael Kaufmann believes that developers and engineers can be happy and productive at work. He loves DevOps, GitHub, Azure, and modern work – not only for developers.
He is the founder and CEO of Xpirit Germany, a consulting company of the Xebia group, and he has been working in the IT sector for more than 20 years. Michael helps his clients to succeed through cloud and DevOps transformation and the implementation of new ways of working.
Microsoft awarded him with the titles Microsoft Regional Director (RD) and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) – the latter in the DevOps category and GitHub since 2015.
Michael shares his knowledge through books and training, and is a regular speaker at international conferences.
About the reviewers
Mickey Gousset is a staff DevOps architect at GitHub. He is passionate about DevOps and helping developers achieve their goals. Mickey speaks on DevOps and cloud topics at various user groups, code camps, and conferences around the world, and is also the author of several books on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and DevOps.
Stefano Demiliani is a Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), a Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer and Azure Architect, and a long-time expert on Microsoft technologies. He works as a CTO for EID NAVLAB, and his main activities are architecting solutions with Azure and Dynamics 365 ERPs. He’s the author of many IT books for Packt and a speaker at international conferences about Azure and Dynamics 365. You can reach him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or via his personal website.
Unai Huete Beloki has been working as a DevOps expert for the last 5 years. He started in 2017, working as a customer engineer at Microsoft, providing support and education related to DevOps (mainly GitHub and Azure DevOps) and Azure around the EMEA region. In July 2020, he moved on to the Azure technical trainer role at Microsoft, where he provides Azure and DevOps training to customers worldwide and is one of the global leads for the AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions course/exam. He received a BSc in electronic and communications engineering and a master’s in telecommunication engineering, both from the University of Navarra.