Continuous Delivery? Easy! Just Change Everything (Well, Maybe It Is Not That Easy)

Abstract

Rally Software transitioned from shipping code every eight-weeks, with time-boxed Scrum sprints, to a model of continuous delivery with Kanban. The team encountered complex challenges with their build systems, automated test suites, customer enablement, and internal communication. But there was light at the end of the tunnel - greater control and flexibility over feature releases, incremental delivery of value, lower risks, fewer defects, easier on-boarding of new developers, less off-hours work, and a considerable up tick in confidence. This experience report describes the journey to continuous delivery with the aim that others can learn from our mistakes and get their teams deploying more frequently. We will describe and contrast this transition from the business (product management) and engineering perspectives.