Case Study: TELUS

Introduction

TELUS, a large Canadian telecommunications company, was facing challenges in meeting market demands due to inefficient software delivery processes. With increasing competition and customer expectations for rapid updates and feature enhancements, TELUS recognized the need to adopt DevOps practices to streamline their software delivery pipeline.

Challenges

1. Siloed Development and Operations Teams: TELUS had separate development and operations teams working in silos, leading to communication gaps and delays in delivering software.

2. Manual Deployment Processes: Software deployment was a manual and error-prone process.

3. Limited Visibility and Feedback Loops: There was limited visibility into the end-to-end software delivery process, making it difficult to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement.

4. Lack of Automation: Many repetitive tasks in the software delivery pipeline were performed manually, resulting in wasted time and resources.

Solution

1. TELUS decided to implement DevOps practices to address these challenges and improve their software delivery pipeline.The following steps were taken:

2. Formation of Cross-Functional Teams: TELUS restructured its teams to form cross-functional teams comprising members from development, operations, and quality assurance. This ensured better collaboration and communication throughout the software delivery process.

3. Automation of Deployment Pipeline: Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment practices were implemented using tools like Jenkins to automate the build, test, and deployment processes. This significantly reduced manual errors and accelerated the delivery of software updates.

4. Infrastructure as Code: TELUS adopted Infrastructure as Code principles using Terraform to manage their infrastructure programmatically. This allowed for consistent and reproducible infrastructure setups across different environments.

5. Monitoring and Feedback: TELUS implemented monitoring tools to gain visibility into their systems' performance and receive real-time feedback on application health. This facilitated proactive identification and resolution of issues.

6. Culture Change: TELUS focused on fostering a culture of collaboration, experimentation, and continuous improvement within its teams. Regular knowledge sharing sessions, blameless post-mortems, and encouragement of innovation were promoted to drive cultural transformation.

Results

1. Improved Time-to-Market: By automating their deployment pipeline and adopting DevOps practices, TELUS significantly reduced the time taken to deliver software updates, enabling them to respond to market demands more quickly.

2. Enhanced Reliability: Automation of infrastructure provisioning and deployment processes improved the reliability of TELUS's software systems, leading to fewer production incidents and enhanced customer satisfaction.

3. Cost Savings: By optimizing resource utilization and reducing manual effort, TELUS achieved cost savings in their software delivery process.

4. Increased Collaboration: The formation of cross-functional DevOps teams improved collaboration and communication between development, operations, and quality assurance teams, leading to smoother software delivery.

5. Cultural Transformation: TELUS successfully fostered a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement, leading to higher employee engagement and satisfaction.

Conclusion

By embracing DevOps practices, TELUS successfully transformed its software delivery pipeline, leading to faster delivery of high-quality software, improved reliability, and increased collaboration among teams. The journey towards DevOps not only brought about technological advancements but also instilled a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the organization.