Mindset of successful Automation

20th September, 2023 by Benjamin Meixner

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github.com/maixnor/talks

Automation?

Coffee

Roast
Granularity
Amount
Water Pressure
Duration

Coffee...

Milk?
Sugar?
Foam?

Your Mindset

of successful automation

But How?

clear triggers
simple states and results
reliable notification

Back to Coffee

enough about coffee

"Automation"

Mindset

of successful automation

Details

If you don't understand the details of your business you are going to fail.

— Jeff Bezos

Detail Automation makes sure the details are correct.

Mental Overhead

the Task is simple

but...
but...
but...
but,..
but...
but...

Reduce Mental Overhead

TDN

`task`	`solution`
product validation	Tests
file handling	Deployment
notifying people	Notification

Tests

Deployment

Notification

Why even test?

Humans

Protection

Good Cop, Neutral Cop, Bad Cop

Neutral Tests

reliable

Good Tests

fast
reliable
obvious

Fast

The probability of bounce increases 32% as page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds.

— Google/SOASTA Research, 2017.

Obvious

Red vs. Green

Gherkin Syntax

Tests

Deployment

Notification

Packaging

Deployment

one invocation
2 results

$ git push

0 Staging

Tests

Deployment

Notification

Channels

Instant Message
Email
UI Element

What to notify?

just failures
complete success
partial success
all activity

the people shall choose

the Task is simple

but Tests
but Packaging
but...
but,..
but Deployment
but Notification

the Task is simple

~~but Tests~~
~~but Packaging~~
but...
but,..
~~but Deployment~~
~~but Notification~~

the Task is simple

but...
but,..

the Task is simple

but...
but,..

We tried

... but it did not work

SIT

Simple
Intuitive
Trustworthy

Complexity

the best code ...

KISS

Keep it simple, stupid

Do one thing. Do it well.

— Unix Philosophy

Complexity

Simplicity

Documentation

Documentation is a love letter that you write to your future self.

— Damian Conway

--help
README.md
Swagger
Gherkin Tests
Knowledge Base

Incorrect documentation is often worse than no documentation.

— Bertrand Meyer

Documentation

Intuition

Flaky

Repeat

Honesty

I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Flakyness

Trust

Configuration Backup

Package

Transfer

Organise

Move

Notification

Wrap it up

tests, deployments and notifications
remove mental overhead
simple, intuitive, trustworthy