Romano Roth

Beyond the Hype: Understanding and Applying AI in Innovation

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial Intelligence has moved from research labs into boardrooms, but too often it is surrounded by hype, inflated promises, and misguided investments. Many organizations rush to “do something with AI” without considering trust, data confidentiality, or the actual problems they are trying to solve.

2046: Do We Control Machines or Do They Control Us?

Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine it is 2046. And your most important conversation is not with a human. What remains of autonomy, responsibility, and purpose? A look into the AI future, in three scenarios.

Europe Only Survives AI If We Act, You Too

Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial Intelligence does not decide Europe’s future. Human decisions do. In this talk, I show what you can do differently starting tomorrow: which skills to build, how to choose AI tools, and how to reduce dependencies. No moral finger-wagging, just straight talk.

Welcome to the Age of AI Idiots!

Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Where ChatGPT cowboys ride the hype, we need a clear look at AI:

It is a pattern recognition machine.
It has no brain. We still need to use our own.
It does not replace humans, it complements them.

Why we should start thinking in feedback loops.

AI Has No Brain. Engineers Do.

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AI is everywhere, between hype, hope, and knee-jerk reactions. But engineering is more than output: responsibility, systems thinking, and decision quality matter.

What This Talk Covers
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In this talk, Romano Roth, Chief AI Officer at Zühlke, shows where AI already delivers reliable value in engineering today, where it fails, and what new skills and ways of working are emerging. With concrete examples from everyday practice.

Zühlke Banking Talk: The Road to the AI-Native Bank

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Banks spend 93% of their AI budget on technology. Only 7% goes to people. And then they wonder why 95% see no impact on their P&L.

On March 31, 2026, I gave a keynote at the Zühlke Banking Talk in Schlieren on why the future of AI is “cybernetic” and what it takes to become an AI-native bank. The evening brought together perspectives from academia, a major German bank, and practitioners from Swiss financial institutions.

The AI-Native Bank: Why AI's Future Is Organisational

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How to build adaptive, AI-native organizations where people, technology, data, and AI models work together efficiently.

$30 to 40 billion invested in generative AI globally. 95% of companies see no impact on their P&L. Only 5% create real value. Companies spend 93% on technology and only 7% on people. What is missing is not the next tool. What is missing is the ability to steer and adapt.

Digital Shapers 2026: Honored in the Mentors Category

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I am honored to share that I have been named a Digital Shaper 2026 in the Mentors category. The Digital Shapers initiative, organized by BILANZ, Handelszeitung, and digitalswitzerland with the support of Huawei, recognizes 100 of Switzerland’s most influential digital minds each year across ten categories.

AI 2026: Trends and Guidelines for Deployment

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It is not the technology that is under pressure, but its integration into everyday business operations. Budgets are tightening, regulation is taking hold, and boards are demanding robust results rather than more roadmaps. The era of non-committal pilot projects is ending.

NZZ: The Great Flight Forward into AI Agents

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Summary
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The NZZ article examines how tech giants like Meta, OpenAI, and Nvidia are now pouring billions into AI agents after already spending massive amounts on large language models. Meta acquired Moltbook (a “social network for AI bots”) and spent $2 billion on Manus. OpenAI acquired Openclaw for its autonomous AI agents. Critics see this as a “flight forward,” with companies investing even more money to solve the problem of poor returns on their LLM investments.

The Rise of the Agentic Enterprise: AI's Role in Business Transformation

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Although AI has moved fast, many organisations haven’t. Most leaders we speak to aren’t short on ideas, proofs of concept, or vendor demos. The challenge is turning AI into something repeatable, a capability you can trust, scale, and steer without creating new risks or bottlenecks.

How Companies Become a Cybernetic Enterprise

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

To stay competitive, companies need a radical upgrade. The Cybernetic Enterprise transforms organizations into learning systems that adapt faster than their market changes.

AI Oracle 2026: The Most Important Trends for Decision-Makers

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

2026 will be the year when the wheat is separated from the chaff in AI: it’s not the better model that makes the difference, but the ability to deliver impact under real-world conditions. What decision-makers need to know and do now so that AI evolves from experiment to true partner.

NZZ: Aleph Alpha and the European Cloud Opportunity

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Summary
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The NZZ article examines how Aleph Alpha, once celebrated as “Europe’s OpenAI,” is pivoting from developing its own large language model to becoming a service provider for the Schwarz Group (owner of Lidl). While some see this as a setback, experts view it as a strategic opportunity: building sovereign European cloud infrastructure may have far more potential than competing in the AI model race dominated by US and Chinese companies.

Between Tool and Gamechanger: How AI Drives the Cybernetic Enterprise

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. Yet lasting business value often remains elusive. Too many companies still see AI as a tool or quick fix, rather than what it can be: a strategic partner for continuous learning and adaptation. To achieve competitive advantages in a dynamic, data-driven world, organizations must fundamentally restructure themselves as a Cybernetic Enterprise, where AI is firmly anchored as a feedback and learning amplifier. Instead of viewing AI in isolation or as an add-on, it should become an integral part of the organizational operating system. Only when AI transforms data, processes, and customer interactions into actionable learning does a useful tool become a true gamechanger, one that makes companies more agile, capable of learning, and future-oriented.

Structured disruption: The benefits of becoming a Cybernetic Enterprise

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Discover the people, processes and technology you’ll need to mitigate setbacks on your transformation journey, and unlock AI-augmented ROI that compounds as it scales.

The four tenets of secure, scalable enterprise AI transformation

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Understand why most digital transformations fail, and you’ll figure out what tomorrow’s leading businesses will all have in common. Here’s how Cybernetics solves AI challenges at scale.

Cybernetic Enterprise: The New Operating System for Organizations

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Most companies that work in an agile way today while simultaneously trying to implement AI will not survive the next decade, in my opinion. The reason: their operating system is too old. The future is not agile. The future is not AI either. The future is cybernetic.

The AI future is "cybernetic"

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 23:00:00 +0000

Digital and agile was yesterday
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Many companies believe they can secure their future with a dash of agility and rapid AI pilot projects. But those who simply “graft” artificial intelligence onto outdated structures will fail. A radical upgrade of the operating model is needed.

Agility in Action: Mindset, Processes, and Real Results

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How much agility can software development really handle, and where does agility tip into chaos? In this episode of the “Modern Work 2 Go” podcast (in German), I speak with Florian Schneider about exactly these questions. We dive deep into a concrete real-world example: an agile transformation at a Swiss bank that I accompanied over eight years. The conversation covers the shift from waterfall to agility, scaling with SAFe, building value streams, and why continuous improvement is the central pillar of every transformation.

Beyond the AI Hype: How to Use AI Safely for Innovation, IP and R&D

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Does AI really solve the problems we have? What does it mean for innovation and intellectual property? Will AI replace patent analysts? In this webinar with IamIP, I cut through the fog of AI hype and share a practical framework for understanding where AI genuinely adds value, and where it falls short.

Leanpub Course LAUNCH: The Cybernetic Enterprise Course: How to Build a Future-Ready Organization Course by Ro

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 19:41:26 +0000

The Cybernetic Enterprise: How to Build a Future-Ready Organization is your comprehensive operating system for navigating the next era of business transformation.

Welcome to the Leanpub Launch video for The Cybernetic Enterprise Course: How to Build a Future-Ready Organization by Romano Roth

How industrial companies can become “AI-ready” and future-proof

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 21:13:49 +0000

When people, machines, and algorithms work as a “team,” more than automation emerges: a learning and resilient factory. But how can industrial companies make the leap into the AI era without losing their human element?

NZZ: Workslop, When AI Destroys Productivity

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Summary
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The NZZ article examines “Workslop” - a new term for sloppy work produced through careless AI use. While tech companies promote AI as a productivity miracle, the reality shows a darker side: AI makes it easy to produce polished-looking but often substanceless or incorrect content. This creates extra work for colleagues who must clean up the mess, damages trust in teams, and ultimately destroys the productivity AI was supposed to improve.

AI in Facility Management: From Trend to Real Value

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial Intelligence is on everyone’s lips. But between media hype and concrete value for facility management, there is often a gap.

What This Talk Covers
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In this talk, Romano Roth first explains what AI really is and how it works, giving participants a clear foundation to properly assess the technology.

Industrial AI at scale: The cybernetic imperative for leaders

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 22:00:00 +0000

Everyone talks about Industrial AI, but where’s the impact at scale? Too many companies are stuck in pilot purgatory, with fragmented tools and limited results. In this article, we show how cybernetic thinking can break the PoC loop and scale AI across your organisation for real business impact.

How to Build a Future-Ready Organization

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this LeanPub podcast episode, host Len Epp and I have a deep conversation about my book “The Cybernetic Enterprise: How to Build a Future-Ready Organization.” We cover everything from my career journey at Zühlke, to why the future is cybernetic rather than just AI, to the practical steps of enterprise transformation. If you have ever wondered what it takes to build an organization that can continuously adapt, this conversation covers the essential ideas.

Human-machine cooperation in Industry 5.0

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:22:55 +0000

Original publication: DIGITAL MANUFACTURING

The industrial success story is opening its next chapter. Some call it Industry 5.0, although it’s more than just an upgrade of Industry 4.0: Here, people, sustainability, and resilience are moving to the center of operations. Artificial intelligence is transforming production facilities, roles, and decision-making processes. Human intuition meets machine precision, merging into hybrid value creation. The entrepreneurial operating model of the future, the “Cybernetic Enterprise,” shows how this collaboration can work.

Humans + Machines: The Future of Work & AI

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I recently joined the Digital Analog Podcast to talk about what it really means when humans and machines work together. As the Chief of Cybernetic Transformation and Partner at Zühlke, I deal with these questions every day. In this conversation, we covered everything from the biggest obstacles in digital transformation to why AI agents could change the way we collaborate, and why simplicity should be every organization’s guiding principle.

Why 70% of Digital Transformations Fail: Inside the Cybernetic Enterprise Book

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The digital landscape today feels less like a steady path and more like white water rapids. Constant change, new technologies, and relentless pressure to adapt. In this deep dive, two hosts explore my book “Cybernetic Enterprise V1.0.0” and unpack why traditional digital transformations keep failing, and what the alternative looks like: a holistic new operating model where adaptability becomes the organization’s default state.

Your Company's Operating System Is Broken: The Cybernetic Enterprise Upgrade

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

You know that feeling when your company just feels slow? Always lagging, always crashing, not built for the modern world? What if that is not just a feeling? What if your organization is literally running on an outdated operating system? In this video, we explore the concept of the Cybernetic Enterprise and why it represents a fundamental upgrade for how businesses operate.

Digitalization was Yesterday: How to Achieve “Cybernetic Transformation”

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 06:06:36 +0000

You automated processes, optimized technology, and drove massive change dynamics over the past two decades: digitalization. But in a world where artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a constant sparring partner, it is reaching its limits. Too often, it stops at isolated optimizations and fails to address systemic challenges. What companies now need is a mental upgrade to a new “operating system.” The organization of the future must be continuously learning, relentlessly data-driven, and uncompromisingly customer-centric. The journey there is strategic. The “Cybernetic Transformation” starts now.

From Humans and Machines: The Organization of the Future

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 20:55:07 +0000

“Hey colleague!” Soon, this could be how we greet the person at the next desk, while at the same time addressing an AI system. In the future, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will no longer be just a technical tool, but an active team member. In four integration phases, ranging from assistance to co-creation, moderation, and ultimately high autonomy under human oversight, it will grow steadily and naturally into value streams, meetings, and decision-making processes. The organization of the future understands AI as part of its nervous system: continuously learning and permanently feedback-driven. Welcome to the era of Cybernetic Transformation.

AI-Augmented DevOps with Platform Engineering

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Explore the fusion of AI with DevOps and platform engineering to automate workflows, enhance efficiency, and drive innovation.

What This Talk Covers
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The convergence of AI, DevOps, and Platform Engineering is reshaping how we build and operate software. AI is no longer just a feature we ship, it is becoming part of how we ship. From intelligent CI/CD pipelines to AI-assisted incident response, the developer experience is changing fundamentally.

Developer Experience and Platform Engineering

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, businesses are constantly confronted with changing customer needs, increased competition, and a significant shortage of skilled workers. Agility and speed are no longer optional, they are critical to survival.

DevOps in Switzerland 2025: Scaling DevOps with Platforms and AI

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 18:40:58 +0000

DevOps in Switzerland has reached a tipping point. Once a grassroots movement, it is now a strategic lever for digital resilience, efficiency, and innovation. The DevOps in Switzerland Report 2025, jointly produced by Zühlke and VSHN, presents clear signals of this transformation. Drawing from 184 survey responses, the sixth edition of the report reveals how Swiss organizations are not just adopting DevOps, but scaling it through platform engineering and augmenting it with AI.

AI risk management: turning governance into a driver of long-term success

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 14:16:57 +0000

AI is scaling fast, but without the right governance, ambition can outpace control. In this article, we explore how smart, streamlined oversight turns governance from a blocker into a catalyst for enterprise-wide success.

Secure AI governance: Scalable delivery, zero disruption

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 22:00:00 +0000

As AI adoption accelerates, many organisations find themselves unable to scale. The solution? Embedding governance from the outset. By integrating compliance, transparency, and accountability into the core of AI initiatives, leaders can transform governance into a catalyst for innovation, trust, and sustainable growth.

The Cybernetic Enterprise: How Organizations Can Learn, Adapt, and Deliver in an AI-Native World

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 18:32:44 +0000

From Christoph Gulden

Welcome to Thought Leaders Talk, a podcast-style daily newsletter where bold minds meet real questions. In each episode, we talk with a guest who doesn’t just follow ideas, they shape them. No nonsense. No posturing. Just clear, original thinking on what truly matters.

The Cybernetic Enterprise: turning industrial AI hype into lasting value

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 22:00:00 +0000

AI is everywhere, but clarity, strategy, and real impact are often left by the wayside. We live in the era of what Romano Roth has dubbed ‘AI idiots’, an era of flashy demos rather than genuine long-term value. But a smarter way forward is possible. Discover the Cybernetic Enterprise and the business value it offers for industrial organisations.

Cybernetics Is the Future: Why AI and DevOps Alone Won’t Get Us There

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 21:25:27 +0000

“AI won’t fix your broken processes. DevOps won’t save your business. But Cybernetics might.”

At DevOps Pro Europe 2025 in Vilnius, I had the privilege of delivering the opening keynote to a packed hall of engineers, architects, and leaders navigating the ever-accelerating evolution of enterprise technology. My message was direct:

Coding Without Coders?

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 07:47:50 +0000

Romano Roth is Chief of Cybernetic Transformation at Zühlke and is deeply engaged with the impact of AI on organizations, technology, and culture. In this guest article, he explores how AI is affecting professionals, especially in the coding space.

Cybernetic Enterprise Explained: AI, DevOps & Scalable Software Delivery

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How can we reduce costs, develop faster, and become more efficient? In this presentation, I walk through the core concepts of the Cybernetic Enterprise and show how organizations can continuously deliver value by combining value stream analysis, platform engineering, and AI.

Riding the AI Wave: How Industrial Companies Can Harness It Purposefully

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 14:24:52 +0000

Why AI Alone Doesn’t Replace Strategy
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Artificial Intelligence is the central topic in the industrial sector, too. But to gain real competitive advantages through and with AI, companies must not blindly follow the hype. An “AI-First” label guarantees neither innovation nor future viability. Only those who combine people, technology, and organization in a learning system, the Cybernetic Enterprise, will be successful in the long run.

AI-Augmented Delivery: Building AI-Powered Organizations

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The most successful companies of the next decade will not just use AI. They will be organized around it. The AI-augmented enterprise is an operating model where human expertise and AI capabilities form a continuous feedback loop, enabling organizations to sense, decide, and act faster than ever before.

Monday Morning: Idea. Monday Afternoon: Prototype. Become a Builder!

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Many teams have ideas, but they lose time between gut feelings, vague requirements, and lengthy alignment meetings. In this workshop, I demonstrate live how we use Artificial Intelligence to drastically shorten the path from idea to prototype.

The Cybernetic Enterprise: Why AI Alone Won’t Transform Industry

Sat, 17 May 2025 21:42:39 +0000

Keynote at the CTO Forum of the Rudolf-Diesel-Medaille. Hosted by Zühlke, Munich

We Are Living in the AI Hype Era
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AI is dominating headlines. From natural language interfaces to automated code generation, the pace of development is relentless. But alongside this excitement, we are seeing inflated promises, rushed implementations, and disappointing returns.

DevEx: A Strategic Imperative for Business Success

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 20:01:24 +0000

Romano Roth advocates the importance of companies focusing on the developer experience and enabling developers to concentrate on creating business value.

The Zühlke Platform Plane: Should It Go Open Source?

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Should we open-source our internal developer platform? That is the question I brought to the audience during this talk. Instead of a traditional presentation, I gave a live demo of the Zühlke Platform Plane and then opened the floor for an honest discussion about the benefits, risks, and realities of open-sourcing a commercial platform product.

Continuous Security with DevSecOps and Platform Engineering

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine a world where security is seamlessly integrated into your development workflow from ideation until production, so that development teams can completely focus on feature development while building secure applications. That is exactly what I presented at the OWASP Chapter Meetup Switzerland. In this talk, I show how platform engineering transforms modern application security and makes DevSecOps a reality at scale.

Continuous Security with DevSecOps: How Platform Engineering Transforms Modern Application Security

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Security is no longer an afterthought in modern software development. It must be integrated seamlessly into every stage of the development lifecycle. This talk delves into the transformative power of combining DevSecOps principles with Platform Engineering to address the challenges of ensuring continuous security in a fast-paced, agile environment.

How to Reduce Costs While Continuously Delivering Value

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How can organizations reduce costs while still delivering real value to their customers? This is a question I get asked frequently, and one that a client recently brought to me when they wanted a keynote for their solution architects. In this talk, I walk through the key principles and practical techniques for continuously delivering value while cutting unnecessary spending.

Continuously Deliver Value While Reducing Cost

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Many software organizations spend too much effort building and maintaining features that create little real value. This talk shows how to reduce cost not by slowing down delivery, but by improving effectiveness and efficiency at the same time.

Platform Engineering: How Continuous Value Flow Transforms Commerce

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What does “continuous value flow through platform engineering” actually mean? In this Zühlke Commerce Talk, I sat down with my colleague Dennis Kolmitz, Engagement Manager at Zühlke responsible for our commerce customers, to discuss exactly that. We explored why platform engineering is becoming essential for commerce organizations that want to innovate faster, reduce friction, and keep their best talent.

The Cybernetic Enterprise is Coming: Are You Ready?

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 23:00:00 +0000

In August 2025 I will release my new book, The Cybernetic Enterprise: How to Build a Future-Ready Organization.

It is the product of two decades spent guiding enterprises through DevOps, platform engineering and, more recently, AI-driven transformation. Today I want to give you a deeper look at what the book delivers, and why it matters right now.

Introduction to Flip the Switch on Modern Software Development with Feature Flags

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 09:46:13 +0000

In my two decades of experience leading DevOps, Digital, and Agile transformations, I’ve observed that the path to modernisation is rarely a straight line. Organisations, particularly those in data-sensitive sectors, like banking, government, and healthcare, often find themselves at a crossroads. They need to innovate faster while maintaining rigorous security and reliability. This tension between speed and safety has traditionally forced companies to choose one over the other. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Building High-Impact DevOps: Expert Insights

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I recently joined Ben on the We Chat Tech podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about DevOps, leadership, career growth, and the future of AI in software engineering. Over 23 years at Zühlke, I have worked across industries helping organizations transform how they deliver software. In this episode, we covered everything from the fundamentals of DevOps to the skills that future engineers will need.

DevOpsDays Zürich: Bigger is Not Always Better

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On October 4, 2024, the global DevOpsDays Organizer Summit took place in Antwerp, bringing together organizers from DevOpsDays events around the world. Our team from DevOpsDays Zürich delivered a presentation titled “Bigger is Not Always Better.” I was not able to attend in person due to another conference, but my co-organizers Nadine and Dirk absolutely rocked the stage. Here is the story of why we decided not to scale our sold-out conference.

Harnessing the Power of Enterprise Architecture and AI for Strategic Advantage

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, enterprises must strategically leverage advanced technologies to stay competitive and drive innovation.

Enterprise Architecture Meets AI
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This presentation explores the intersection of Enterprise Architecture and Artificial Intelligence, focusing on how organizations can implement and benefit from robust platform strategies.

SAFe Leadership Forum: Empowering SAFe with Platform Engineering for Fast Flow

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What are the railroad tracks of your SAFe agile release trains? How are they built, and why do they matter so much? In this talk at the SAFe Leadership Forum, I explore how platform engineering creates the foundation that enables agile teams to continuously deliver value for fast flow.

How to Architect for Continuous Delivery

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In September 2024, I had the privilege of delivering a keynote at the Roche DevOps Conference in Poland. The topic: how to architect for continuous delivery. This is a subject close to my heart, because after more than two decades of working in software delivery, I keep seeing the same fundamental patterns that separate high-performing organizations from those that struggle.

Developer Experience and Platform Engineering: The Foundation of Modern Software Delivery

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Is DevOps dead? That claim keeps appearing on the internet, with people arguing that platform engineering is taking over. In this talk, which I gave at the Developer Experience Conference at Roche in Poznan, Poland, I explain why DevOps is absolutely not dead and why platform engineering is the key to making it actually work at scale.

AI-Augmented DevOps with Platform Engineering

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When the CEO or CIO comes to you and says “We need AI in our development process,” the right response is not to start implementing immediately. The right response is to ask: why? In this talk at Conf42 Platform Engineering, I walk through the complete journey from identifying value stream bottlenecks to implementing AI-augmented DevOps on a real platform, including a live demo.

Unlocking the Power of AI: Deep Dive into MLOps, Machine Learning, and AI Platforms

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered how companies build those impressive AI applications and keep them running reliably in production? In this video, I take a deep dive into MLOps, the discipline that makes it possible to continuously develop, deploy, and improve machine learning solutions at enterprise scale.

Harnessing the Power of Enterprise Architecture and AI for Strategic Benefit

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Enterprise Architecture is a big word that hangs heavy in the air. What does it actually mean for your organisation, and how does AI fit into the picture? In this talk, which I gave at the HSLU (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts) in association with the Digital Veterans Association, I explore how Enterprise Architecture, platform engineering, and AI come together as a strategic lever for modern organisations.

CrowdStrike Disaster: Causes, Impact, and How to Prevent Future Outages

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On July 19, 2024, the world witnessed one of the largest IT outages in history. A sensor configuration update from CrowdStrike, pushed to all Windows systems at 4:09 UTC, caused 8.5 million Microsoft Windows PCs to crash worldwide. Airlines, banks, hospitals, government agencies, stock exchanges, and countless other organizations were brought to a standstill. In this video, I break down what happened and, more importantly, what you can do to prevent something like this from happening in your organization.

MLOps: From ML Prototypes to Production Through Platform-Based Operationalization

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Many organizations build machine learning prototypes that never make it into production. MLOps provides the practices, culture, and architecture to bridge this gap.

What This Talk Covers
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This presentation outlines how MLOps helps organizations move machine learning from isolated prototypes into reliable production systems. It frames MLOps as more than a technical setup: a mindset, culture, and set of practices that unify development and operations across the full ML lifecycle, including experimentation, training, deployment, serving, monitoring, and retraining.

App-Solutely Safe: How Banks Use Modern Software Development

Mon, 20 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Banking software must be secure, reliable, and trustworthy. But many banks still rely on traditional development methods that are slow, risky, and inefficient. In this video, I explore three modern software development practices that are fundamentally changing how banks build and deliver software: continuous deployment, test-driven development, and feature flags.

Introduction to Modern Development Practices in Banking: A Playbook

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 10:47:16 +0000

Intdiuction the the eBook Moving to Modern Development Practices in Banking: A Playbook

Welcome to the “Modern Banking eBook”, a comprehensive guide for banking institutions embarking on the crucial journey of modernising their software development processes. I’m Romano Roth, and it’s my privilege to walk you through the transformative steps that can reshape the way banks operate in the digital age.

What Does Good DevOps Look Like?

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode of the Ship It podcast, Gerhard Lazu and I have a deep conversation about what good DevOps looks like in practice. We talk about the real challenges companies face during transformations, how to deal with middle management resistance, technology choices, and where the industry is heading with AIOps and hyper automation.

Platform Plane: High-Quality Software in Record Time

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This talk is a recording of my presentation at the FI-Forum in Frankfurt am Main in November 2023. The topic: the Platform Plane and how to develop high-quality software in record time. Platform engineering is the foundation of the digital factory and enables teams to truly practice DevOps.

DevOps in an Embedded World: From Silos to Digital Factories

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Many people still think DevOps is only for web applications and cloud services. But the reality is clear: companies that apply DevOps principles to embedded systems are outpacing their competition. In this talk, which I gave at a DevOps Meetup in Munich, I explore why embedded teams need DevOps and how to build a Digital Factory that enables continuous value delivery, even for hardware products.

DevOps Meetup Zurich 2024: Developer Experience and Platform Engineering

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is a recording of my presentation at the DevOps Meetup Zurich from January 2024. The talk covers Developer Experience and Platform Engineering, including why Platform Engineering has emerged, how it fits into the Digital Factory concept, and a live demo of the Platform Plane, the internal developer platform we built together with LGT.

Unlocking Efficiency: Platform Engineering vs. DevOps

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Tech Chat with Navika Chadha, a Cloud Engineer and Microsoft MVP, we had a deep conversation about Platform Engineering: what it is, how it differs from DevOps, why companies should adopt it, and what skills are needed. The discussion cuts through the buzz and click-bait headlines to explain why DevOps is very much alive and how Platform Engineering complements it.

The Digital Factory: 90 Days of DevOps

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For the 90 Days of DevOps community, I presented the concept of the digital factory. After years of doing DevOps transformations across industries at Zühlke, I have developed a holistic approach to scaling DevOps that goes beyond just tools and pipelines. In this talk, I explain why we still struggle with walls of confusion, how platform engineering enables teams to do DevOps at scale, and how digital factories bring everything together.

DevOps Institute Podcast: DevOps Is NOT Dead

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I joined Eveline Oehrlich, Chief Research Officer at the DevOps Institute, on the Humans of DevOps podcast for a conversation about whether DevOps is dead. Spoiler: it is not. But the reality in most companies is that we have not progressed as far as many people think. In this episode, we talk about what a Chief of DevOps actually does, why companies still struggle with walls of confusion, how platform engineering enables scaling, and my prediction about digital factories.

DevOps Trends 2024: Unlocking the Future of Product Delivery

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Every year, I go through the latest reports, articles, and industry discussions to compile a comprehensive view of the DevOps trends shaping our industry. For 2024, I mapped every major trend onto the technology adoption lifecycle to give you a clear picture of where each technology, methodology, or capability stands in terms of adoption. This framework helps you understand not just what is trending, but how mature each trend really is.

DevTalk Podcast: The State of DevOps

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode of the DevTalk podcast, my colleague Kerry Lothrop and I have a conversation about the state of DevOps. We have known each other for many years at Zühlke, and Kerry wanted to pick my brain on what DevOps really means today, where companies struggle, and where the industry is heading.

Architecting for Continuous Delivery at Conf42 DevSecOps 2024

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

At the Conf42 DevSecOps 2024 conference, I presented my approach to architecting for continuous delivery. After more than 21 years at Zühlke, working across industries on DevOps transformations, I keep seeing the same fundamental problem: value streams broken by walls of confusion. In this talk, I walk through how organizations can move from project thinking to product thinking, build in quality and security from the start, architect for operability, and use platform engineering to scale it all.

DevOps Transformations: My Lessons Learned

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

DevOps transformations look simple on paper. Take an existing environment, add the Spotify model, throw in SAFe, sprinkle some Team Topologies, add DevOps and platform engineering, stir well, add as many tools as possible, and stir again. What happens? It crashes. And people say “DevOps is bullshit.”

The Science of DevOps

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this video, I take a deep dive into the science behind DevOps. Specifically, I look at the DORA metrics, where they come from, and the book Accelerate that provides the scientific foundation for everything we know about high-performing software delivery organizations.

The Zühlke DevOps Offering: From DevOps Engineering to the Digital Factory

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As Chief of DevOps and Partner at Zühlke, I have spent over two decades helping companies continuously deliver value. In this video, I walk through the complete Zühlke DevOps offering, from our understanding of DevOps and the challenges of scaling it, to our concrete service offerings including the Digital Factory and the Platform Plane.

What are Digital Factories ?

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 18:24:38 +0000

a talk with Romano Roth, DevOps Thought Leader and Dr. Milan Milanović Architecture Thought Leader. Source: https://newsletter.techworld-with-milan.com/p/what-are-digital-factories

1. Romano’s short biography
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I’m Romano Roth, Chief of DevOps and Partner at Zühlke. My journey with Zuhlke began 21 years ago. Over the years, I’ve evolved from an expert software engineer and software architect to a consultant. Throughout this journey, one question has always fueled my passion: How can we continuously deliver value while ensuring quality and automation?

Overcoming Resistance: The Powerful Method You Need

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this podcast episode, I have a conversation with Peyton Einhaus about one of the most challenging aspects of any transformation: dealing with resistance. Whether you are running an agile transformation, a DevOps transformation, or any organizational change, resistance is always present. The question is how you handle it effectively.

DevOps in an Embedded World: Challenges for Embedded and IoT Devices

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 19:15:31 +0000

Embedded and IoT devices are becoming increasingly popular in today’s world. These devices are used in various industries, such as healthcare, manufacturing, consumer goods and home automation. Ensuring the quality of these devices is crucial to ensure their reliability, safety, and functionality. But how to do that?

Guided Platform Engineering Meditation

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes in the world of platform engineering, we need to pause and appreciate the digital landscapes we build every day. This short, playful video is a guided meditation for platform engineers. Find a comfortable position, take a deep breath, and let me guide you through the world you create.

The Business Case of DevOps: How to Convince Your Decision Makers

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 01:00:00 +0000

Every DevOps enthusiast faces the same challenge at some point: you know DevOps works, your team knows it works, but the decision makers want proof. They want a business case. In this talk at ContainerDays 2019, I break down a practical framework for convincing CIOs and managers to fund your DevOps transformation.

The Digital Factory

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Many companies are suffering from a lack of alignment between business and IT, silo thinking, and inefficiencies in product development, while time to market is becoming increasingly important.

The Problem
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These companies try to adopt DevOps in their organizations, but unfortunately, sometimes the DevOps approach is misunderstood, wrongly implemented, and it does not scale as expected.

What Is the Business Case of DevOps? An Ignite Talk

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

You want to do DevOps. Your team wants to do DevOps. Even your CIO wants to do DevOps. But then comes the inevitable question: “What is the business case?” In this five-minute Ignite Talk at DevOpsDays, I share a simple but powerful tool to convince decision makers that DevOps is worth the investment.

Moving to Modern Software Development and Continuous Integration for Banks: Insights from Romano

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 14:28:56 +0000

By Anna Redbond and Romano Roth on August 2, 2023

A lot of banks are moving to modern software development despite the traditional industry hurdles like compliance, regulations, and legacy architecture. The shared goal: becoming more adaptable to meet customers’ changing demands.

D for DevOps: The Philosophy of Software Engineering

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 22:00:00 +0000

I had the honor of being interviewed by 📈 Matt Warcholinski 💾 from Brainhub in his 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭🎙️ on 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩.

🔎 If you’ve ever wondered about the ins and outs of introducing 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐎𝐩𝐬 into your organization, this episode is a must-listen! We delved into some fascinating topics, and I’m thrilled to share a few highlights from our conversation:

How to Architect for Continuous Delivery: From Silos to Digital Factories

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At The DEVOPS Conference, I presented on a topic that has been at the heart of my work for over two decades: how to architect for continuous delivery. This talk covers the broken value stream I see in most companies, why product thinking matters more than project thinking, the science behind software delivery performance, and how platform engineering enables organizations to scale DevOps through digital factories.

State of DevOps in Switzerland 2023: Key Insights and How to Scale DevOps

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At the State of DevOps in Switzerland 2023 event, I joined Adrian Kosmaczewski from VSHN to present the latest findings on DevOps adoption in the Swiss market. Adrian shared four years of survey data, while I focused on how to successfully scale DevOps through platform engineering and the concept of the digital factory. This event brought together DevOps professionals both on-site and virtually for presentations and a lively panel discussion.

GitHub Copilot Hackathon: How AI-Powered Coding Changes Software Development

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

GitHub Copilot is reshaping software development by introducing AI-assisted coding into everyday engineering work. But what does this mean in practice?

What This Talk Covers
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This presentation explains what GitHub Copilot is, how it works in practice, and how it supports developers through context-aware code suggestions, faster problem-solving, and reduced effort for repetitive tasks.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 12: Our Recommendations and Lessons Learned

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

After eleven sessions building a full DevSecOps pipeline with GitHub — covering Software Composition Analysis, License Compliance, SAST, Container Scanning, Secret Detection, DAST, Pull Requests, Scheduled Pipelines, and Vulnerability Management — Patrick Steger and I close the series with our recommendations. What works on GitHub, where the gaps are, and what we would tell anyone setting out to build the same pipeline.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 11: Scheduled Pipelines for Production Code

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Across ten sessions we wired security checks into a GitHub Actions pipeline that fires on every commit and every Pull Request. That covers code we are actively changing. It does not cover the code that is already running in production while researchers keep finding new CVEs in the libraries it uses. In Part 11 of the GitHub DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I add a scheduled workflow that re-scans the production branch — and we run straight into a GitHub limitation worth knowing about up front.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 10: Branch Protection and Pull Requests

Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In the previous nine sessions Patrick Steger and I built a GitHub DevSecOps pipeline with build, SCA, License Compliance, SAST, Container Scanning, Secret Detection and DAST. All useful — but only if it actually runs before code lands in main, and only if the merge is blocked when something serious shows up. In Part 10 we wire that gate together with Pull Requests and Branch Protection rules.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 9: Vulnerability Management

Mon, 22 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We have spent the previous eight sessions adding scanners to our GitHub DevSecOps pipeline — SCA, SAST, container scanning, secret detection, DAST. The scanners now produce a steady stream of findings, and the question is: where do we manage them? In Part 9, Patrick Steger and I look at GitHub’s built-in Vulnerability Management — the Security Tab — and call out what it does well and what is still missing.

DevOps Is NOT Dead

Wed, 10 May 2023 06:49:56 +0000

Join Eveline Oehrlich and Romano Roth, to discuss whether DevOps is Dead.

Transcript
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Narrator 00:02 You’re listening to the humans of DevOps podcast, a podcast focused on advancing the humans of DevOps through skills, knowledge, ideas, and learning, or the skil framework.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 8: Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

After seven sessions of static analysis — SCA, license compliance, SAST, container scanning, secret detection — Patrick Steger and I move into the dynamic side of the pipeline. In Part 8 we add Dynamic Application Security Testing to our GitHub Actions pipeline. DAST runs the application and then attacks it. GitHub does not ship this out of the box, so we wire in a community action built on OWASP ZAP — and we are honest about where that approach falls short for enterprise use.

DevTalk Podcast Episode 88: The state of DevOps. With Romano Roth

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 06:43:01 +0000

On episode 88 of DevTalk I and Kerry W. Lothrop speak about the state of DevOps.

Original Post: DevTalk 88: Romano Roth

DevOps: Thinking in Systems & Value Streams

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s world, everybody wants to do DevOps. But why? What problems are we trying to solve?

Taking a Step Back
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Together, we will take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Instead of jumping straight into tools and practices, we examine the systems and value streams that underpin modern software delivery.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 7: Finding Secrets in Your Code with Secret Scanning

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

API keys, tokens, and passwords still leak into repositories all the time — sometimes by accident, sometimes by a developer who genuinely did not know better. In Part 7 of our GitHub DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I switch on GitHub’s built-in Secret Scanning, add a custom pattern of our own, try out push protection, and look honestly at what the feature finds and where it falls short.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 6: How to Use Container Scanning

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We have built up the GitHub Actions pipeline through five sessions: the project basics, software composition analysis, license compliance, and static application security testing. The next layer is container scanning — looking for vulnerabilities inside the Docker image we ship, not just in the source we wrote. In Part 6 of our series, Patrick Steger and I split the work into two GitHub Actions sub-workflows: one builds the image and pushes it to the registry, the other pulls it back and runs Trivy on it.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 5: Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

SCA covered our dependencies. License compliance covered what we are allowed to ship. SAST is where we point the scanners at the code we wrote ourselves. In Part 5 of our GitHub DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I add Static Application Security Testing to the pipeline — and find out the hard way that on GitHub it takes three Actions, not one.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 4: How to Ensure License Compliance

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

GitHub does not ship a license scanner out of the box, and when we went looking in the marketplace, none of the existing actions did what we needed. So we built our own with a colleague from Microsoft and published it. In Part 4 of our GitHub DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I plug that License Finder action into our Spring Boot pipeline, configure which licenses are acceptable, and show how to surface the results inside GitHub.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 3: Software Composition Analysis with Dependabot and CRDA

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

GitHub does not ship a default SCA tool the way GitLab does. You have to combine two things: a platform feature called Dependabot and an SCA action from the Marketplace. In Part 3 of the GitHub DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I wire both into our pipeline — and find out the hard way that the Marketplace path is not as smooth as the slides suggest.

The Digital Office in the Metaverse: Teamwork in Virtual Space

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

What does the future of the digital office look like? In this session, I explore the possibilities of virtual workspaces together with Christian from the VR platform Arthur. We move through various VR environments, from meeting rooms and workshop spaces to inspiring landscapes on the moon, and discuss what is already usable for businesses today and where the limitations are. The entire conversation took place in Virtual Reality, with VR headsets on our heads. Note: the original session was conducted in German.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 2: Creating a Simple Project and Your First Workflow

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Before we plug security tools into anything, we need a repository, a pipeline, and a working build. In Part 2 of our GitHub DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I create a private GitHub repo for a small Java Spring Boot service, enable GitHub Actions, and wire up a two-workflow pipeline that compiles the code and runs the unit tests. This is the skeleton everything else in the series hangs on.

DevOps Is Dead? Why Platform Engineering and SRE Need DevOps More Than Ever

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The internet is full of posts claiming that DevOps is dead. “DevOps is bullshit.” “Platform Engineering will replace DevOps.” “SRE is the future.” In this video, I explain why all of these claims are wrong, where they come from, and how DevOps, Platform Engineering, and Site Reliability Engineering actually relate to each other.

Golem.de Interview: "When we talk about DevOps, we need to talk about people"

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 23:00:00 +0000

Romano Roth is Chief of DevOps at Zühlke. In this interview, he explains why DevOps is not bullshit, how transformation succeeds in companies, and what IT students really need to learn.

DevOps with SAP: Theory and Practice

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At this event, I spoke alongside Carsten Brandt from SAP about DevOps in theory and practice. While I presented the theoretical foundations of DevOps and showed how companies can move from projects to products, Carsten brought the practical perspective from over 21 years at SAP. His honest message: the theory has been well established for years, but execution is anything but easy, especially in complex enterprise landscapes.

Back to the future of software development

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 23:00:00 +0000

By Pia Wiedermayer and Romano Roth

In many organizations and projects, software development involves numerous employees and machines performing tasks separately. This approach results in problems. Here’s how going back to the original way of developing software and building an organic digital factory can help.

GitHub DevSecOps Part 1: What Is GitHub and Why Shift Security Left?

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

After we finished the GitLab DevSecOps series, Patrick changed jobs — and his new team is on GitHub. The problem is the same: no security checks during development. The platform is different. In Part 1 of our GitHub DevSecOps series, we cover what GitHub is, the CI/CD vocabulary you have to share before any pipeline conversation works, and the shape of the DevSecOps pipeline we will build over the next sessions.

DevOps Top Trends and Emerging Technologies to Watch

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 20:55:56 +0000

DevOps trends 2023

We quickly review my projections for 2021 and 2022 before moving on to the difficulties businesses are already facing. Due to silo organizations, there is almost no coordination between the various organizational divisions, and businesses continue to plan annual projects rather than products. Hence, businesses must adopt some DevOps methods or trends. DevOps is a mindset, culture with technical practices that align all people across the value stream to continuously deliver value to the customer. The top DevOps trends for 2023 include building products, running the product, ensuring product quality, monitoring the product, organizing across the value stream, enabling DevOps in product teams, and industrializing the whole product development.

The Future of DevOps: Top Trends to Watch in 2023

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Two years of trend predictions later, the DevOps conversation has shifted. In 2021 we talked about adoption. In 2022 we mapped trends onto the adoption lifecycle. In 2023 the most useful lens is the value stream: how products get built, run, quality-assured, monitored, organised, enabled and industrialised end-to-end. Most organisations still suffer from silos and project-based annual planning. The 2023 trends are about closing those gaps.

GitLab vs. GitHub: DevSecOps Pipeline

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 11:25:25 +0000

by Romano Roth and Patrick Steger

This video series will show you how to build up an enterprise-ready DevSecOps Pipeline with GitLab and GitHub and compare the two platforms.

High-Quality Work in Software Engineering and Building Great Developer Experience

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

What defines high-quality work in software engineering? Is it Scrum? Clean Code? TDD? Functional programming? In this Expert Talks session, my colleague Milan and I present two complementary perspectives. Milan covers the pillars of high-quality engineering work, from team building and customer centricity to clean code and engineering culture. I then show how DevOps and continuous delivery help build great products by moving from a project mindset to a product mindset.

How to Survive Game of Thrones in the Workplace: A Guide for Conflict Management

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In every project, every company, every department, there is a Game of Thrones being played. Power plays between people, teams, and departments that result in massive conflicts. In this talk, I share why these conflicts exist, what strategies you can use to survive them, and how to stay healthy during difficult times. The Game of Thrones is played everywhere. It starts in kindergarten with the fight over a puppet and ends at your deathbed when descendants fight over your heritage.

Baloise OpenX Day: Keynote on DevOps, Value Streams, and Platform Engineering

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I was invited to deliver the keynote at the Baloise OpenX Day, an internal conference where Baloise brings together their technology community. The session combined impulse presentations with interactive discussions, giving me the chance to share DevOps fundamentals and then hear directly from the teams about their real challenges. The conversations with the Baloise engineers were incredibly valuable, especially around topics like continuous deployment in regulated industries and the role of platform engineering.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 12: Our Recommendations and Lessons Learned

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

After eleven sessions building a full DevSecOps pipeline with GitLab — from Software Composition Analysis to Container Scanning, SAST, Secret Detection, DAST, merge request integration, and scheduled pipelines — Patrick Steger and I close the series with our recommendations. What worked, what tripped us up, and what we would tell anyone setting out to build the same pipeline today.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 11: Scheduled Pipelines for Production Code

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Over ten sessions we wired six security tools into a GitLab pipeline that fires on every commit and every Merge Request. So are we done? Not quite. Code in production sits there for weeks or months, and during that time researchers keep finding new CVEs in the dependencies you are already shipping. In Part 11 of the GitLab DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I add a scheduled pipeline so the production branch gets re-scanned automatically — without anyone having to push a commit.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 10: How to Do a Merge Request the Right Way

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In the previous nine sessions Patrick Steger and I built a GitLab DevSecOps pipeline that runs SAST, secret detection, software composition analysis, container scanning and DAST. Useful — but only if it actually catches issues before they reach the default branch. In Part 10 we close that loop: we wire the pipeline into Merge Requests so every change is scanned, the deltas against the default branch are visible, and approvals are required when new high or critical vulnerabilities appear.

DevOps: How Companies Continuously Deliver Value

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

DevOps is far more than automation or tooling: it is the interplay of people, processes, and technology to develop products faster, more reliably, and more customer-focused.

What This Talk Covers
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This talk shows why companies must shift from project-oriented thinking to product-centric working, how a Continuous Delivery Pipeline works as the backbone of modern product development, and why quality, testing, and operability must be considered from the start.

DevOps: Thinking in Systems and Value Streams

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this conference talk, I discuss one of the most fundamental topics in DevOps: thinking in systems and value streams. When I work with companies on their DevOps transformations, I consistently see the same patterns. The business has bright ideas. They write them into Word documents and Jira tickets. They throw them over a wall of confusion to development. Development builds something and throws it to testing. Testing compares what was specified with what was built (never quite the same), tests something, and throws it to operations. Operations asks “How can we operate that?” and somehow, with great effort, they get it running. Then the customer sees it and says: “What is that? That is not what we ordered.”

GitLab DevSecOps Part 9: Overcoming Vulnerability Management Challenges

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

After eight sessions of adding scanners to our GitLab pipeline — SAST, secret detection, SCA, license compliance, container scanning, DAST — we now have a different problem. We have hundreds of vulnerability findings. In Part 9, Patrick Steger and I look at GitLab’s built-in Vulnerability Management: what it gives you, where it falls short, and how to actually triage findings without losing your mind.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 8: Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Everything we have done in the GitLab DevSecOps pipeline so far has been static — analysis of source code, dependencies, containers and configuration. In Part 8, Patrick Steger and I cross the line into Continuous Delivery and add Dynamic Application Security Testing. DAST means we deploy the application, start it, and then attack it from the outside with an automated penetration testing tool. GitLab ships this capability out of the box, powered by OWASP ZAP.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 7: Finding Secrets in Your Code with Secret Detection

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Hard-coded passwords and API keys are still one of the most common ways credentials leak. They get committed by accident, stay in the git history forever, and only show up when someone is already exploiting them. In Part 7 of our GitLab DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I add Secret Detection to the same pipeline we have been growing — one line of YAML — and then look at what GitLeaks actually finds, what it quietly misses, and what to do about it.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 6: How to Use Container Scanning

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We have already wired SAST, secret detection, and software composition analysis into the GitLab pipeline. Those checks cover the source code and its dependencies — but the artifact we actually ship is a container image. Operating system packages, the base image, and everything copied in along the way can carry vulnerabilities of their own. In Part 6 of our series, Patrick Steger and I add container scanning to the pipeline, build a Docker image from the jar we compiled earlier, and push it through Trivy and Grype.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 5: Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Software composition analysis takes care of the libraries you pull in. But what about the code your own team writes? That is where Static Application Security Testing comes in. In Part 5 of our GitLab DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I add SAST to the pipeline, plant a few realistic vulnerabilities in our Spring Boot sample, and watch GitLab pick them up.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 4: How to Ensure License Compliance

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

You ship a Java application that depends on Spring Boot, which depends on dozens of other libraries, each with its own license — and most teams cannot tell you what those licenses actually are. In Part 4 of our GitLab DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I add license compliance to the pipeline so the question is answered automatically on every commit. The good news: with GitLab Ultimate, this is one template line away.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 3: Software Composition Analysis with Gemnasium

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Your code is the small part. The libraries you pull in are the big part — and that is where most of your CVEs live. In Part 3 of the GitLab DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I bring up a tiny Spring Boot demo, wire it into a GitLab pipeline, and then add Software Composition Analysis with a single include line.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 1: What Is GitLab and Why Shift Security Left?

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Why does security still get bolted on at the end of the development process, and how do we move it earlier without slowing teams down? In Part 1 of our GitLab DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I set the stage: what GitLab is, what shifting security left really means, and which CI/CD concepts you have to understand before you can build a DevSecOps pipeline that actually works.

GitLab DevSecOps Part 2: Creating a Simple Project and Your First Pipeline

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Before we can shift any security checks left, we need a project, a repository, and a pipeline that actually builds something. In Part 2 of our GitLab DevSecOps series, Patrick Steger and I log into GitLab, create a new .NET Core project from a template, and look at the .gitlab-ci.yml file that GitLab generates for us — including the build and test jobs that will become the foundation for everything we add later.

What is an Epic?

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How do you make sure your organization is not overloaded with too many projects, too many ideas, and too little focus? And how do you ensure you are building the right thing? This is exactly what epics are for. In this video, I walk through the concept of epics, show you a concrete example, and explain why epics are far more effective than traditional projects.

What is a Product Backlog Item (PBI)?

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In my previous video, we explored what a backlog is. We learned that a backlog consists of Product Backlog Items, short PBI. In this video, we go one level deeper and look at what exactly a PBI is, how it evolves over time, and how it relates to the product backlog, the sprint backlog, and the product owner.

DevOps Explained: What do "DevOps Engineers" actually do at Zühlke?

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:59:46 +0000

Have you ever wondered what “DevOps Engineers” actually do? What does “DevOps” even mean actually? This blog post aims to explain the concept of DevOps and the value that it

Tour Around the SAFe DevOps Health Radar: All 16 Stages with Videos

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past few years I have published a deep-dive on every single activity in the SAFe DevOps Health Radar. This post is the round-the-radar tour: a single page that walks you through all four aspects and all sixteen stages, with the original video for each and a link to the full article. Use it as a map — to find your starting point, to share with your team, or to assess where you are today and where you want to go next.

What is a Backlog?

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

What is a backlog, and why is backlog management so important in agile software development? In this video, I break down the concept of a backlog, explain the difference between a product backlog and a sprint backlog, and show how tools like Jira support backlog management in practice.

What is Release on Demand?

Wed, 11 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Release on Demand is the final step in the SAFe for DevOps continuous delivery pipeline, and it is the step that ties everything together. In this video, I walk through how Release on Demand works, why separating deployment from release is so powerful, and how the whole pipeline enables organizations to build the right thing right.

Lean Portfolio Management at Zühlke

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:34:31 +0000

As a leading innovation company with 1600 employees in Germany, United Kingdom, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Portugal, Switzerland and Vietnam, Zühlke has always some ongoing and planned strategic initiatives.

An Inspiring Career of More Than 20 Years at One Company

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 18:25:36 +0000

Working at the same company for more than 20 years, continuously developing yourself, and never losing any enthusiasm for innovation? How that works is shown in this fascinating interview with Romano Roth, Chief of DevOps and Partner at Zühlke Group. In this Career Design Interview, Romano explains the role that a growth mindset, curiosity, self-reflection, and the company’s feedback culture play.

Feature Toggles: What, Why, How?

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Feature toggles are one of those concepts that sound simple on the surface but unlock enormous power in practice. In this DevOps Meetup Zurich session, I team up with Ben Rometsch, founder of Flagsmith, to explain the what, why, and how of feature toggles. We cover the foundational concepts of CI/CD that make feature toggles necessary, the difference between deployment and release, and how modern feature flagging platforms enable progressive rollouts, user segmentation, and A/B testing.

Participatory budgeting: next level financing

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:22:25 +0000

One size fits all? Nothing of the sort! Participatory budgeting calls for a tailored solution, one that can constantly evolve and adapt to the given situation. In this article, we describe how we do it at Zühlke.

What is SAFe® for DevOps Course?

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 17:58:51 +0000

The SAFe® for DevOps training is an assessment or a workshop that is ideally suited for teams. Why? Because the focus is on driving the value stream of these teams. Addressing questions, challenges, and any potential obstacles - we can work on the training to provide value to them. We will give them the theory input of what exactly DevOps is.

What is Learn? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Learn is the last step of the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar, and in many ways it is the most important one. This is where we make the hard decisions about where to invest, where to stop, and how to continuously improve everything we do. In this video, I walk through what the Learn step involves and why it is the key to building the right thing right.

What is Measure? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 09:49:53 +0000

Measure is the step of the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar where everything comes together. After deploying to production and stabilizing, we now collect qualitative and quantitative information about our epics and features. The goal is to validate our hypotheses and make informed strategic decisions. In this video, I walk through what the Measure step involves and why it is essential for building the right thing.

What is Stabilize? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 21:52:50 +0000

After we release a new feature to our users, we need to make sure everything runs smoothly. Stabilize is the SAFe DevOps Health Radar activity that focuses on maintaining a high level of business continuity so we can continuously deliver value to our customers. In this video, I walk through what Stabilize involves and why it is essential for a stable, resilient production environment.

What is Release? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 19:51:34 +0000

Release is one of the final steps in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar. At this point, the new functionality is already deployed to production and verified. Now it is time to make the new functionality available to a small group of users or to all users. In this video, I walk through what the Release step involves and why it is a crucial business decision.

Participatory Budgeting V2.0: Next Level Financing

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 06:42:10 +0000

Together with my colleague Nadine, I presented an updated version of our participatory budgeting approach. We had already shared the first version at a previous event, but since then we made significant changes that we wanted to share. A quick disclaimer: we did not invent participatory budgeting. We built on the materials from the SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), so you will find the copyright on the relevant slides. If you want to introduce participatory budgeting in your own organization, we are happy to share our experience and always reference the original SAFe materials.

What It's Like to Work for the Same Company for More Than 20 Years

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 06:18:24 +0000

On February 1, 2002, I started my journey at Zühlke as a junior software engineer. Twenty years later, I am still here. In this post, I want to share what those 20 years looked like, what kept me going, and why I plan to stay for at least another 20.

What is Continuous Deployment? | SAFe® DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 09:49:57 +0000

In this article, I explain what Continuous Deployment is within the SAFe® DevOps Health Radar and why it is essential for delivering value quickly and safely. Please note that everything discussed here is under the license of Scaled Agile, and that the Scaled Agile Framework is a framework to be used as a toolbox. Take out of this toolbox what fits your needs and what solves your problems.

What is Respond? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 20:17:55 +0000

How do you proactively detect and fix production issues before they cause a business disruption? Respond is the SAFe DevOps Health Radar activity that answers exactly this question. In this video, I walk through what Respond involves and why it is essential for maintaining a stable production environment.

DevOps: How can we improve value streams?

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 17:50:26 +0000

Value stream mapping is a lean management method for improving the flow of value from idea to production. It offers insight into the efficiency of an organisation and can help to identify bottlenecks and improve value flow. The primary goal is to eliminate any waste.

What Are the Top DevOps Trends in 2022?

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A year ago I called DevSecOps, continuous delivery, cloud and AIOps as the trends for 2021. Most of those landed. For 2022 the picture gets more interesting because DevOps is no longer a single wave — different parts of the market are at very different stages of adoption. To make sense of that, I map the 2022 trends onto the technology adoption lifecycle: late majority, early majority and early adopters.

What is Monitor? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 18:21:51 +0000

Once our features are deployed and verified in production, we need to keep a close eye on how they perform. Monitor is the SAFe DevOps Health Radar activity that focuses on tracking system performance, end-user behavior, incidents, and business value. In this video, I walk through what monitoring involves and why it is essential for making the right decisions about your features.

What is the SAFe® DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 12 Dec 2021 17:54:55 +0000

In this article, we will explore what exactly SAFe® DevOps is for health radar and what can you use it for.

What is Verify? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 20:02:30 +0000

Verify is a critical step in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar. After deploying our package into the production environment, we need to confirm that the new functionality works correctly and does not negatively affect the integrity or robustness of the existing system. Only after this verification is complete can we confidently release the new features to end-users. In this video, I walk through what the Verify step involves and how it fits into the overall continuous delivery pipeline.

How Zühlke Implemented Lean Portfolio Management with Kanban and OKRs

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 06:29:52 +0000

Many organizations still rely on annual planning cycles with large upfront budgets, waterfall-style gate reviews, and business cases that are written solely to secure funding. The result is often a massive overload of initiatives, poor quality, delayed projects, and a fundamental disconnect between output and actual business impact. In this talk, my colleague and I share how we introduced Lean Portfolio Management at Zühlke Engineering, what we achieved in our first MVP after six months, and where we plan to go next.

How Zühlke Implemented Lean Portfolio Management with Kanban and OKRs

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

How can strategy be translated into execution in a transparent, lean, and scalable way?

What This Talk Covers
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In this session, we share how Zühlke introduced Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) based on SAFe and adapted it to the organizational context. We show how we built an MVP for LPM by combining a portfolio kanban, transparent epic and roadmap management, and group-wide OKRs to improve strategic alignment and decision-making.

Hey DevOps, you're killing my job!

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 18:02:18 +0000

Is DevOps really the reason why testing and quality assurance (QA) employees are being increasingly automated out of a job? Pia Wiedermayer, Head of QA, and Romano Roth, Head of DevOps, discuss different ways to incorporate the wealth of experience of testing and QA specialists into the agile team culture.

What is Deploy? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 21 Nov 2021 20:46:47 +0000

Deploy is a critical step in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar. After we have built a deployable package and tested it in a staging environment, we now want to continuously deploy our changes into the production environment. The goal is to deploy with high frequency and low risk. In this video, I explain how we achieve this and what practices enable continuous deployment.

Participatory Budgeting: Financing in the 21st Century (English Talk)

Sun, 17 Oct 2021 10:00:00 +0000

This is the English-language version of our talk on participatory budgeting at Zühlke. Nadine Broghammer and I describe how we coached a portfolio team through a participatory budgeting (PB) event based on SAFe, and how the value stream leads collectively allocated the budget for the second half of the year. A separate post covers the German version of the same talk.

What is Stage? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 26 Sep 2021 08:28:51 +0000

Stage is the step in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar where we perform the final validation before going to production. In the staging environment, we run user acceptance tests, conduct system demos for our stakeholders, and verify that everything is truly production-ready. In this video, I walk through what the Stage step involves and why it is essential for a reliable delivery pipeline.

What is Test End to End? | SAFe® DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 19 Sep 2021 18:26:16 +0000

In this article, I explain what Test End to End means within the SAFe® DevOps Health Radar and why it is essential for delivering high-quality software. Please note that everything discussed here is under the license of Scaled Agile, and that the Scaled Agile Framework is a framework to be used as a toolbox. Take out what fits your needs or what solves your problem.

What is Build? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 20:59:21 +0000

Build is the step in the SAFe for DevOps Health Radar where committed code is continuously integrated, tested, and turned into a deployable artifact with built-in quality. In this video, I walk through what the Build step involves, why continuous integration matters, and how techniques like gated commits and static security analysis help you maintain quality at speed.

What is Develop? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 19:53:31 +0000

In the SAFe DevOps Health Radar, Develop is where we take the features from continuous exploration and turn them into working code. We split features into user stories, implement them with a strong focus on built-in quality, and commit everything to version control. In this video, I walk through the Develop step and explain why quality practices like TDD and BDD are so important.

What is Continuous Exploration? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 18:29:46 +0000

In this article, I explain what Continuous Exploration is within the SAFe DevOps Health Radar and why it is essential for building the right thing in the right way. Please note that everything discussed here is under the license of Scaled Agile, and that the Scaled Agile Framework is a framework to be used as a toolbox. Take out of this toolbox what fits your needs and what solves your problems.

What is Synthesize? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 16:17:07 +0000

In this video, I explain what Synthesize is and how it works within the SAFe DevOps Health Radar. Synthesize is the fourth and final step of Continuous Exploration, where we combine the outputs of Hypothesize, Collaborate and Research, and Architect into a prioritized backlog with a clear vision and roadmap.

What is Architect? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 22:00:03 +0000

Architect is the third step in the SAFe DevOps Health Radar, part of Continuous Exploration. In this video, I explain how we define the minimal architecture needed to prove a hypothesis and enable continuous delivery of value to customers.

What is Collaborate & Research? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Sun, 08 Aug 2021 17:42:55 +0000

Collaborate & Research is the second step in the SAFe DevOps Health Radar. In this video, I explain how teams collaborate internally and conduct market research to define a minimal feature set that validates the hypothesis from the previous step.

What is Hypothesize? | SAFe DevOps Health Radar

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 12:00:33 +0000

In this video, I take a deep dive into Hypothesize, the first process step of the SAFe DevOps Health Radar and the continuous delivery pipeline. The core question is simple: how do you know you are building the right thing?

Participatory Budgeting: Funding in the 21st Century

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

How can innovation and development budgets be distributed faster, more transparently, and more effectively? Participatory Budgeting offers a collaborative approach to steering investments not project-by-project, but along value streams and strategic priorities.

Participatory Budgeting: Financing in the 21st Century

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 10:58:01 +0000

In this meetup talk, Nadine Broghammer and I share our experience coaching a portfolio team on participatory budgeting based on the SAFe framework. We explain the problem with traditional top-down budget allocation and show how participatory budgeting creates transparency, fosters entrepreneurial thinking, and leads to better investment decisions.

What is SAFe for DevOps?

Sun, 06 Jun 2021 18:56:06 +0000

In this video, I explain what the SAFe for DevOps training is all about. Unlike traditional classroom courses, this training is a hands-on workshop where real teams work on their own value streams and leave with a concrete, prioritized action plan.

Does TDD Work With Legacy Code?

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Does test-driven development work with legacy applications? That is a question I get a lot, and the short answer is yes. In this video I take a big, ugly WinForms application and walk through how I use TDD to add a new feature without touching the messy parts of the existing code. The goal is simple: show that the test-first mindset works even when the surrounding codebase has no tests at all.

Virtual Reality Businesses: The Metaverse Is the Future

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

After the strong response our previous video on VR received on LinkedIn, people kept asking the same questions: Is this really the new normal? Where is the technology going? Is now the right moment to jump in? To go deeper, I invited Christoph back into the conversation together with Michaela. Christoph has been working with enterprise clients on virtual reality for years, and our discussion ranges from the maturing hardware and software ecosystem to what a workshop in VR actually feels like, and why the employer of the future will hand out three devices instead of one.

Test automation with Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 20:44:14 +0000

Automating tests is a complex and demanding task. The iterative approach in the development process also means that the automated tests have to be continuously adapted. Behaviour-driven development (BDD) can be used to simplify and speed up test automation.

Business Meetings in the Metaverse: It's Not a Game, Here's Why

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What happens when you skip the plane, the traffic and the Zoom fatigue and simply meet a colleague in a virtual office on another continent? In this conversation, I jump into VR to visit Michele at BCVR. Within a click I am standing next to him in Chicago, coffee in hand, looking over diagrams on the wall and exploring what it really means to work, train and collaborate in the Metaverse. This is not a demo of a gaming toy. It is a look at a serious business environment that, even in 2021, already feels remarkably close to the future of work.

What is TDD? Test-Driven Development Explained

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What exactly is TDD or Test-Driven Development, and why do so many experienced engineers swear by it? In this short video I explain where TDD comes from, how the red-green-refactor cycle works, and I walk through a simple C# calculator example that shows the process in action. TDD is not only a development technique, it is a mindset that shapes how you approach every line of code.

What is the difference between traditional testing and agile testing?

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 21:32:09 +0000

When we are talking about traditional testing, we are talking about the V-model which is used in waterfall projects. We do requirement engineering, we write down features for our software, then we break them down and then write stories which are then given to the developer to implement this story. The developer then codifies this and then writes unite tests and integration tests.

What is waste 🗑 in Software Development?

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 21:14:49 +0000

I’ve identified 9 types of waste 🗑 in Software Development:

🧩Partially done work

💲Extra features

😤Extra processes

🤯Task switching

🧟‍♀️Nonstandard work

What is the history of the Waterfall Process?

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 21:04:36 +0000

The “inventor” of the waterfall process 💧 said in 1970: “I believe in this concept, but the implementation described above is risky and invites failure.” 😱

What Are the Top DevOps Trends in 2021?

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What will move the needle in DevOps in 2021? After a year that forced almost every organisation to accelerate digital delivery, the trends I see for 2021 are less about shiny new tools and more about discipline: making DevOps stick at scale, shifting security left, getting serious about continuous delivery, leaning further into the cloud, and watching the early signals from AIOps.

What is the difference between Waterfall and Agile?

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Waterfall and Agile are not just two flavours of project management. They are two fundamentally different ways of dealing with uncertainty. If you understand that, the rest follows.

Waterfall: Linear and Sequential
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Waterfall is a linear sequential life cycle model. The team only moves to the next phase if the previous one finished successfully. Requirements first, then design, then implementation, then testing, then deployment, then operation. Each phase has a hand-off and a sign-off. Each phase produces a document that the next phase consumes.

What Is the Third Way of DevOps? Continuous Learning and a Culture of Trust

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The third way to introduce DevOps is to create a culture of trust that supports experimentation and risk-taking. This is the Third Way in Gene Kim’s Three Ways framework — and it is what puts the team on a learning curve steep enough to outpace the competition.

What Is the Second Way of DevOps? Amplify Feedback

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The second way to introduce DevOps is to build a strong flow of feedback going in the opposite direction of the value flow — from customers and production back into the business and into development. This is the Second Way in Gene Kim’s Three Ways framework, and it is what stops the First Way from optimising in the dark.

What Is the First Way of DevOps? Optimise the Flow

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The first way to introduce DevOps is to optimise the value flow from development, through operations, all the way to the customer. This is the First Way in Gene Kim’s Three Ways framework — and it is where every transformation should start.

What Is Continuous Deployment (CD)?

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Continuous Deployment is the final, most aggressive step in the CI/CD progression. CI proves the code builds and the unit tests pass. Continuous Delivery proves the artifact works in a production-like environment. Continuous Deployment removes the last manual checkpoint: if every test along the way is green, the change goes straight to production. No “deploy” button, no Friday-afternoon release window, no human in the loop for the final step.

What Is Continuous Delivery (CD)?

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Continuous Integration ends with a tested artifact. That sounds great, but a green build does not mean the software actually works in a realistic environment. Unit tests run in isolation. Integration tests run against mocks. Until you put the software somewhere that looks like production and exercise it under real conditions, you have not really proven anything. Continuous Delivery is the step that closes that gap.

What is CI/CD?

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 18:49:47 +0000

In traditional software development, software is merged and tested by all developers in one big single integration step that usually takes weeks or even months. Since this only happens every few months, this step is very time-consuming.

What Is Continuous Integration (CI)?

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In traditional software development, integration was a single, painful event. Every developer worked in isolation for weeks or months, and at the end the team merged everything in one big bang. The integration step took weeks, sometimes months. Conflicts piled up, bugs hid in the seams between modules, and nobody could say with confidence whether the system actually worked. Continuous Integration was invented to make that pain disappear.

How to Improve Value Streams: A Seven-Step Approach

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A value stream is the path that value takes from the first idea all the way into production. It is the sum of every step, handover, and wait in between. In this video, I walk through a simple seven-step approach for identifying a value stream, measuring how it really performs, designing a target state, and then improving it step by step. The numbers in the example are simplified on purpose, so the method shines through more clearly than any single result.

How to start a DevOps transformation

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 18:20:54 +0000

At first glance, a DevOps transformation seems to be a major undertaking for any company. But with the right approach, you can keep the process lean and agile.

Insight in brief
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Start small with a small to medium sized project or product.
Select the right people to ensure sufficient credibility and influence.
Continuous improvement is key to success.

How to Build a Winning DevOps Team

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A DevOps transformation is not magic. Any company can do it. What makes the difference is who you put on the first team — because that team has to deliver the proof that DevOps actually works in your context.

Why to Create Value Faster

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The DevOps business case rarely fails because the technology does not work. It fails because nobody can explain, in money terms, why doing it faster matters. Here is the version that lands with a CFO: a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, and a feature in production today earns money that a feature in next quarter’s release does not.

What is the business case for DevOps?

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 21:40:58 +0000

Everyone is talking about DevOps. What organisation doesn’t want to develop software more efficiently? So what exactly is the business case for DevOps?

Insight in brief
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Value is only created when the product or feature reaches the customer side.
Economic concept: “A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.”
Focus on rapid Value creation so that You can offer customers Value as quickly as possible.

Where Value Is Created in Software Development

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If you ask a development team where value is created, you will hear a dozen different answers. In the planning workshop. In the sprint. At the demo. At deployment. They are all wrong — and getting this wrong is what makes most DevOps business cases fall apart on contact with the CFO.

Satisfied end users thanks to DevOps

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 21:07:39 +0000

Companies today are confronted with the challenge of enhancing efficiency while lowering costs. Changes to products often take much too long to reach end customers on the market. A consistent DevOps approach can aid this process.

Better through the crisis thanks to DevOps

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 19:45:30 +0000

The coronavirus crisis is demonstrating how companies with an agile DevOps mindset can better respond to new circumstances and challenges than companies with rigid structures and processes.

By Romano Roth and Romeo Weber

What is DevOps?

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

DevOps is one of the most overloaded words in our industry. People use it to mean a tool, a team, a job description, even a vendor product. None of those are right. DevOps is the set of cultural and technical practices that improve the development (Dev) and operation (Ops) of software — together, across the entire life cycle.

Why is DevOps important?

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Companies today are squeezed from both sides: deliver more, deliver faster, and do it at lower cost. At the same time, changes to products often take months to reach the customer. DevOps is what closes that gap — and that is why it matters.

CYA: Cover your ass

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 22:00:00 +0000

My chapter from the book: Machines, Code, People: 50 things Zühlke engineers are passionate about

Imagine on a Monday morning you come into the office, start up your computer and ba-bam a manager is standing beside you, telling you to follow him into a escalation meeting.

Experience Report: How to Introduce DevOps in a Large Enterprise?

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Introducing DevOps in a large enterprise is difficult. But wait, why do we want to introduce DevOps in the first place? Good question.

The Full Story
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In this talk, I answer the question and show you what happens when you introduce DevOps, and what does not happen.

What is the Business Case for DevOps?

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone wants to do DevOps. But only a few understand what DevOps is and what it does with your company.

The Challenge
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When you want to introduce DevOps in a company you need to convince decision-makers that it is worth investing money, time, and resources into the DevOps transformation. They will ask you about the business case and the return on investment of DevOps.

How to Survive Game of Thrones: What Westeros Teaches Us About Conflict, Violence, and Personal Resilience

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Game of Thrones is more than epic fantasy. The series shows in exaggerated form how violence, power, revenge, and ideologies drive conflict.

What This Talk Covers
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In this talk, Romano Roth uses the world of Westeros as a mirror for real human dynamics: from the “five demons” of violence to the “four angels” like empathy, self-control, morality, and reason. Building on this, central conflict types, escalation levels, and de-escalation strategies are presented, complemented by personal survival strategies like meditation and regeneration.

Personal Kanban: Visualize Your Work, Limit Your WIP, Transform Your Life

Fri, 12 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In a world overflowing with tasks, to-do lists, and competing priorities, staying productive and focused has never been more challenging. Personal Kanban is a lightweight, visual workflow management method rooted in the Toyota Production System and adapted for individual use by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry.

Romano Roth

Beyond the Hype: Understanding and Applying AI in Innovation

2046: Do We Control Machines or Do They Control Us?

Europe Only Survives AI If We Act, You Too

Welcome to the Age of AI Idiots!

AI Has No Brain. Engineers Do.

What This Talk Covers #

Zühlke Banking Talk: The Road to the AI-Native Bank

The AI-Native Bank: Why AI's Future Is Organisational

Digital Shapers 2026: Honored in the Mentors Category

AI 2026: Trends and Guidelines for Deployment

NZZ: The Great Flight Forward into AI Agents

Summary #

The Rise of the Agentic Enterprise: AI's Role in Business Transformation

How Companies Become a Cybernetic Enterprise

AI Oracle 2026: The Most Important Trends for Decision-Makers

NZZ: Aleph Alpha and the European Cloud Opportunity

Summary #

Between Tool and Gamechanger: How AI Drives the Cybernetic Enterprise

Structured disruption: The benefits of becoming a Cybernetic Enterprise

The four tenets of secure, scalable enterprise AI transformation

Cybernetic Enterprise: The New Operating System for Organizations

The AI future is "cybernetic"

Digital and agile was yesterday #

Agility in Action: Mindset, Processes, and Real Results

Beyond the AI Hype: How to Use AI Safely for Innovation, IP and R&D

Leanpub Course LAUNCH: The Cybernetic Enterprise Course: How to Build a Future-Ready Organization Course by Ro

How industrial companies can become “AI-ready” and future-proof

NZZ: Workslop, When AI Destroys Productivity

Summary #

AI in Facility Management: From Trend to Real Value

What This Talk Covers #

Industrial AI at scale: The cybernetic imperative for leaders

How to Build a Future-Ready Organization

Human-machine cooperation in Industry 5.0

Humans + Machines: The Future of Work & AI

Why 70% of Digital Transformations Fail: Inside the Cybernetic Enterprise Book

Your Company's Operating System Is Broken: The Cybernetic Enterprise Upgrade

Digitalization was Yesterday: How to Achieve “Cybernetic Transformation”

From Humans and Machines: The Organization of the Future

AI-Augmented DevOps with Platform Engineering

What This Talk Covers #

Developer Experience and Platform Engineering

DevOps in Switzerland 2025: Scaling DevOps with Platforms and AI

AI risk management: turning governance into a driver of long-term success

Secure AI governance: Scalable delivery, zero disruption

The Cybernetic Enterprise: How Organizations Can Learn, Adapt, and Deliver in an AI-Native World

The Cybernetic Enterprise: turning industrial AI hype into lasting value

Cybernetics Is the Future: Why AI and DevOps Alone Won’t Get Us There

Coding Without Coders?

Cybernetic Enterprise Explained: AI, DevOps & Scalable Software Delivery

Riding the AI Wave: How Industrial Companies Can Harness It Purposefully

Why AI Alone Doesn’t Replace Strategy #

AI-Augmented Delivery: Building AI-Powered Organizations

Monday Morning: Idea. Monday Afternoon: Prototype. Become a Builder!

The Cybernetic Enterprise: Why AI Alone Won’t Transform Industry

We Are Living in the AI Hype Era #

DevEx: A Strategic Imperative for Business Success

The Zühlke Platform Plane: Should It Go Open Source?

Continuous Security with DevSecOps and Platform Engineering

Continuous Security with DevSecOps: How Platform Engineering Transforms Modern Application Security

How to Reduce Costs While Continuously Delivering Value

Continuously Deliver Value While Reducing Cost

Platform Engineering: How Continuous Value Flow Transforms Commerce

The Cybernetic Enterprise is Coming: Are You Ready?

Introduction to Flip the Switch on Modern Software Development with Feature Flags

Building High-Impact DevOps: Expert Insights

DevOpsDays Zürich: Bigger is Not Always Better

Harnessing the Power of Enterprise Architecture and AI for Strategic Advantage

Enterprise Architecture Meets AI #

SAFe Leadership Forum: Empowering SAFe with Platform Engineering for Fast Flow

How to Architect for Continuous Delivery

Developer Experience and Platform Engineering: The Foundation of Modern Software Delivery

AI-Augmented DevOps with Platform Engineering

Unlocking the Power of AI: Deep Dive into MLOps, Machine Learning, and AI Platforms

Harnessing the Power of Enterprise Architecture and AI for Strategic Benefit

CrowdStrike Disaster: Causes, Impact, and How to Prevent Future Outages

MLOps: From ML Prototypes to Production Through Platform-Based Operationalization

What This Talk Covers #

App-Solutely Safe: How Banks Use Modern Software Development

What This Talk Covers
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Summary
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Summary
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Digital and agile was yesterday
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Summary
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What This Talk Covers
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What This Talk Covers
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Why AI Alone Doesn’t Replace Strategy
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We Are Living in the AI Hype Era
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Enterprise Architecture Meets AI
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What This Talk Covers
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1. Romano’s short biography
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The Problem
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What This Talk Covers
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Transcript
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Taking a Step Back
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What This Talk Covers
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