193 easy steps to DevOpsing your monolith

Description

Is it possible to enable the evolution of a monolith? After a hugely expensive (financially and culturally) failed attempt at a complete rewrite, Ticketmaster is attempting to do just that: evolve the monolith that is the core ticketing platform. This multiyear effort requires striking a delicate balance between demonstrating appropriate respect for the platform’s highly profitable 45-plus-year history while not allowing past success to blind decision makers to the demands of a highly dynamic market of employees, fans, artists, and venues.

Cat Swetel provides a brief overview of Wardley Maps and explains how maps can be used to illuminate options and make implementation decisions. In addition, Cat describes how she used real options theory and cost of delay to evaluate options and make better, more appropriately timed architecture and engineering decisions.

Cat isn’t sharing best practices for DevOpsing your monolith; she tells the true (and at times ugly) story of one company’s ongoing journey toward a more flexible, adaptable, and easily maintainable architecture supported by a culture that prizes learning and respect above all else.