DevOps at TalkTalk

It’s the end of another year and I speak to Darryl (DevOps Lead) on what DevOps looks like here, what the team are currently working on and what’s new in the area.

So tell me about how you came to be in your current role?

So I Joined TalkTalk from uni- I did a BSc in Computer Engineering and then a PhD in Automated Software Quality Assurance. I went from the most junior member of my team to the most senior member within 4 years and now I’m leading the team. I’ve had a different job title every year. All of our juniors (so far!) within the team have moved up to Devops Engineer within a year, we have a good development plan in place.

Gareth (Watson) has really driven me to do what I want to do, I thought my role would be more technical but I have taken on sprint planning and team leading to make it more interactive.

So what does Devops mean here at TalkTalk?

DevOps means we Develop and Deploy and Operationally Support our tool chain for all the delivery teams, (OSS, BSS, Digital and Data) build and maintain integrations between these and enable those teams to get essential data out of them, continually improving on them and their performances, adapting them to the needs of the different teams. That is probably the best (extra-long) “one liner” for what is DevOps in my team.

What does work life look like on a day to day basis for you?

We work with problems from developers to directors - Operationally we support our vast tool chain and operate on an ad hoc basis. We are always looking to improve. Our sprints are planned in a relatively agile way, with improvements to tool chain and requests from departments on how they want to improve their development process. We cover all of Business Systems- OSS, BSS, Digital, Data and QA (each of these is a different delivery team and use different technologies).

What are the key things your focused on at the moment?

Bringing some of the older development teams up to date with newer tech and support new teams in ways of working. We have a mix of waterfall and agile development within the department.

We are product owners of the tools we have so we are in control of the things that go out. We are in an empowered position to make change in a company that is large, this is a real driver for me. When your empowered to make change, if you have an idea and we like it, we will implement it for the team.

What advice would you give anyone wanting to move into the Devops space?

A good grounding in development is key. Once you know development the ops tools are agnostic. I would also say to be honest- don’t say you’re an expert if you’re not. A lot of tools are very similar so can be picked up quickly.

It’s also good to be active in the industry to keep on top of what’s new. There’s lots of Manchester meet ups for different tooling technologies. I actually like to use articles (throwback to my academic past) and Youtube. As we are partnered with Microsoft they also send out regular information about what’s going on.

Another thing is- it doesn’t matter where you do Devops, it’s different everywhere. Some places need more experience on the operations side whereas we need more experience in development.

What’s new in the area?

Azure, Kubernetes, docker, Azure pipelines, CA Release Automation and terraform. For Dev we use C#, NodeJS. Ideally though we use the right tool for the right job.

We would love to use Puppet for configuration. With Puppet and Terraform you can have automatic configuration to spin up environments at will. With these and Service virtualisation we aim to virtualise and segment. Enabling fully automated provisioning, configuration and deployment.

We are in a unique position here as we get to work with teams that work in very different ways, with cutting edge new tech and older stuff. One day you will support a delivery team which may be working with C# and webservices and the next day your helping to create a build pipeline with Terraform, Kubernetes and Azure.

What’s the best thing about working at TalkTalk?

Absolutely the people, they make it worthwhile being here. I wouldn’t have said this coming straight here from Uni but it really is. The flexible working here is also fantastic, you work how fits best for you.

Within business systems we are keen on ensuring everyone knows what’s going on, so we share stories and progress and it’s a real opportunity for others to get involved and see another part of the picture.

What does a typical team meeting involve?

After our 2 week sprint we have a team meeting, this gives the team a chance to feedback at a high level on what went well, what not so well, how can we improve for next time. We like to think about how we can best share knowledge and learning points so we have started doing show and tells which go down well and we will be starting to do some blog posts too.

What are you looking for in new team members?

Someone who isn’t afraid to get stuck in. It’s fast paced here and there’s lots of positive change to be made.

Tell me a bit about yourself outside of work- what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I like to get away from the computer in my spare time, I enjoy snowboarding and golfing with family and friends. However, I can’t get away too long as nothing beats playing PC and Xbox with friends in the evening!

So we talk about how we want everyone to bring 100% of themselves to work, how would you describe yourself in this way? For example, mine might be- 60% Talent Acquisition lover, 30% food, 10% adrenaline junkie

60% tech lover

20% People person

15% Active/Outdoorsy   

5% pure caffeine

1% extra (!)

We are always interested in hearing from people within the DevOps space, feel free to connect and drop me a message just to network, or if you may be interested in a role with us.