Steve Fenton
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stevefenton.co.uk
Steve Fenton
@stevefenton.co.uk
250 followers 280 following 500 posts
🧷 Software Punk
🐙 Swabbie / Octonaut at #OctopusDeploy
✂️ Yak Stylist
🔬 DORA Community Guide
🛡 Deputy Head Boy (BPCS)
🏆 Microsoft MVP
🔁 #ContinuousDelivery and #DevOps
👟 #Agile #Lean and #PlatformEngineering
🧠 Opinions were implanted by smarter people
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stevefenton.co.uk
A sleepy indoor #caturday for Luna. Sending purrs to all #CatsOfBluesky
Luna the white moggy is sleeping under the lamp light on the warm corner of the room.
November 22, 2025 at 11:36 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
Whenever there a Cloudflare outage, I always suspect it's caused by this!
The anatomy of a Cloudflare outage. The image shows how similar the wall of lava lamps looks to the games arcade down the clown game, where players smash clown characters down with a hard rubber ball. The interpretation is left to the reader.
November 21, 2025 at 9:34 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
Luna is relaxing this #caturday but still says hello to all the #CatsOfBluesky
Luna is a common domestic short hair moggie with white fur and green eyes, plus a little pink nose.
November 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
Heading to #DevOps London for some Platform Engineering fun (think Family Fortunes) and to meet lots of cool tech people!
Steve Fenton at a train station wearing an Octopus Hoodie.
November 13, 2025 at 2:55 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
This is wonderful!

youtu.be/8tCxOguhkTU?...
An Octonaut extinguishes an office fire while in the foreground is the text "Octopus Deploy: Steve-free deployments".
November 12, 2025 at 9:38 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
Most now understand systems have constraints and that optimizing away from them won't improve value flow. The bigger revelation: it's okay for machines and people to run at less than 100% utilization; a departure from scientific management's labor-productivity trap.
1/2
A protractor, a blue curve of mathematical plastic, with degrees marked along it's edge.
November 12, 2025 at 5:53 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
A GitHub comment, which is an image of a huge hairy yak stood with mountains covered in snow in the background.
November 6, 2025 at 2:34 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
Meanwhile in DevOps No.48

Downgrading for the upsell.

#ebooks #ereaders
A cartoon in three frames. An e-reader is displayed, featuring a large screen and buttons for navigating pages and accessing a menu. An updated e-reader features a clean design with no buttons and a touchscreen, which makes you accidentally change page whenever you try to clear dust from the screen. The latest e-reader innovation. An add-on device with physical buttons to change the page. $10 and lost somewhere at the bottom of your rucksack.
November 4, 2025 at 5:42 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
This chart highlights one of the findings of the Platform Engineering Pulse report. It illustrates two key aspects: producer and consumer perspectives of platform success, and mandatory versus optional adoption strategies.

Notice anything mind-melting?
From platform engineer perspectives, mandatory platforms were more likely to meet goals, but users of these platforms are telling us they don't work. The positive/negative split flips for optional platforms, where platform engineers rate them less likely to meet goals, but consumers are getting more benefits.
November 1, 2025 at 7:27 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
Back for Halloween! Meanwhile in HeckOps No.1

Harry, lord of heck, is briefing the demons in the daily stand up...

#halloween #ai
Harry, lord of heck, is briefing the demons in the daily stand up. He looks maliciously cunning. “My subjects,” Harry announces loudly. “We will give them opium for free and then make them pay when they are addicted.” Time passes. 200 years of time, in fact. Harry is once again gathering the demons for the daily stand up. “My subjects,” Harry cries to the assembled horde. “We will let them use AI for free and then make them pay once they’ve fired their employees!”
October 31, 2025 at 7:20 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
Get your hands on the free Platform Engineering Pulse report! Discover how organizations align with our community's views on #PlatformEngineering standards.

Uncover insights like the producer/consumer gap, zero-metric illusion, and some unexpected adoption trends.

octopus.com/publicat...
The Platform Engineering Pulse Report This report examples the current state of Platform Engineering adoption and use, comparing theory with how organizations implement platforms in practice.
October 30, 2025 at 5:51 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
Meanwhile in DevOps No.47

User-centric platforms.

Sadly based on our research!

#PlatformEngineering #DevOps
Ellis and Blake are having a catch-up over a coffee. Ellis is looking a little stressed. “We hired a new product manage,” Ellis explains. “So we can be more user-centric.” “Great!” Blake responds. “How often will they speak to the users?” There’s a long silence, which gives Blake a disappointing answer to his question.
October 24, 2025 at 7:15 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
Which answer would you pick in this poll?

Writing survey questions can be tough, but on this occasion answering is even tougher!
A poll with the answer labelled "2. No" above a button that says "1" and an answer labelled "1. Yes" above a button that says "2".
October 23, 2025 at 5:44 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
The grand unveiling of the W3C logo took place in historical locations across the world this week, including Florence, Italy.
A picture of Michaelangelo's David in Florence, Italy. A part of the new W3C logo has been used as an overlay for part of the statue, due to its resemblance to a cock and balls. The full new W3C logo, which is a sized W and 3 surrounded by the text "world wide web consortium"
October 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
If you have one of these, you don't get affected by DNS or AWS outages.
Jen from the IT Crowd holding a black box with a red light, which she's been told has the entire Internet on it.
October 21, 2025 at 10:58 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
Meanwhile in DevOps No.46

Changing the world.

#AI
Ellis is presenting to a large crowd on his AI company’s incredible forthcoming achievements. Although he’s moving and speaking, there’s a certain lifeless quality in his demeanor. “We believe this tech will solve all crucial world problems within a year,” Ellis declares to the wonder of the attending press. A journalist interrups. “What area are you planning to start with?” Ellis thinks for a second, and then says: “Horny chat bots.”
October 17, 2025 at 5:57 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
"The biggest predictor of Platform Engineering success is self-service."

— Steve Smith

From the talk, "I hired a platform product manager, but our platform is still less popular than Cheetos chapsticks."
Steve Smith on stage at Fast Flow Conf in London.
October 15, 2025 at 9:26 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
I got my Team Topologies second edition signed by Matthew and Manuel. Cool swag: An Octopus sticker, DORA stickers, Armakuni card deck, Don't Panic book about AI, Team Topologies book, and Productivity Tactics pip deck. Don't Panic, a humans guide to AI productivity. The book contains tiny philosophical defaults that are a great guide to using the bag of words.
October 15, 2025 at 6:58 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
A quick tour of #FastFlowConf
Steve Fenton and Nathen Harvey at Fast Flow Conf in London. John Wilson presenting on team topologies at Fast Flow Conf in London. Dave Farley presenting on modern software engineering at Fast Flow Conf in London. Matthew Skelton talks economies of empowerment at Fast Flow Conf in London.
October 15, 2025 at 6:55 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
I'm being a swot at #FastFlowConf in the front row. Send your heckling ideas!
The Fast Flow Conf stage
October 14, 2025 at 9:55 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
Meanwhile in DevOps No.45

You build it, you run it!

#DevOps
Arlo meets Murray in the corridor. Murray is looking happy and a little vacant. “I hear you do YBYR here?” Arlo asks to break the awkward silence. “What’s that?” Murray asks with a big smile on his face. “You build it, you run it,” Arlo answers. “Well,” Murray thinks. “Not really. It’s more like YBYF!”
October 14, 2025 at 7:27 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
When they told me they'd built Argo CD wizardry right into Octopus Deploy!
Steve Fenton wearing an Argo t-shirt and looking surprised. His hair is sticking up.
October 13, 2025 at 6:13 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
This is never gonna go, is it!!!
A chat message notification on Bluesky that I can't clear because I won't do age verification.
October 9, 2025 at 5:50 AM
stevefenton.co.uk
Happy world Octopus day to all those who celebrate it, have 8 arms, and have a body filled with brain cells.

#Octopus #LifeAtOctopus
Steve Fenton stood beside a giant Octopus arm at the Brisbane HQ of Octopus Deploy.
October 8, 2025 at 5:42 PM
stevefenton.co.uk
Rob and I will be looking at the latest report from DORA: The State of AI-Assisted Software Development. Wednesday, October 8, 2025. Don't miss it.

Find out the highs and the hazards of using a technology that amplifies everything... good and bad!

#SoftwareDevelopment #DevOps #AI
The DORA 2025 report: Key findings and insights Wednesday, October 8, 2025 12pm PDT | 3pm EDT | 21:00 CEST Steve Fenton, Octopus Deploy Rob Edwards, Google
September 30, 2025 at 5:45 PM