Shifting Gears to DevSecOps
It’s been four years since UnionBank decided to jump on an agile transformation journey. This similar transformation accelerated the growth and ensured the stability of corporate giants like Google, Netflix, SAP, Salesforce, and more.
The same transformation where we attribute the highly engaged UnionBankers, award-winning apps and platforms, the establishment of the tech subsidiary UBX, Best Digital Bank, Best Retail Bank, and numerous awards and citations we have received in the past four years.
This 2021, the beginning of a decade, is also the beginning of another journey, recalibration of strategies, and shifting of gears. As we usher a new decade in, we also welcome DevSecOps, and this is where we will first share about it.
DevSecOps 101
We only dreamt about becoming agile and successful in the transformation. Even our President, Edwin R. Bautista, did not anticipate winning a medal or two along the way. Now that we have started reaping the benefits of the Bank’s transformation, recognition after recognition, our leaders have acknowledged the need to aspire to deliver greater results at a more frequent pace, with less lead time and better quality – sound like magis, right? That is exactly what DevSecOps is, and more.
With Agile, the organization focused on improving the processes, changing the mindset, promote cultural shift, and championing project management and product development. This time around, DevSecOps aims to continuously break silos, put together talents to work on projects, promote a higher level of proficiency in security and integrate it across all steps of product development and project management.
This is the typical DevSecOps framework. In the typically process flow, Security level is tested and measured in the Configure-Detect part. With DevSecOps, Security is a core component of every step in the pipeline. With this practice, deployment is not only faster, it is efficient and secure. And retrofitting and risks are minimized.
As we rally and welcome this new discipline, we would like to inspire you this feature written by our Chief Information Officer Dennis D. Omila himself.
Shifting Gears – Accelerating Digital Transformation through DevSecOps
Now, allow me to also thank all of you! Our Board Directors and Executives from AEV, UBP, Insular Life, SSS, CitySavings, UBX, and all other organizations present here today. Yes, I needed to Thank all of You because the first lesson I got, which I’d like to share with all of you, is about Learning. I realized that there are three important aspects to cultivate a culture of learning :
First is Leadership Learning!
I had to thank all of you, because as leaders and executives, you “Walk the Talk” by actively participating and showing that despite your busy schedules, and sometimes yes, despite the nose-bleed for topics such as DevSecOps, you still put in the effort to learn. Do you still remember the time when even our Chairman and CEO, together with the rest of the UBP Executives, took the time to learn Blockchain, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and yes, even Robotics Programming? Perhaps, as some would say they did not need to, but along the way, and in so doing, they have transformed themselves as visionaries and leaders through learning. They’ve set the tone from the top – for UBP’s Digital Transformation! The challenge now is with us: to ensure that we continue to cultivate the culture of learning in our own respective teams.
Second is Humility!
Without real humility, a culture of learning would be close to impossible. UBP has gotten too many awards not just locally but throughout the region as well. UBP is also the favorite of many big event organizers – inviting our top leaders and executives, as speakers, panelists, experts, and more. And when we share our Digital Transformation Story in various shapes and sizes, you can feel the pride – a non-verbal communication that says: “I am proud to be part of the UBP family!”
UBP has been awarded the Best Digital Bank for three consecutive years. During the Pandemic, it was also awarded as the 2nd Most Helpful Bank in Asia and the only local bank in the top 50 list (if I’m not mistaken) and many more prestigious awards. But despite all these, here we are, recognizing the fact that we are not perfect, that we need help, that we need partners and experts, that we need to yet again transform and be even faster and better versions of ourselves (hmm, sounds familiar… Magis in our DNA). Despite being put in a pedestal a lot of times, here we are, in humility, accepting the fact that we need to continue to learn as we journey towards Creating a Bank of Enduring Greatness!
Third is Excitement!
While most of us are experts and experienced in our own field/s, there is a choice – a decision that we make when it comes to learning. We can face new things with fear of the unknown and the fear or not being too relevant and not being able to contribute because it is new and we’re not experts on those things. Or we can decide to face it with excitement… the excitement of a child in learning new things.
Leadership Learning, Humility, and Excitement – these are critical components in Cultivating a Culture of Learning!
Now let me share what I learned from our speaker about DevSecOps, of course without repeating the things he already said. As I listened intently, I realized that there is a hidden message in DevSecOps. Yes, it is hidden in the word DevSecOps itself. I realized that it’s all about ensuring tight collaboration between various units. It’s about breaking silos and not being transactional. That it’s about taking end-to-end accountability. From Business Ideas and Design Thinking, to Development, to Testing, Release, and Deployment, all the way to Operations and Maintenance, and this is fed back again to Planning and Build for continuous improvement. It’s about being involved and engaged not only when things go our way it’s about shift left – or understanding beyond our specific role in the value chain. We may be in Operations, but we engage all the way from build. That, my fellow leaders and executives, is what is known to us as Ubuntu!
Ubuntu can best be described as an African philosophy that places emphasis on ‘being self through others’. It is a form of humanism which can be expressed in the phrases ‘I am because of who we all are’. I dare to say therefore, that it is our Ubuntu Spirit that will take us to DevSecOps.
In a more recent conversation I had with other CIOs and Executives for Digital Transformation, someone (from one of the biggest banks in the Philippines) said: “Dennis, you know we can buy whatever technology you buy right?” I said, “Absolutely!” Then he whispered to my ear and told me, technology is not our problem. I cannot even begin because our culture and practices are working against us.
Paul said in his presentation (although this was influenced by our very own HR team): Agile is the way we think and DevSecOps is the way we work. This is because at UBP, we recognize that real transformation starts with the self, and that the most important element in transformation is culture and people. That means U – as in UnionBankers!
Lastly, I firmly believe that what sets us apart is our ability to “Execute”! It is one thing to have a Strategic Plan. A lot of companies have a strategic plan, but it is a totally different plane when it comes to execution.
Delivering the first and still the only External API Gateway in local banking industry in record time, UB Online, The Portal, The Ark, The first Chatbot in Philippine Banking - Rafa, Mobile Check Deposit, Digital Account Opening, Cash-out Services, Branch on Wheels, Digital RMs, Eve and UBNK, BUX, i2i, Global Linker, UITF and UFX, Bonds.ph, 1UHub, and many more.
It is one thing to learn about DevSecOps, and it is totally different to implement it, to bring it to life, and make it the way we work!
U! My Dear UBP Leaders and Executives, are called upon today to Execute and once again Shift Gears, and Accelerate our Digital Transformation Journey through DevSecOps – with Customer Experience as our beacon!
The principle is easy to remember.
Magis allows us to reinvent, innovate and continuously improve. Ubuntu breaks silos and foster collaboration. And, Integrity means doing the right thing at all times with transparency and accountability. Our values as UnionBankers truly sums up what DevSecOps is all about. Agile embedded it in our mindset and culture, DevSecOps will redefine the work of our hands.