State of OpenStack User Experience
December 2016
Piet Kruithof
Danielle Mundle
“Requests for more communication and cooperation between operators and developers were frequent. ‘There’s still a bit of a gap between developers and operators. Although that is narrowing, understanding operators’ pains in certain areas is key in developing a better product as a whole.’”
Tretheway, H. J. (2016). OpenStack User Survey: A snapshot of OpenStack users’ attitudes and deployments. Austin, TX: OpenStack Foundation.
“Open source software is software developed by and for the user community.”
https://opensource.org/
Overview
The goal of this presentation is to provide an overview of research that was conducted on behalf of the OpenStack community.
The current focus on user research is intended to identify the specific issues that impact adoption of OpenStack
What went right
Our body of knowledge for our customers (operators, architects, etc) has grown significantly over the past six months.
The team was able to build cadence and conducted six studies on behalf of the community
We were able to collaborate with both the Foundation and Intel’s marketing teams to help communicate our efforts
General Themes
�December 2016
What needs improvement
Governance: Users felt that Technical Committee should govern more
Disconnect on value of open source: There is a significant difference on how upstream developers and operators perceive the value of open source
What needs improvement
Difficult to implement cross project efforts: A significant number of issues within the community span projects. However, there is no mechanism to force projects to comply.
Lack of focus on users: This is an issue with open source projects where the assumption is that developers are creating a project for themselves. Closed loop.
Cloud Operator Information Needs
�August 2016
Cloud Operator Interviews: Information Needs
Why this research matters:
Study design:
Cloud Operator Interviews: Information Needs
Findings:
Cloud Operator Interviews: Information Needs
Recommendations:
Infrastructure Architect Information Needs
�October 2016
Infrastructure Architect Interviews: Information Needs
Why this research matters:
Study design:
Infrastructure Architect Interviews: Information Needs
Findings:
Infrastructure Architect Interviews: Information Needs
Recommendations:
Communal learning approaches may best improve access and use of information for cloud architects:
Application Developer Usability: Initial Experience Using Horizon
�July 2016
Application Developer Usability: Initial Experience Using Horizon
Why this research matters:
Study design:
Application Developer Usability: Initial Experience using Horizon
Findings:
Application Developer Usability: Initial Experience using Horizon
Recommendations:
Usability Evaluation: Searchlight for Horizon
�October 2016
Usability Evaluation: Searchlight for Horizon
Why this research matters:
Study design:
Usability Evaluation: Searchlight for Horizon
Findings:
Usability Evaluation: Searchlight for Horizon
Recommendations:
Cloud Operator Interviews: Managing Quotas at Scale
�October 2016
Cloud Operator Interviews: Managing Quotas at Scale
Why this research matters:
“To prevent system capacities from being exhausted without notification, you can set up quotas. Quotas are operational limits. For example, the number of gigabytes allowed for each tenant can be controlled so that cloud resources are optimized. Quotas can be enforced at both the tenant (or project) and the tenant-user level.”�( http://docs.openstack.org/admin-guide/dashboard-set-quotas.html)
Study design:
Cloud Operator Interviews: Managing Quotas at Scale
Findings:
Study participants approached quota management and handling in several different ways and had ideas for �improvements, including:
Cloud Operator Interviews: Managing Quotas at Scale
Recommendations:
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
�May 2016
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Why this research matters:
Study design:
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Findings:
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Recommendations:
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
�October 2016
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Why this research matters:
Study design:
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Findings:
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Recommendations:
Cloud Operator Interviews: Deployment
�December 2016
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Why this research matters:
Study design:
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Findings:
Cloud Operator Interviews: OpenStackClient Workflows
Recommendations:
OpenStack Personas
�(ongoing)
OpenStack Personas
Why the personas matter:
Study design:
Role Ecosystem
OpenStack Personas
Model Companies
OpenStack GUI Guidelines
�(ongoing)
GUI Guidelines
Why the guidelines matter:
GUI Guidelines
GUI guidelines
Additional Thoughts
�
Consumers and upstream developers value open source for different reasons