DevOps Speakeasy with Cecelia Martinez @ceceliacreates at #Devnexus 2023

hi hello we are here at devnexus and I’m

super happy to be with Cecilia Martinez

and she is from ionic but tell me more

about yourself yeah so I’m a developer

advocate for app flow which is the

mobile CI CD Solution that’s built by

ionic so it’s to help developers

actually deploy their mobile

applications to Android iOS and also for

mobile web

we were actually talking before this

recording the interview and I was asking

you like about the challenges what are

the challenges you have seen in

deploying mobile applications yeah so I

come from a web development background

and that is the um kind of how I how I

learned and how I got into software

engineering and then when I started

learning cross-platform development with

tools like react native and also tools

like ionic I realized just how complex

and mobile deployments are because

you’re dealing with very specific

platform requirements right when you

deploy a web app you have a lot of

control and you’re deploying to a

browser and your own server and you

decide when that reaches your users you

decide what configurations that you use

you decide what dependencies that you

use to build your project when you’re

building for iOS and you’re building for

Android

um like they’re yeah you’re following

somebody else’s rules and that includes

getting into app stores going through

that approval process and using very

specific configurations

to deploy your application so it’s a a

whole different level of complexity I’m

used to dealing with oh like you know

cross browser support was maybe like the

most difficult thing I had to deal with

and now it’s uh yeah so cross-platform

uh specifically has has really opened my

eyes to how many things that mobile

developers have to go through to get

their apps to users so that’s we as

we’re really hoping to make that easier

for people yeah I mean as you said it’s

discovering what are the requirements

how to actually make it like that level

of obstruction to make developers uh

more aware of their requirements and

also be able to get all the information

that they need to act truly fulfilled of

requirements and make it as fast as

possible as repeatable as possible so I

am actually really really happy that

you’re working in this in this domain

because obviously it continuous delivery

and continuous integration it’s

something that we Haul really near into

our hearts yeah and it’s also

interesting because

um when you think about the knowledge

requirements you have you know action

developing the application then you also

have the devops aspect and some some

people some developers they want to get

really ingrained into what that you know

CI CD process looks like they want to

have that devops culture where anyone

can deploy at any time their own changes

but you have other organizations where

that’s much more siled and you have

those separate functions and so

really like I think what we all strive

for as a best practice is being able to

do the job that you want to do and not

necessarily if you don’t want to have to

know all the intricacies of it then you

don’t have to but if you do want to get

into that having the tools and resources

that you can to be able to deploy at any

time for me this this entire Narrative

of the continuous developer and

continuous deployment for our

developer’s perspective it’s a little

bit more demanding because we now need

to know more tools we now to have into

consideration things that we didn’t

think in in the past but also allows us

to see the entire path now we have these

these you that allows or brings feedback

into our developer world of things that

the user is doing or even the operations

like where are we deploying how are we

deploying who are our users what are our

users doing or using so

requires more effort yes it’s a longer

process well not longer in terms because

that’s exactly what we’re trying not not

to do longer process or more complex

process

what brings more information into our

lives exactly so it’s balancing the

needs of productivity but then also

visibility right so we we have access to

all this information and because we have

and we have automated pipelines we get

increased visibility into every single

stage of that including you know like

what commits are used for builds uh

who’s triggering them what version that

you’re on what the dependencies are so

that and and getting that information uh

in an automated system allows anybody

access to it versus it being siled to

one person like the one person who has

the deployments and the benefits of that

you’re balancing against productivity

right because uh some developers they

just want to be able to build deploy get

that feedback and have that really tight

cycle to be able to incorporate that

back into their work and you know deploy

new features deploy fixes and take that

feedback and so

so I come also from like I said web

background and working specifically with

web testing so I used to work at a

company called Cyprus it’s a browser

automation testing tool and integrating

that into CI CD pipelines but it’s all

about having that like Fast feedback

loop and that confidence to be able to

deploy quickly so you can see the impact

of your changes and get them back in and

I

um we want to be able to essentially

have that same velocity in the mobile

process as well and being able to have

that that process take place so yeah I

mean that productivity is so key and it

may take a little bit more effort up

front sometimes to get that established

but then once you have that flywheel

going

that’s where you the developers like

experience process really shines

there’s another topic that I would like

to bring up and you you were telling me

also that you’re very active in the

Atlanta York

so tell us about that yeah so um so

Atlanta so I am located here in Atlanta

I’m sorry you said Atlanta

um I didn’t catch the second part that

you said there to tell us about uh what

are you doing in Atlanta because you

were mentioning that you are supporting

a lot of efforts into LG TV community so

I want to know what are those efforts

that you’re supporting and if people are

interested in how how like yeah I think

yeah so I am local to Atlanta and I’m

really

um like passionate about being involved

in developer Community is when I was you

know getting into my career in Tech I

was really involved with women who code

and organizations that helped me feel

supported and welcome and gave me tools

and resources that I could thrive in

Tech and so

um we did start an Atlanta chapter of

out in Tech which supports the lgbtqi

plus community in Tech and essentially

we aim to unite the lgbtq plus Tech

Community we have events where people

can Network we can find out about

companies that are have our support live

of that Community with things like

inclusive health care and resource to

groups at their companies and yeah it’s

been really exciting to be able to

partner with out in Tech which is a

global 501c3 501c3 nonprofit

organization they have chapters all over

the world and also have a mentor you

organization that mentors young adults

coming into going through college and

getting into Tech as well as also

building applications that help support

people in areas of the world where they

can face you know threats in our life

and also like criminal issues for being

lgbtqia plus and so it’s a really great

organization I’ve been super proud to

represent the Atlanta chapter and we’d

like to partner with any with companies

that you know kind of walk the walk when

it comes to being a supportive employer

so where they can contact what is the

web page what’s the next step so um so

yeah so out intech.com and then we have

an Atlanta chapter you can also reach

out to us at Atlanta outintech.com if

you’re interested in partnering with us

and you know sponsoring or co-hosting an

event or we’re also always looking for

companies like I said that are inclusive

and hiring that we can share with our

membership

I love those those kind of efforts

because they actually do the difference

yes like

here there is a job for you there is a

community that is welcoming you and

there are the next steps yeah as we talk

about you know it was underrepresented

communities in Tech right there’s a

tendency for people who are from

underrepresented communities to be like

over mentored but under sponsored and or

we have hiring initiatives where it’s

like yes you want to get these people in

the company but then there’s not the

infrastructure and the support to

actually help them Thrive once they get

there right and so that’s something

where we really try to work with

companies and hold them accountable to

say how could if we do refer you and if

you do hire people from our community

are they going to be successful are you

going to start a career pot exactly for

growing I I love it well thank you very

much for that because we do really need

that in the tech industry desperately

yeah thank you very much Cecilia for

being here and talking to our audience

and you will see in the description of

the links that she mentioned for more

information about this thank you

thank you