Today: IBM in Startup Mode, Holiday Prep Season, and Awesome WPO

Waiter! There's an op in my scrum.  View in browser >

1. Working like a startup at IBM A small and passionate team used modern techniques to shift a major part of IBM to a software-as-a-service (Saas) model. It wasn't easy. Changing the way they worked led to frequent friction and conflict, but in the end it worked, they made a difference, and the results were sweet. Bill Higgins shares the tale of perseverance and big ideas. 2. Test now for holiday traffic October is well under way and you've completed all your code changes for the holidays. That means it's time to test. Ryan Pelette gets you started with this look atwhat other companies are doing to ensure that their sites and apps are ready to handle the onslaught of holiday traffic. 3. Wildly inconsistent mobile performance The average shopper makes 6.2 visits to a company's website, using 2.6 devices, before they buy. When forced to wait, their behavior can become curiously unpredictable. Tammy Everts shares the latest findings on the state of mobile performance: the things you need to know to stay on course during holiday shopping season's wild ride. Sponsored Content Keep your mobile marketing partner honest Your customers will open 90% of your text messages within 3 minutes—but only if they actually get them. How can you make sure your app and messaging partner is offering the service levels you require? Find out in a new blog post by Keynote’s Aaron Rudger. Read it now. 4. Got ops in your scrums? The DevOpsGuys ask three new litmus test questions about DevOps in your organization. 5. 6 predictions for IT and ops To say that Operations and DevOps will have a new set of challenges in the coming year is a bit redundant, as their entire job is based on solving problems and facing challenges. But Chris Riley sees 6 new challenges on the horizon, and some of them sound tough. 6. Do it for your users User expectations are soaring, and the pressure is on you to deliver the online experiences they expect, on whatever devices they choose to use. Get the training you need at Velocity in Barcelona, where the most brilliant minds in web operations and performance meet to share knowledge, best practices, and the latest news. Hear speakers from Google, Mozilla, The Guardian, Baidu, Twitter, Telefónica, BBC, the Financial Times, the UK Digital Services team, and more. Happening November 17-19. See the Schedule → 7. A simple guide to webfonts The days when you could only use Arial, Verdana, Garamond, or Times New Roman are over. Webfonts are here. But we still don't really know how to load them efficiently. Adam Beres-Deak provides a simple guide to loading webfonts with high performance on responsive sites. 8. Awesome WPO Thanks to Davidson Fellipe for this curated list of just about anything related to web performance optimization. It's pretty awesome and anyone can contribute.