DevOps: From Blame Game to Collaboration

When new learnings are discovered locally, there must also be some mechanism to enable the rest of the organization to use and benefit from that knowledge into explicit, codified knowledge, which becomes someone else's expertise through practice.”

Gene Kim, The DevOps Handbook

It's hard to believe that two Flickr employees could have such a profound impact on the world of IT. Their legendary talk, "10 Deploys per day Dev & Ops at Flickr," delivered at the O'Reilly Velocity conference in 2009, has led to the widespread adoption of DevOps. John Allspaw and Paul Hammond are the masterminds behind this innovative approach to work.

In their presentation, they emphasized the importance of integrating development and operations teams to efficiently build, test, and deploy software.

1. The blame game

The development team and Operations used to work in separate silos, each with its own metrics. Developers built and tested software before pushing it to IT Operations for deployment.

Developers often refuse to accept fault when things go wrong. They claim everything went well in their environment before pushing the work to the other side (Operations teams), maybe due to broken infrastructures.

The operations team complained about receiving buggy and poorly written software, potentially due to unstructured coding. This led to a never-ending cycle of blaming.

2.DevOps a new highway for engineering and Collaboration

DevOps is a combination of tools, a cultural change, a philosophy, and a new mindset that has revolutionized the IT world. By bringing the development and operations teams together, it has changed the way we work. It is a culture of sharing that unites previously separated silos into one efficient unit to deliver software effectively. The result is a significant shift in the way IT organizations operate.

3. Keep C.A.L.M.S

What makes DevOps a cultural change is its core precious principles, the ability to deliver high-quality software, Developers and the IT operations team can work efficiently, improve their way of learning and collaborate.

let’s be CALMS to discover the principles :

• Culture: DevOps is not a technology, as a cultural change requires different stakeholders to bring the change they want to see. It’s a culture of sharing.
• Automation: DevOps goes beyond a set of tools. Automation techniques play a crucial role in speeding up the deployment of processes, detecting defects, and fixing them earlier.
• Lean: Improving efficiency and reducing waste are the main goals of lean. Continuous improvement and learning are behind this management philosophy.
• Measure: You can’t improve what you do not measure! success in DevOps is required to measure performance, people metrics, and processes, a great way for tremendous success.
• Share: Sharing is caring, DevOps requires a culture of sharing and feedback, no separated silos anymore. The ultimate goal is to create an inclusive and shared fate environment.

4. The importance of communication and collaboration

Communication and collaboration are key to a successful DevOps culture. When the development and operations teams work effectively, they can:

• Identify problems early in the development process, which is a great way to save time and money
• Deploy new features and update swiftly
• Improve the software quality
• Reduce the risk of downtime
• foster a greater innovative culture

Gone are the days of isolated departments and information silos. Now, everyone in the organization is kept up-to-date about the latest changes and developments. Transparency is highly valued, and teams communicate openly, sharing their ideas and knowledge with one another. This collaborative approach fosters an environment where amazing ideas can come to fruition at any time, and experimentation is encouraged. Team members can freely share their work with the world and receive constructive feedback, which can lead to innovation and progress.

5. A plethora of tools

DevOps is a culture of sharing where communication is key. There are many tools available to help teams collaborate efficiently and learn from each other. Some of the well-known tools include:

• Trello
• Microsoft teams
• Asana
• Base camp

5. How to adopt a DevOps culture

Change is a natural part of life. Innovation and progress are ingrained in human nature, and we constantly strive to better ourselves and the world around us. However, adopting new ideas and ways of thinking can be challenging for some individuals, such as embracing the concept of DevOps. It takes time and effort to properly train teams and ensure everyone is on board with the new mindset.

There are various methods to create a positive impact:

• Create a work environment where people can learn, fail, grow and innovate
• Accept failure and don’t play the victim
• Create a work environment where people accept their faults and grow
• Being open and honest with the teams
• Create a work environment where people can learn and collaborate all the time; nobody knows everything
• Create a shared responsibility between the development and Operations teams

6. The DevOps culture in numbers

The new mindset has a global impact, and each company has a unique experience and story to share. If we were to list every company and tell their story, we'd need a book!

Atlassian is a well-known company. According to a survey in 2020 with CITE research,

99% of respondents said DevOps had a positive impact on their work, 49% a fast time to market, and 61% high-quality software.

Culture is paramount before innovating on a global scale!

7. Conclusion

Every company has a unique vision and mission aimed at making a positive impact on the planet. However, adopting DevOps requires time and a shift in mindset. Those who successfully adopt this cultural change are now seeing their dreams turn into reality. Here are some examples of companies who have achieved this:

• Netflix
• Facebook
• Linkedin
• Gitlab
• Amazon web services
• Microsoft

Culture doesn't originate from nothing. Success requires everyone to participate in learning, failing, sharing, and growing environment, which leads to incredible innovations.