Magic Myth and the Devops - Cascadia IT 2015

Magic, Myth and the DevOpsJennifer Davis @sigje

Cascadia IT 2015

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Who am I?Automation Engineer, Chef

Co-Author of "Effective Devops" from O'Reilly Media

DevOpsDays SV Organizer

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Sparkly devops princess

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Started #coffeeops

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Expectations• talk for ~40 minutes

• time for discussion and questions at the end

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GoalCommunication and Feedback

• Twitter: @sigje

• Email: sigje@chef.io

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Why this talk?• Focus on the "magic" outcome

• Limited view of the effort to build

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Opportunity• Intentional Selections based on Value.

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High Performing devops Teams are more Agile30X more frequent deployments

8000x faster lead times than peers

2014 PuppetLabs State of DevOps Survey

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High Performing devops Teams are more Reliable2x change success rate

12x faster mean time to recovery (MTTR)

2014 PuppetLabs State of DevOps Survey

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Devops is a Myth

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Mythsguide behaviors.

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Mythsbased in tradition.

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Mythsexplain the world and our

significance.

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Myths are the oral history passed around

to give value to the unknown.

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Myths ...1 part promise1 part warning.

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Myths are stories.With power to cause action.

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Myths are magic.Unseen, invoking behavior. Influencing us.

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Myths frame our choices.We can make intentional selections based on our values.

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Myths are programs.Allow us to alter our central algorithm.

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Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and

expecting different results.

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Story of a typical team

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Exposing Hidden Myths

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Myth: Finding "The One"• rockstar

• ninja

• 10x Engineer

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Job Req: Site Rebel Engineer (SRE)

Talented team of Jedi, we have, gained significant traction that a business model has, and to expand a real need - - quickly! Looking for smart, we are, energetic, to grow our company at a lightening pace hard-working individuals who want a chance. This is a position that is relegated to the shadows not - your contributions -, have dramatic input on the direction the company goes, thoughts and input will. There are a variety of challenges and obstacles that await you and, excited to see how you go about solving them, are we.

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• Certified Jedi Master

• 4 years lightsaber experience

• ability to carry 80 lbs for 1 mile

• X-Wing pilot license

• 24 hour oncall

With force push and mental persuasion - experience.

To join and contribute to a team of smart - desire, talented, to create something bigger than themselves hard-working

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Myth: Interview as a gauge of skills

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Myth: Interview to identify the "bad" engineers

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Myth: Education

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Myth: Outdated Engineer

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Myth: Productive Loner

SPOF as an individual

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"Used to Be"-isms

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Myth: The "right" way.• identify good culture

• current team, background, and effective

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Fear Culture

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Stormtrooper Syndrome• Agency

• Adaptability: Role adherence

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Role adherenceFarm boySmugglerPrincess

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Constraining individuals• A developer does...

• An ops does ...

to the detriment of the team.

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Learned Helplessness

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Borg Syndrome• no individuality

• no family/outside interests

• no celebrations

• encourages system blindness

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Red Shirt• Tackling challenges

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Smarter Teams build better value• Lots of Communication

• Contribute equally to team's discussions

• Theory of Mind

• Increased diversity

Why Some Teams are Smarter than OthersAnita Woolley and Thomas Malone

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Speaking up

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Why?• Change your organization.

• Educate peers.

• Influence community of practioners.

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Key strategies• Explicit.

• Informs decision making.

• Encapsulates aim and key values.

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It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.

— Native American saying

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Listen• who is involved?

• what is the current state?

• cultures?

• beliefs?

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Ensure diversity

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The language of the culture also reflects the stories of the culture. One word or simple phrasal labels often describe the story adequately enough in what we have termed culturally common stories. To some extent, the stories of a culture are observable by inspecting the vocabulary of that culture. Often entire stories are embodied in one very culture-specific word. The story words unique to a culture reveal cultural differences.

Roger C. Shank

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Opportunity• Intentional Selections based on Value.

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Vision or Mission StatementClear statement about the problem

• direction

• identity management

• team cohesion

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Identify Inconsistencies and Defenses

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Organizational LearningChris Argyris and Donald Schon

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Theory of ActionTheory In Use

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Model ISingle Loop

• encourages defensive behaviors (blame)

• Behaviors learned early on

• Skilled Incompetence - Aversion to learning

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Organizational Defense Routinebypass and coverup

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Organizational Malaise• organizational failures, no responsibility

• focus on negative

• the unimplementable values

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Model IIDouble Loop

• slowed reasonings

• increased analytics

• increased reflection

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TechnologyGraphs with overlays

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TechnologyGraphs with overlays

Kanban boards

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TechnologyGraphs with overlays

Kanban boardsTime Tracking

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Thank you❤

Twitter @sigjeEmail sigje@chef.io

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Want to learn more?Effective Devops:

Collaboration and ToolsTraining at Velocity Santa Clara

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DevOps or DevOps not. There is no try.

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