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DevOpsDays Cuba 2017: Starting and Growing Your DevOps Teams

DevOpsDays Cuba
October 26, 2017
270

DevOpsDays Cuba 2017: Starting and Growing Your DevOps Teams

Author: Conor Delanbanque
Summary:

DevOpsDays Cuba

October 26, 2017
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Transcript

  1. 1
    Starting and
    Growing Your
    DevOps Teams
    Conor Delanbanque
    Twitter @ConorDevOps
    Email [email protected]
    Find me on LinkedIn

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  2. My Background
    • Associate Director @ Salt
    • From London, currently living in NYC supporting the growth of
    Salt’s US operations (22 employees in NYC, 180 globally)
    • Responsible for the hiring, growth and scaling of DevOps teams
    ranging from small startup companies to some of the biggest
    names in technology
    • Supported DevOps Transformations utilizing consultants as well as
    providing full-time permanent staff to my clients
    2

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  3. Introduction
    • Every DevOps Practice is different
    • Sometimes we have a whole dedicated DevOps team to support
    other project teams, other times we have individual DevOps
    experts imbedded within other teams
    • Your current technology department, development environment
    and infrastructure setup will determine the route you take
    • DevOps doesn’t finish, you will always be improving and making
    small incremental changes
    3

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  4. Do you need to hire somebody?
    • Always look internally first – organic growth is best
    • Can we retrain our internal teams to adopt DevOps processes?
    • Ask ourselves WHY are we hiring this person and what value do we
    need them to provide to the team
    • Growing the team internally can come with long-term benefits such as
    loyalty to the people, environment and a true sense of ownership for
    having been a part of the overall journey
    • There is also a long list of benefits to hiring someone externally to bring
    in new knowledge to the team
    4

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  5. Which background do you require?
    • Compare preexisting strengths within your team
    • Software Engineering background versus Infrastructure/Operations
    • Aim to close the skills gaps
    • Find the person who will provide the most value in YOUR
    environment and go from there
    5

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  6. Mindset > Tools
    • Tools can be learned but mindsets are harder to change
    - They might use a wide variety of tools and technologies but what
    problems are they solving?
    - Are they a curious person?
    - Are they open-minded and still learning to improve upon their
    current knowledge? #ContinuousLearning
    - When have they failed and learned from their mistakes?
    6

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  7. • How will the new team member slot into your organization?
    • Will they connect well with the team?
    • Be wary of people’s egos and how this will impact others
    • A good leader must understand how to smoothly onboard new
    members
    Culturally fit for your team?

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  8. Which skills do we need?
    8
    • Good knowledge of software development practices as well as Infrastructure &
    Operations
    • Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (Jenkins,
    TravisCI, TeamCity, Bamboo)
    • Configuration Management (Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Saltstack)
    • Version Control (GIT, SVN)
    • Scripting (Python, Java, Bash, PHP, Ruby, Powershell)
    • Cloud Infrastructure experience is helpful whether you have or haven’t moved
    to the cloud yet (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Private Clouds)
    • Knowledge of Container Orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Mesos, Marathon,
    Rancher)

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  9. Where to find DevOps Engineers?
    9
    • In high-demand, do not expect this to be solved overnight
    • Be flexible and realize that the candidates hold the power in the DevOps
    space, this is very different to hiring a Java or Python Developer
    • Start within your network and meet potential new hires at local events (such
    as DevOpsDays! Or Docker Havana Meetup and more)
    • Host your own event or Meetup by inviting people to your office where you
    can later elaborate about your open vacancies
    • Ask your friends and people you have worked with previously
    • Use LinkedIn.com to search and advertise your vacancies

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  10. Interview Process
    10
    • An unorganized or poor interview process will mean missing out on hiring
    opportunities
    • Have a plan in advance, you should know your interview process before finding
    the candidate
    • Keep it simple! 2 or 3 rounds of interviews is usually sufficient:
    -1 phone interview (30 minutes to 1 hour)
    -1 face to face interview with yourself and other senior team members. Also have
    the team take them for lunch or a beer after work
    -If required, meet them once more to close the process or have 1 final call if there
    are any doubts on either side

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  11. El crecimiento toma tiempo!
    11
    • Building a well functioning team takes months and sometimes many years
    • Expect to make mistakes, just learn from them
    • Stay open to feedback from those above and below you in your organization
    • Continuously learn and improve
    • Focus on small improvements to achieve a long-term greater goal
    • Many challenges lie ahead, continue collaborating with those around you and
    stay part of this amazing Cuban technology community

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  12. Preguntas?
    12

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