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From Hero to Zero - DevOpsDays Pittsburgh 2014

From Hero to Zero - DevOpsDays Pittsburgh 2014

Incremental change and release often is the new mantra. A team of one may handle the operability implementation for an application. Work arounds are done to get things out the door “on time” to meet the agile requirements. This person is in the center of changes ensuring that monitoring, configuration, and service expectations are coordinated. As the velocity of change increases, this single point of failure leads to slow downs. The operations engineer is viewed as the “hero” due to working late nights or weekends to keep the service running as needed. This false hero role is not sustainable and creates a rigid environment of change aversion.

In this talk, Jennifer will describe paths to supporting complex project deployment and configuration from manual heroics to minimal intervention. She will describe tools but the concepts will be applicable regardless of environment. This is not a one size fit all solution but guidelines presented should help shape direction towards success.

Jennifer Davis

May 30, 2014
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  1. Hero •  Someone who in the face of danger and

    adversity or from a position of weakness displays courage and the will for self sacrifice for some greater good of all humanity.
  2. Hero •  Someone who in the face of danger and

    adversity or from a position of weakness displays courage and the will for self sacrifice for some greater good of all humanity. •  An ordinary someone who in extraordinary circumstances overcomes challenges.
  3. Hero •  Someone who in the face of danger and

    adversity or from a position of weakness displays courage and the will for self sacrifice for some greater good of all humanity. •  An ordinary someone who in extraordinary circumstances overcomes challenges. •  Someone who performs extraordinary deeds for the benefit of others.
  4. “A hero is someone who has given his or her

    life to something bigger than oneself.” Joseph Campbell
  5. Workplace Usage •  Gone the extra mile •  Worked really

    late hacking up a solution •  Spent all weekend •  Virtue of the quality of brain numbing work
  6. Results in .. •  Degradation in relationships •  Sleep deprivation

    •  Degradation of productivity •  Degradation of creativity •  Mental acuity •  Loss of empathy •  Dissatisfaction with job •  Loss of self confidence
  7. Results in .. •  Degradation in relationships •  Sleep deprivation

    •  Degradation of productivity •  Degradation of creativity •  Mental acuity •  Loss of empathy •  Dissatisfaction with job •  Loss of self confidence NOT HEROISM!
  8. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research study •  Sleep deprivation

    impacts the brain consistent with mild prefrontal lobe dysfunction •  Affects emotional intelligence, self-regard, sense of independence, empathy, quality of interpersonal relationships, positive thinking
  9. Loss of Self Confidence •  Erin Callan, Lehman Brothers CFO

    September 2007 – June 2008 •  “I did not know how to value who I was versus what I did. What I did was who I was.” •  “drug addiction – except you’re getting tremendous positive reinforcement for what probably is really extremist behavior”
  10. Workplace Environment “The biggest issue with railroad workers is fatigue,

    not pay. We are paid very well. But we sacrifice our bodies and minds to work the long hours it takes to make the money, not to mention the high divorce rate, self- medicating, and stress.” John Paul Wright
  11. 6 Areas resulting in Burnout •  Work overload •  Lack

    of control over work •  Insufficient rewards •  Workplace community problems •  Lack of fairness – inequality of pay, promotions or workload •  Conflict between personal values and requirements of job. Sources: Christina Maslach,Ph.D. Professor of Psychology UC Berkeley, Michael Leiter, Ph.D., Director of the Centre for Organizational Research & Development
  12. Why 40 hour work week? •  12 years of experimentation

    by Ford •  <40 hours people weren’t working enough •  >60 hours gives a small productivity boost in short term •  Source: Laws of Productivity, 8 Productivity Experiments you don’t need to repeat. http://lunar.lostgarden.com/Rules%20of%20Productivity.pdf
  13. So you think you’re Superman.. 0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00

    50.00 60.00 70.00 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Salary + Benefits Salary + Benefits + Oncall Salary + Benefits + Oncall + One Off Bonus for high performers $50,000 base pay $40,000 benefits $500 on call bonus $10k-40k sliding scale bonus
  14. 5 conditions of “happy” work environment • Freedom • Challenge • Education • Positive

    atmosphere • Personally meaningful contribution “Follow your Bliss”: A process for Career Happiness Sheila J Henderson http://www.angelpersonnel.com.au/assets/Uploads/HendersonFollowyourbliss.pdf Journal of Counseling and Development Summer 2000 Volume 78
  15. Identify your state • Local development •  Vagrant •  VMWare or

    VirtualBox •  Chef (or configuration management of choice)? •  Team enabled?
  16. Individuals empowered to do work and understand consequences. •  Freedom

    •  Challenge •  Education •  Personal meaningful contribution •  Positive environment
  17. •  Current Industry Practices – Not Heroism. •  Impacts of

    working “heroically”. •  Described our myths. •  Talked through the path of improving your work environment and why.
  18. More Presentations •  Jeff Hackert “There I fixed It –

    Building Humane Automation Systems” Chef Conf 2014 •  Adam Jacob Keynote – Chef Conf 2014 •  Evan Goer – Thinking of Documentation as Code https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mEvvc80ZYU8
  19. References - Books •  Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin

    of Error Kathryn Schulz •  What makes a Hero? The surprising Science of Selflessness •  Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions Gary Klein •  The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business Ben Horowitz •  Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and creating a life of well-being, wisdom, and wonder Arianna Huffington
  20. References - Web •  http://railroadworkersunited.blogspot.com/2013/12/its-time-to-end-crew-fatigue- and.html •  http://railroadworkersunited.org •  “Follow

    your Bliss”: A process for Career Happiness Sheila J Henderson http://www.angelpersonnel.com.au/assets/Uploads/ HendersonFollowyourbliss.pdf Journal of Counseling and Development Summer 2000 Volume 78 •  Sleep deprivation reduces perceived emotional intelligence and constructive thinking skills. Killgore WD http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17765011 •  Your app is making me fat. Kathy Sierra http://seriouspony.com/blog/2013/7/24/your-app-makes-me-fat •  Burnout: The exhaustion funnel - http://mindfulnext.org/burnout-the-exhaustion-funnel/
  21. References - Web •  High Tempo, High Consequence. John Allspaw.

    http://www.kitchensoap.com/2014/03/13/high-tempo-high-consequence/ •  Why Germany Dominates the U.S. in Innovation Dan Breznitz http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/05/why-germany-dominates-the-u-s-in-innovation/ •  Is there Life After Work? Erin Callan http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/is-there-life-after-work.html? smid=pl-share&_r=0 •  Former Lehman CFO Erin Callan’s Never Going Back. Sheelah Kolhatkar http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-12/former-lehman-cfo-erin- callans-never-going-back