Magic, Myth and the Devops - Cascadia IT 2015

“Once upon a time”: powerful words that begin many oral
narratives and indicate that the story to be told will be imbued
with magic and myth. Organizational folklore can be a very powerful force for instilling or perpetuating behavior, systems, and culture within an organization.

Too often, fear and negativity are the driving forces in the folklore behind many organizational traditions. A positive narrative that embraces the customs and traditions of a healthy, balanced feedback loop can help jumpstart your DevOps journey. This talk will help you frame your narrative alongside metrics and use folklore as a catalyst for positive change.

Transcript

1. Magic, Myth and the DevOps Jennifer Davis @sigje Cascadia IT 2015 1
2. Who am I? Automation Engineer, Chef Co-Author of "Effective Devops" from O'Reilly Media DevOpsDays SV Organizer 2
3. Sparkly devops princess 3
4. Started #coffeeops 4
5. Expectations • talk for ~40 minutes • time for discussion and questions at the end 5
6. Goal Communication and Feedback • Twitter: @sigje • Email: sigje@chef.io 6
7. Why this talk? • Focus on the "magic" outcome • Limited view of the effort to build 7
8. Opportunity • Intentional Selections based on Value. 8
9. High Performing devops Teams are more Agile 30X more frequent deployments 8000x faster lead times than peers 2014 PuppetLabs State of DevOps Survey 9
10. High Performing devops Teams are more Reliable 2x change success rate 12x faster mean time to recovery (MTTR) 2014 PuppetLabs State of DevOps Survey 10
11. Devops is a Myth 11
12. Myths guide behaviors. 12
13. Myths based in tradition. 13
14. Myths explain the world and our significance. 14
15. Myths are the oral history passed around to give value to the unknown. 15
16. Myths ... 1 part promise 1 part warning. 16
17. Myths are stories. With power to cause action. 17
18. Myths are magic. Unseen, invoking behavior. Influencing us. 18
19. Myths frame our choices. We can make intentional selections based on our values. 19
20. Myths are programs. Allow us to alter our central algorithm. 20
21. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. 21
22. Story of a typical team 22
30. Exposing Hidden Myths 30
31. Myth: Finding "The One" • rockstar • ninja • 10x Engineer 31
32. 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. 32
33. • 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 33
34. Myth: Interview as a gauge of skills 34
35. Myth: Interview to identify the "bad" engineers 35
36. Myth: Education 36
37. Myth: Outdated Engineer 37
38. Myth: Productive Loner SPOF as an individual 38
39. "Used to Be"-isms 39
40. Myth: The "right" way. • identify good culture • current team, background, and effective 40
41. Fear Culture 41
42. Stormtrooper Syndrome • Agency • Adaptability: Role adherence 42
43. Role adherence Farm boy Smuggler Princess 43
44. Constraining individuals • A developer does... • An ops does ... to the detriment of the team. 44
45. Learned Helplessness 45
46. Borg Syndrome • no individuality • no family/outside interests • no celebrations • encourages system blindness 46
47. Red Shirt • Tackling challenges 47
48. 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 Others Anita Woolley and Thomas Malone 48
49. Speaking up 49
50. Why? • Change your organization. • Educate peers. • Influence community of practioners. 50
51. Key strategies • Explicit. • Informs decision making. • Encapsulates aim and key values. 51
52. It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story. — Native American saying 52
53. Listen • who is involved? • what is the current state? • cultures? • beliefs? 53
54. Ensure diversity 54
55. 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 55
56. Opportunity • Intentional Selections based on Value. 56
57. Vision or Mission Statement Clear statement about the problem • direction • identity management • team cohesion 57
58. Identify Inconsistencies and Defenses 58
59. Organizational Learning Chris Argyris and Donald Schon 59
60. Theory of Action Theory In Use 60
61. Model I Single Loop • encourages defensive behaviors (blame) • Behaviors learned early on • Skilled Incompetence - Aversion to learning 61
62. Organizational Defense Routine bypass and coverup 62
63. Organizational Malaise • organizational failures, no responsibility • focus on negative • the unimplementable values 63
64. Model II Double Loop • slowed reasonings • increased analytics • increased reflection 64
67. Technology Graphs with overlays 67
68. Technology Graphs with overlays Kanban boards 68
69. Technology Graphs with overlays Kanban boards Time Tracking 69
70. Thank you ❤ Twitter @sigje Email sigje@chef.io 70
71. Want to learn more? Effective Devops: Collaboration and Tools Training at Velocity Santa Clara 71
72. DevOps or DevOps not. There is no try. 72