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DevOps & Remote Work in Gainesville

DevOps & Remote Work in Gainesville

Presented at Gainesville BarCamp 2017

Martin Smith

March 25, 2017
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  1. DevOps & Remote Work
    Martin Smith, Principal Engineer, Rackspace
    @martinb3
    martinb3.io

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  2. Who am I?
    - Earlier: DBA, Developer, Sysadmin in Higher Education, 10+ years (local)
    - Now: Principal Engineer at Rackspace, 3 years (remote)
    2016: Remote Year brings together a community of 75 digital nomads from across
    the globe to spend a year working, traveling, and exploring 12 cities around the
    world.
    DevOps and Remote Work for about 4 years.

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  3. DevOps ==
    Remote Work?

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  4. What is DevOps?
    -

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  5. Remote may be slower, but you can
    find faster people. - Martin Fowler
    Co-location is probably more
    efficient, but there are exceptions.
    Invest in communication, tooling,
    and the occasional F2F visit.
    What is
    Remote Work?
    Single site
    Multi-site
    Satellite model
    Remote first

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  7. The Oaks Mall
    Maude’s
    McDonald’s
    Maple Street Biscuit Co.
    Reitz Union
    Gatorland Laundromat
    Gatorland Toyota Cust.
    Lounge

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  8. Culture
    Common pain points for remote work:
    1. Remote as an exception
    2. Transparency
    3. Accountability
    Embrace failure, continuously
    improve, check in daily or weekly.
    Trust is the foundation.

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  9. 2.2x
    more likely to
    recommend their
    organization to a friend
    as a great place to work
    1.8x
    more likely to
    recommend their team
    to a friend as a great
    working environment
    Happy Employees

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  10. 2015 State of DevOps report
    "Diversity matters. Research shows that teams with
    more women members have higher collective
    intelligence and achieve better business outcomes. [...]
    We recommend that teams wanting to achieve high
    performance do their best to recruit and retain more
    women, and improve diversity in other areas, too."

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  11. Automation,
    Infrastructure as
    Code, ChatOps, etc
    Automattic (WordPress.com) -
    Fully distributed
    GitHub - 75% remote as of 2014
    Basecamp - Fully distributed
    Remote work essentially
    requires Automation and
    Infrastructure as Code, unless
    you want to be chained to a desk.

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  12. Measurement
    64%
    had no formal policy or
    philosophy on flexible
    work location
    3%
    of organizations
    measure performance,
    engagement, and
    productivity

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  13. Communication.
    - Location does make it difficult. But, HBR has shown that remote workers are
    often more engaged with their colleagues.

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  14. Goal-focused, results-based work
    Face time is a traditional management
    technique. Organize around business
    priorities & customer results instead.

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  15. Connectivity, Prioritization, and other struggles
    Compare to other types of remote work like writing or graphic designers.
    Remote guilt is real. Leaders change culture.
    Unplanned work and timezones.
    Getting out the door is a struggle.
    Connectivity is an obsession.
    Logistics is a huge time sink, but worth it.
    You will be lonely. Travel to see your team!

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  16. Evaluating
    Remote DevOps
    Trust within the team?
    Does the team work
    collaboratively?
    Decision making and
    conflict resolution.
    How do managers interact
    with the team?
    Asking the right questions.

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  17. Reading Remote
    DevOps job ads
    Who else is remote?
    Specific location or time zone?
    Perks for remotes?
    Travel to an office / team meetups
    Social Media and Blogging presence
    about remote work
    Watch out for the laundry lists, 10x
    developer, culture
    What should you look for?

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  18. Thank you
    @martinb3
    martinb3.io

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  19. Resources
    remotebase.io
    wfh.io
    remoteok.io
    weworkremotely.com
    stackoverflow.com/jobs
    jobs.github.com
    toptal.com
    reddit.com/r/digitalnomad
    remotetogether.com
    nomadforum.io
    theremotenomad.com
    remoteyear.com
    roam.co
    wifitribe.co
    Jobs
    Community
    Nomads

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