DevOps & Remote Work Martin Smith, Principal Engineer, Rackspace @martinb3 martinb3.io

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.

DevOps == Remote Work?

What is DevOps? -

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

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.

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

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."

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.

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

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

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

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!

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.

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?

Thank you @martinb3 martinb3.io

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