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DevOps and sharing (including missing slides)

DevOps and sharing (including missing slides)

A talk about sharing knowledge and using "people skills" I gave at DevOps Days Kiel on May 12, 2015.

Marta Paciorkowska

May 12, 2016
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Transcript

  1. DevOps and sharing
    A semi-personal story
    Marta Paciorkowska

    View Slide

  2. Introduction
    What I mean by people skills
    Why this talk
    Communication is crucial in:
    - recognizing obstacles
    - self-development
    - effective knowledge sharing
    Gaining that secret knowledge
    Some practical tips

    View Slide

  3. Marta Paciorkowska
    DevOps Heroine*
    Acrolinx GmbH
    t: a_meba || g: xamebax
    * a female hero; a software engineer, a sysadmin and I guess a bit of a
    coordinator

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  4. Our stack
    Java
    Python
    Clojure
    Node.js
    Ember
    Ant
    Maven
    Gradle
    Go
    Jenkins
    Docker
    Lambdacd
    Linux
    RedHat
    Windows
    MacOS
    Vagrant
    Scala
    ESX Clusters
    GWT
    MySQL
    PostgreSQL
    DB2
    MSSQL
    Oracle
    H2

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  5. Introduction
    What I mean by people skills
    Why this talk
    Communication is crucial in:
    - recognizing obstacles
    - self-development
    - effective knowledge sharing
    Gaining that secret knowledge
    Some practical tips

    View Slide

  6. People skills
    communication abilities
    personal habits
    cognitive or emotional empathy
    leadership traits
    building relationships of trust, respect and productive
    interactions
    understanding ourselves and moderating our responses

    View Slide

  7. Introduction
    What I mean by people skills
    Why this talk
    Communication is crucial in:
    - recognizing obstacles
    - self-development
    - effective knowledge sharing
    Gaining that secret knowledge
    Some practical tips

    View Slide

  8. The “why” & the “how” of this talk
    DevOps is not only technology; it’s interdisciplinary
    I’m against the self-fulfilling prophecy of the anti-
    social tech-genius: we over-simplify “people skills”
    Discuss skills one by one
    You cannot foster success when you only focus on
    one skill

    View Slide

  9. Introduction
    What I mean by people skills
    Why this talk
    Communication is crucial in:
    - recognizing obstacles
    - self-development
    - effective knowledge sharing
    Gaining that secret knowledge
    Some practical tips

    View Slide

  10. My experiment
    After a few months of working in Acrolinx, I decided to ask my
    colleagues a few questions:

    What would they consider the biggest obstacles to
    popularizing DevOps ideas and implementing DevOps-
    inspired practices in our company?

    What was the most important thing they learned recently
    (this year); did they learn more by collaborating or by
    themselves?

    What’s their approach to internal documentation?

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  11. First question:
    Things that make adopting DevOps in your
    organization difficult

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  12. Mindset
    Overwhelming amount of tools
    No one wants to do the “boring” tasks
    Using outdated software/technologies
    Lack of documentation on our outdated
    software/technologies
    Lack of resources
    No bigger picture
    Other people
    Being kept in the dark
    Obstacles

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  13. Learn about people’s preferences and use
    that when dividing work (communication,
    organizational skills)

    Fight the hesitation (empathy):
    - rigid mindset...
    - “My work is more important”,
    - “I don’t see the benefits at all”
    - “But current tools work ok!”
    - or underdeveloped skill set?
    Analyze & f

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  14. Outdated technologies? Lots of tools? Lack
    of a bigger picture?
    - build a long-term plan (leadership &
    organizational skills)
    - listen to complains (empathy) and
    motivate colleagues (leadership)

    Unresponsive colleagues:
    - the busy bee, the slight procrastinator,
    the focused one
    - recognize the reason and pick the best
    solution
    Analyze & f, continued

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  15. Second question:
    The most important thing you have learned
    this year

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  16. “You need to know what you want to build before
    you actually build it”.
    “You should keep things simple and don’t engage in
    premature optimization”.
    “I’ve learned a lot and it’s hard to pinpoint the most
    important things, but I’ve mostly learned by myself
    or pair programming”

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  17. Third question:
    Approach to internal documentation

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  18. We have so many tools and “tribal” knowledge lying
    around that internal documentation is necessary.
    Internal documentation is unnecessary: software
    changes and we have a low turnover rate, so it gets
    outdated quickly; additionally, someone has to
    maintain it.
    Documentation is important, but no one wants to
    do it and having it is a team decision – not an
    individual one.

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  19. Knowledge transfer

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  20. When people work together for a long time,
    they start treating specialized knowledge as
    if it was common.
    The more senior a person is, the bigger the
    risk that they might treat a lot of their
    knowledge as obvious.
    Knowledge transfer

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  21. You need to decide whether to spend a lot of
    time writing down docs and then drop them
    on the new hire or to sit down with them
    every day and show them something new.
    Knowledge transfer, continued

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  22. Think about each of your colleagues:
    What would happen if they went on an
    extended sick leave or decided to leave the
    company?
    How much would that influence everybody
    else’s work?
    Stress levels? Deadlines?
    Knowledge transfer: mental exercise

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  23. Knowledge transfer is both about
    what you know and where you look
    Knowledge transfer: I’ll share a secret

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  24. Your colleagues don’t have to just sit down
    and explain old, cranky code.
    Encourage them to talk about how they
    themselves acquire experience instead.
    How do they debug things?
    What’s their approach to problem solving?
    Result: knowledge that will be technology-
    agnostic.
    Knowledge transfer, continued

    View Slide

  25. Introduction
    What I mean by people skills
    Why this talk
    Communication is crucial in:
    - recognizing obstacles
    - self-development
    - effective knowledge sharing
    Gaining that secret knowledge
    Some practical tips

    View Slide

  26. Don’t talk with your colleagues about
    current tasks only.
    Try to understand where everyone is coming
    from.
    In case of resistance: mindset or skill set?
    Don’t make assumptions, that’s a cognitive
    error.

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  27. Ask, ask, ask.
    When in doubt: ask.
    “What is the problem you’re trying to solve?”
    Don’t go quiet when things go wrong or
    when you’re stuck.
    Encourage knowledge-sharing.
    Have your own science log.

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  28. Practice non-violent communication.
    Consider doing regular brainstorming
    sessions.
    Mimicry.
    Foster a healthy work environment.

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  29. Thank you
    Marta Paciorkowska
    t: @a_meba || g: xamebax
    https://thatmarta.wordpress.com

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