The Dark Side of DevOps: Villains you’ll meet in your DevOps journey.
Magneto. The Joker. Dr Doom. Every hero has a nemesis. The one that must be overcome against all odds.
Unfortunately, the path to true DevOps Herodom is no comic book series where you only need to defeat one villain at a time. Chances are, there’ll be more than one to contend with, often in the same room / video call.
To help prepare you, here’s my wrap of the types of villains you’re likely to meet in your DevOps journey.
Mr Excuses
“It’s too hard”, “I don’t need to learn new things”, “Someone else can do it”, “It’s not my responsibility”.
These villains exist all over the workplace. But when it comes to DevOps, where working as a team is key to achieving outcomes, the impact they can have is big. DevOps and Agile go hand in hand. Communication and honesty about blockers is a key component to driving output. Workflow stops when tasks aren’t completed when they need to be; leaving the rest of the team waiting around, and customers not getting what they want.
Scaredy Cat
“It didn’t work last time, so I’m scared to try again”.
It takes guts to be a DevOps Hero. Not everyone is risk tolerant, and many people have been burnt before. But holding a team back from trying new things or having another go can be detrimental to a DevOps culture. Embracing the concept of fail fast is a big part of building new ways of working, and if there’s just one person in the team who’s scared of trying again, it’ll slow your progress.
Bottle Neck
“Everything has to go through me”.
Sometimes Bottle Necks are nosy, have control issues or they don’t know how to delegate. Often though, Bottle Necks are created through a series of decisions that didn’t consciously decentralise their expertise, resulting in them being the keeper of the keys. However it happens, stuff can’t move forward without a Bottle Neck doing something. Not only will this slow your progress, it’ll frustrate and disempower your team members as they can’t achieve change at the pace they’d like.
Big Spender
“It’s OK, someone else is paying for it”
The problem with Big Spenders is they’re carefree with buying things they don’t need, rather than seriously considering purchase decisions that will impact the team. When it comes to tools that are meant to aid your DevOps processes, more expensive is not always better. Weighing up the options, understanding what you’re paying for and how it’ll impact your processes is important. Frivolously throwing money at vendors will not solve your problems, rather it will create more.
Middle Man
“You talk to me, and I’ll talk to him”.
Bureaucracy is the Middle Man’s game, and boy does he love to play. A hangover from organisational structures with layers of middle management, the Middle Man always gets in the way. Usually they don’t have enough knowledge to actually do the thing you need themselves, or enough power to sign off on decisions, but they know all the people who do. The Middle Man will insert himself between the doers, slowing change and creating work that doesn’t need to be done.
Now it might sound like you’re in a war, but the truth is most of these Villains aren’t really out to get you. They’re just doing what they’ve always known, and they can be defeated. Stay tuned, to learn how to transform a villain to a hero, and get them on your side. Because good will triumph over evil.
