Advancing The Humans of DevOps: What is DevOps? [Podcast]

It’s no secret that DevOps has taken the IT world by storm. The initiative has given companies and businesses alike the opportunity to deliver and deploy software quickly and efficiently while delighting customers at the rate they expect.

In the first episode of the Humans of DevOps podcast, I thought about the definition of DevOps from a human perspective. You may ask, “Why human?” Well despite where you live, your role, your gender or other unique characteristics, we’re all human.

You might read or hear about DevOps and the power of transformation through processes, automation, authoring, and cultural transformation, but it’s the human element of DevOps that makes it work. Humans are often the differentiator that helps organizations achieve their goals. They drive change and transformation despite operating in a disruptive and digital landscape.

There are various definitions of DevOps circling the community, but many have the same general consensus: drive the software delivery lifecycle by moving faster and more frequently. However, one of the reasons the IT community is still confused about what DevOps is or isn’t, is that the model described doesn’t fit into our expectation of a traditional framework, method or practice. DevOps isn’t just a philosophy, a movement, or a framework along the same lines as agile or ITIL. In truth, DevOps is its own recipe.

The DevOps recipe is comprised of many different ingredients, but if you’re short on time, here are the key aspects I point out on the podcast based on the Three Ways of The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, et al:

• The first ingredient in a DevOps recipe is to increase flow from left to right. Developers have to integrate processes in the development lifecycle that will drive continuous integration, delivery, automation, and visibility. You can add in processes from frameworks like ITIL or SRE, but it’s really the developers, or humans if you will, who drive these changes.
• The second ingredient is to shorten the feedback loops from right to left. At the heart of DevOps is collaboration, visibility, and business optimization. Removing silos and increasing flow will shorten the feedback loop to ensure everyone is part of the software delivery lifecycle.
• The third ingredient is to continuously learn, practice, and experiment. In many cases, DevOps initiatives end after deployment. In reality, everyone has to work together to get better, faster and more efficient.

These three ingredients (or Three Ways) really serve as the basis for human interaction with DevOps. Increased flow, shortened feedback loops, continuous learning, practice, and experimentation are human-centric activities that are going to drive transformation.

The secret ingredient in the DevOps recipe is a skilled, knowledgeable, innovative human. It is humans who know how to blend the recipe with not only the right ingredients but the right proportion of those ingredients. As an organization, you can start assessing your own ingredients. What ingredients do you have already? What ingredients can you use as is? What ingredients do you need to adapt? What ingredients are missing?

Automation is important, but do not undervalue the people influence when paving the way for your own DevOps transformation. Our transformations are only as good as the humans leading them. DevOps Institute’s mission to advance the Humans of DevOps to help drive the change and transformation of the IT industry in the digital age. You can listen to the full episode “What is DevOps?” on the Humans of DevOps podcast here.

DevOps Institute is dedicated to advancing the human elements of DevOps success through the SKIL Framework: Skills, Knowledge, Ideas, and Learning. Learn more.