1. devops... what is missing? what is next?
Andrew Clay Shafer
@littleidea

2. Who am I?

3. start at the beginning

4. technical planning
What is ‘Agile’?

5. dev
product test
The Circle Of Happiness

6. customer
sysadmin sales
marketing
security
executive
legal
support
‘Agile’

7. customer
sysadmin sales
marketing
security
executive
legal
support
‘Agile’
‘The Transformation’

8. I despised Agile

9. Agile was broken

10. I didn’t realize what or why

11. and then I got lucky...

12. Salt Lake Agile Roundtable

13. I was never interested in
‘being’ Agile...

14. I was interested in winning

16. you can either easily manage
complex systems at scale...
or you can’t

17. developer sysadmin
3 people
2008

18. change how people manage computers
a purpose

19. Infrastructure is Code

20. dev ops
the wall of confusion

21. dev ops

22. dev
product
test
ops
hurray! we’re devops!
all about the
business!
all about culture!
50 deploys per day!
50 deploys per
nanosecond!

23. developer sysadmin
more people
2013

25. developer security
???
2013

26. developer marketing
???
2013

27. developer sales
???
2013

28. customer
sales
marketing
security
executive
legal
support
‘devops’
‘The Transformation’
this can’t be it...

29. prologue

30. time for the real talk

31. Section I
The game has changed

32. never thought of myself as a developer

33. though I was paid to develop

34. never thought of myself as a sysadmin

35. though I was paid to run systems

36. never thought of myself as a manager

37. though I was paid to manage

38. I did whatever I could for companies

39. at the level I was empowered

40. I want to win

42. I am fascinated with the
dynamics of performance

43. fascinated with the
dynamics of high
performing organizations

44. fascinated with the
psychology and behavior of
high performing individuals

45. what is a master?

46. a master

47. mentally and physically unprepared for reality real talk

48. the game had changed

49. In the 1960s, GM averaged a 48.3%
share of the U.S. car and truck market

50. the game had changed
real talk

51. the game has changed

52. what part of devops are we touching?

53. the game has changed
‘understand the flow of work’
‘all about the business’
‘devops is compatible with ITIL’
‘devops is better than ITIL’
‘quit your job’ ‘change your organization’
so many voices
‘feedback and visibility’
‘cycle time’
‘lead time’
‘all about culture’ ‘tools do matter’
’10 deploys per day’ ’50 deploys per day’
‘continuous this that and the other’
‘infrastructure is code

54. the game has changed
so many questions
what should we do?
how do we devops?
you want us to do WHAT?

55. FAIL could never do that here

56. It is not necessary to change.
Survival is not mandatory.
- W. Edwards Deming

57. Gratuitous Diversion I
game theory

58. the game has changed?
what does that mean?

59. the payoffs for a given
strategy has changed

60. Game Theory
the study of mathematical models of conflict and
cooperation between intelligent rational decisions makers

61. Rational
choosing to maximize a utility function

62. Nash Equilibrium
no players have anything to gain by
changing only their own strategy unilaterally.

63. Pareto Efficiency
an allocation of resources in which it is
impossible to make any one individual better off
without making at least one individual worse off

64. Pareto Inefficient Nash Equilibrium
possible to make an individual better off
without making any individual worse off
but no one will change their strategy

65. Pareto Inefficient Nash Equilibrium
until the game changes

66. Section II
a culture of hope

67. this book changed my life

68. working effectively
with legacy infrastructure

69. working effectively
with legacy culture

70. dev ops
we reduce people to their jobs

71. we talk about culture
like culture is a checkbox on a list

72. we talk about culture
then abstract everything into boxes with labels

73. we talk about culture
then hire based on a laundry list of buzzwords

74. we talk ‘around’ culture
‘commitment’ ‘values’
‘vision’ ‘motivation’

75. do we cultivate culture?

76. how many put as much effort into
designing their culture as they do
their applications and systems?

77. Conway’s Law
organizations which design systems...
are constrained to produce designs which are copies of
the communication structures of these organizations

78. Conway’s
It’s not just a good idea... it’s the law

79. we are in the middle of
inventing our culture.
--Patty McCord
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3e1lnixKBM

80. The real company values, as opposed to
the nice sounding values, are shown by
who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go.
--Patty McCord

81. Section III
the makings of the learnings

82. I’ve seen a lot.

83. And I’ve paid attention.

84. I’ve seen a good bit...
applications infrastructures
cultures
agile
devops
success failure

85. Is there a pattern?

86. Auspicious Learning?

87. Success and Failure is highly
correlated with the degree of
‘Organizational Learning’

88. 7 dimensions of
Organizational Learning

89. 7 dimensions of Organizational Learning
• continuous learning
• inquiry and dialog
• team learning
• empowerment
• embedded system
• system connection
• strategic leadership

90. continuous learning
represents an organization’s effort to create continuous
learning opportunities for ALL of its members

91. inquiry and dialog
an organization’s effort in creating a culture of
questioning, feedback, and experimentation

92. team learning
spirit of collaboration and the collaborative skills
that undergird the effective use of teams

93. empowerment
encourage feedback and action to address the gap between
the current status and the vision regardless of rank

94. embedded system
establish systems to capture and share learning

95. system connection
actions to connect the organization to its
internal and external environment

96. strategic leadership
the extent to which leaders act strategically
using learning to create change

97. how would we measure
these dimensions?

98. Funny you should ask...

99. dimensions of the learning
organization questionnaire (DLOQ)
Behold!
http://www.partnersforlearning.com/questions2.asp
Watkins and Marsick

100. In my organization?
form of questions

101. In my organization,
people openly discuss mistakes
in order to learn from them

102. In my organization,
people identify skills they
need for future work tasks

103. In my organization,
people are encouraged to
ask “why” regardless of rank

104. In my organization,
groups focus both on the group’s task
and on how well the group is working

105. My organization builds
alignment of visions across
different levels and work groups

106. how powerful would it be if
those weren’t questions?

107. In my organization!
form of statements

108. and not just is words and spirit
but deliberately incentivized
if they are not incentivized, they won’t be real

110. Gratuitous Diversion II
agile doesn’t work

111. agile doesn’t work...

112. devops doesn’t work...
people do

113. on people and their jobs
stone cutting doesn’t work?

114. Three Stone Cutters
“I’m paid to cut stones”
“I use special techniques to
shape stones in an exceptional
way, here let me show you”

116. I build cathedrals

117. Section IV
so now what

118. customer
sales
marketing
security
executive
legal
support
‘devops’
‘The Transformation’
how can we grow the circle?

119. moar silos

120. dev ops
we reduce people to their jobs
devops

121. what have we done?

122. ‘that’s not my job’

123. ‘that decision is
above my paygrade’

124. these are legacy
culture smells

125. negative correlation with
Organizational Learning

126. we already know how

127. we were born to learn

128. we are just afraid

129. hung up on labels

130. devops is just a word

131. “don’t ‘do’ agile, be agile”

132. FORGET THAT

133. BE AWESOME

134. ‘awesome’

135. cultivate sharing

136. cultivate individuals

137. continuous learning

139. epilogue

140. this is an amazing time to
build software

141. ‘software is eating the world’

142. you are either building a
software business...
or you will be losing
to someone who is...

143. this has become obvious

144. you are either building a
learning organization...
or you will be losing
to someone who is...

146. We are uncovering better ways of
developing software by doing it and
helping others do it...

147. We are uncovering better ways of
developing infrastructure by doing it and
helping others do it...

148. We are uncovering better ways of
developing organizations by doing it and
helping others do it...

149. Through this work we have come to value:
•individuals interacting with awesome processes and tools
•working software... period, and documentation is nice too
•delighting customers
•learning from change and changing from learning

150. you are not your job

151. you are not a stonecutter

152. you are not agile

153. you are not devops

154. you are a unique being with an
amazing capacity for learning

155. I build the future

156. build the future

157. the game has changed

158. come at me
@littleidea

159. bonus round

160. anti-fragile

161. gossamer condor

162. Resources
• Netflix - culture unleashed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3e1lnixKBM
• dimensions of the learning organization questionnaire (DLOQ) - http://www.partnersforlearning.com/questions2.asp
• Maverick - the worlds most unusual workplace - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_(book)
• The Fifth Discipline - The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline
• Organizational Learning Culture's Influence on Job Satisfaction... - http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/53624/1/Hsu_umn_0130E_10474.pdf
• Yang, B. (2003). Identifying valid and reliable measures for dimensions of a learning culture. Advances in Developing Human Resources
• Fred Ettish - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5maknndsas
• John Allspaw’s Blog http://www.kitchensoap.com/