In the dynamic field of DevOps, the quest for efficiency and productivity is endless. This talk introduces a revolutionary toolkit: Large Language Models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, extending far beyond traditional coding assistance. We'll explore how LLMs can automate not just code generation, but also transform day-to-day operations such as crafting compelling cover letters for TPS reports, streamlining client communications, and architecting innovative DevOps solutions. Attendees will learn effective prompting strategies and examine real-life use cases, demonstrating LLMs' potential to redefine productivity in the DevOps landscape. Join us to discover how to harness the power of LLMs for a comprehensive productivity boost across your DevOps activities.

1. By: Victor Szoltysek
May 9th / 2024
Toronto Enterprise DevOps Meetup
Elevating DevOps Productivity with Large
Language Models
CHATGPT AND BEYOND

2. GAIN 37% PRODUCTIVITY*;
LEARN A BIT; WORTH IT?
* https://economics.mit.edu/sites/default/
fi
les/inline-
fi
les/Noy_Zhang_1.pdf (March 2023)

3. WORK WITHOUT INTERNET?
IT'S LIKE IGNORING LLM’S.

4. WORK WITHOUT INTERNET?
IT'S LIKE IGNORINGCHATGPT*.
* or Gemini, Grok, Claude, Llama, MS Copilot etc

5. STILL ON CHATGPT 3.5 ?

6. STILL ON CHATGPT FREE*
IT’S LIKE STILL USING DIAL-UP.
?
* or any free LLM model

7. Image Capabilities (output and input)
Longer Working Memory (4x)
Superior Code Writer
Much Smarter Model (ChatGPT 4.0)
Advanced Data Analytics (aka Code
Interpreter)
Newer Model Data (Dec 2023)
UPGRADE TO CHATGPT PLUS*
Custom GPTs (API calling / work
fl
ows / etc)
* Not on OpenAI's payroll—I just like good tech!

8. LLMS DON’T DO YOUR JOB;
THEY EMPOWER YOU TO DO MORE.
JUST LIKE THE INTERNET.

9. HOW TO UNLOCK THESE TOOLS?
UNDERSTAND THE USE CASES
AND LIMITATIONS.

10. EXPLORING USE CASES
Skip the analysis paralysis. Use these practical use
cases as your springboard to start experimenting
with AI and learn by doing.
Putting Theory Into Practice

11. STUDYING AID
Forget outdated educational models. Discover the
power of a personalized learning approach that
fi
ts
your schedule and enhances your understanding.
The End of Conventional Education

12. STUDYING AID
Simple Explanation Prompt
Explain the di
ff
erence between Continuous Integration,
Continuous Delivery, and Continuous Deployment.

13. STUDYING AID
Exam Cert Study Aid Prompt
I'm new to DevOps and aiming to pass the AWS DevOps Engineer certi
fi
cation
exam with
fl
ying colors but currently, I know as much about DevOps as I do
about quantum physics. Could you draft a comprehensive study guide for me?
This guide should include:
- A summary of the essential topics covered in the exam.
- A step-by-step learning plan starting from the basics.
- Tips and tricks on how to e
ff
ectively absorb and retain this new knowledge.
- Additionally, explain how you can be my study buddy throughout this
process.

14. STUDYING AID
Exam Question Help Prompt
Solve the following AWS DevOps Exam question for me, explain the answer, give
me some rules-of-thumb for these types of question for the exam.
A developer is adding sign-up and sign-in functionality to an application. The application must make an API
call to a custom analytics solution to log user sign-in events.
Which combination of actions should the developer perform to meet these requirements? (Select TWO.)
A) Use Amazon Cognito to provide the sign-up and sign-in functionality.
B) Use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to provide the sign-up and sign-in functionality.
C) Con
fi
gure an AWS Con
fi
g rule to make the API call when a user is authenticated.
D) Invoke an Amazon API Gateway method to make the API call when a user is authenticated.
E) Invoke an AWS Lambda function to make the API call when a user is authenticated.

15. WRITING ENHANCEMENT
Elevate a range of writing tasks—from customer
emails to RFPs and SOWs. Automate routine documents
like TPS cover letters for streamlined e
ff
iciency.
Transforming Communication

16. WRITING ENHANCEMENT
Leadership Persuasion Prompt
After discovering the transformative power of DevOps, I'm ready to pitch this
initiative to our company’s leadership. The aim is to foster magical synergies that'll
propel our projects forward like they’re on a Hogwarts express run. Could you help
me draft an email that:
- Outlines the key bene
fi
ts of adopting DevOps practices.
- Emphasizes the potential for a signi
fi
cant increase in ROI due to these
e
ffi
ciencies.
- Incorporates buzzwords like 'innovation', 'synergies', and 'strategic advantages'
to engage our C-suite e
ff
ectively ?

17. WRITING ENHANCEMENT
Team Motivational Speech Prompt
I got buy-in from my leadership, now I want to get my dev team excited about this
DevOps work.
Craft a motivational speech for them for this new DevOps initiative to help improve
their pains points, and slow release cycles.
Do it in the style of:
Shakespearean Monologue
Sports Coach Halftime Pep Talk
President Speech from Independence Day

18. SEARCH AND SOLUTIONING
Utilize LLMs for instant retrieval and resolution,
transforming how you search and solve problems.
Beyond Google and StackOver
fl
ow

19. SEARCH AND SOLUTIONING
Error Resolver Prompt
While deploying to Kubernetes, I received the error
'ImagePullBackO
f
.' Could you explain what causes this and
outline a detailed solution to
fi
x this error within a DevOps
pipeline?

20. SEARCH AND SOLUTIONING
Code Snippet Writer Prompt
Write a Bash script for a DevOps setup that checks the
health of a web server every 5 minutes and logs the status in
a
fi
le. Include error handling for failed health checks.

21. SEARCH AND SOLUTIONING
Process Optimization Prompt
I'm supposed to improve our DevOps processes, but I'm as lost as a non-techie at
a hackathon. Could you walk me through conducting a Value Stream Mapping
(VSM) analysis? Please include:
- A simple explanation of what VSM is and why it’s crucial for DevOps.
- A step-by-step guide to identifying key stages and bottlenecks in our current
processes.
- Suggestions on how to optimize these stages based on DevOps principles.

22. VISUAL DIGITIZATION
Convert sketches and handwritten notes to digital
formats with OCR, making your creative and
planning processes more e
ff
icient.
Digitize Your Ideas

23. VISUAL DIGITIZATION
Sketch to Speci
fi
cation Prompt
I made this sketch of a Value Stream Map
that looks more like abstract art than a
business tool. Can you help transform this
doodle into a clear, professional digital
format? The new diagram should:
- Clearly outline each step with
associated metrics.
- Identify areas for potential optimization.

24. BRAINSTORMING AID
Provide detailed context and let ChatGPT brainstorm
ideas, discover connections, and pose questions that
inspire deeper thinking and innovative solutions.
Unlock Creative Potential

25. BRAINSTORMING AID
DevOps Strategy Generator Prompt
I’ve appended a slew of unorganized
fi
nding from our DevOps activities into your
virtual lap. We need to sift through this to
fi
nd gold nuggets of improvement.
Could you analyze this data and:
Identify key performance patterns.
- Suggest improvements with potential impacts.
- Develop a strategy for implementing these improvements.
- Give me your recommend top priority for an item to tackle
fi
rst.
<APPENDED FINDINGS>

26. OPTIONS AND TOOL COMPARISON
Compare options and tools e
ff
ortlessly, presenting
complex comparisons and data in user-friendly
table formats, applicable across diverse scenarios.
Streamline Evaluations and Comparisons

27. OPTIONS AND TOOL COMPARISON
Slow PR Option Prompt
Following our brainstorming session, we've identi
fi
ed that our feature branching
strategy and slow PR processes are hampering our speed. I need a comprehensive
comparison of di
ff
erent branching strategies and code review processes that can
help us speed up. Please provide:
- In table format - pros and cons for each strategy, focusing on their impact on PR
speed and collaboration.
- Recommendations for best practices in code reviews to facilitate faster and
more e
ffi
cient code integration.

28. TEXT-BASED CREATIONS
Transform textual descriptions into various text-based
outputs, including comprehensive diagrams, 3D object
fi
les, calendar event
fi
les, json, and more. If you can
describe it, ChatGPT can create it.
Beyond Diagrams

29. TEXT-BASED CREATIONS
Commit Flowchart Prompt
We're considering moving to a trunk-based development approach to address our
slow PR process. Can you create a detailed diagram in Mermaid format that
illustrates a trunk-based development
fl
ow? The diagram should include:
- How commits can be made directly to the trunk, with optional PRs.
- Processes for handling Work In Progress (WIP) commits.
- Integration points with CI/CD pipelines to ensure stability despite frequent
commits.
- A subsection that brie
fl
y outlines emergency rollback procedures when commits
fail.

30. DATA ANALYTICS
Perform sophisticated data analysis, create insightful
visual graphs, and execute mathematical computations
and code, enhancing data-driven strategies.
Empowering Data Decisions

31. DATA ANALYTICS
Writing Prompt
We've pulled down an excel
fi
le of our commit history to
understand the bottlenecks in our current work
fl
ow better. Please
analyze this data to uncover:
- Trends and patterns in commit frequencies and PR merge times.
- Identi
fi
cation of periods with high activity and their impact on
project timelines.
- Graph something useful.
Commit History Data.xls

32. CUSTOM GPTS
Customize AI functionalities, integrate your knowledge
base, con
fi
gure complex no-code work
fl
ows with ease,
and enable API interactions using Custom GPTs.
Tailor Your AI to Your Needs

33. Custom No-Code Work
fl
ow Instructions
When you to notify something, use the SendMessageToMSTeams action to send
messages.
CUSTOM GPTS
When you need to get commit information, use the GetLast10CommitMessages
action to gather the latest commit messages.
When you need to to report an update, then
fi
rst call GetLast10CommitMessages, get
the info, and pass that info (all commits) to the SendMessageToMSTeams action. The
SendMessagetoMSTeams action will send all commits messages with a humorous
spin on all the commit message, and also a general motivational comment based on
all the commit messages.

34. VISUAL GENERATION
E
ff
ortlessly generate detailed images from textual
descriptions, enhancing your presentations and
documents with high-quality visuals.
Visuals at Your Command

35. VISUAL GENERATION
Victory Email with Visuals Prompt
Our DevOps team has smashed through a huge milestone—it's time to throw a
massive virtual bash to celebrate! I need your help to craft an eye-catching email
that will get the whole company buzzing.
Create a dazzling, colorful image to include in the email. Think of a spectacular,
over-the-top celebration featuring superheroes—everyone's decked out in
costumes, there's an explosion of balloons and confetti, and our heroes are striking
epic poses amidst digital
fi
reworks. Let’s make this an unforgettable virtual party
invitation!

36. NAVIGATING LIMITATIONS
Understanding these boundaries and learning
e
ff
ective workarounds can lead to more informed
and powerful usage.
Working Within Constraints

37. CONCERNED ABOUT DATA PRIVACY?
Still concerned? Reconsider storing anything sensitive
in the cloud and stop using the internet altogether.
Opt-Out of Model Training To Protect Your Data
Limit: By default (Free/Plus), your data is used to train the model.

38. HALLUCINATION CONCERNS?
They're Overrated
Approach them as you would any tool: use
responsibly and verify when necessary.
Limit: LLMs may occasionally generate incorrect information.

39. STRUGGLING WITH LARGE DATA ?
Work Within Context Window Limits
Use other models (ChatGPT 4, Claude, etc) with larger context
windows, call the API directly, or split up work being done.
Limit: 8k (ChatGPT Free), 32k (ChatGPT Plus), 4k output (all), 4 tokens = ~3 words. Max output is ~1.5 pages.

40. OUTDATED INFORMATION?
Model Data Is Not Current
Use newer models (ChatGPT 4) or add new data to
the context window.
Limit: ChatGPT 3.5 (Jan 2022), ChatGPT 4(Dec 2023).

41. INCORRECT MATH CALCULATIONS?
Calculate Math Pragmatically
Use Advanced Data Analytics (ChatGPT Plus) if you
need precise math or data calculations.
Limit: LLMs are incapable of performing mathematical calculations.

42. FRUSTRATED WITH LOSING CONTEXT?
Master ChatGPT's Memory Tools
Utilize memory techniques, including threaded conversations,
Custom Instructions, and CustomGPTs. Refresh existing prompts
rather than starting new threads to maintain context.
Limit: Contextual memory is limited by session or conversation length; resets may occur unpredictably.

43. STRUGGLING WITH PERSONAL DATA?
Understand RAG Limitations
Work within the known limitations for optimal
results, and consider
fi
ne tuning your input data.
Limit: Augmented data (via RAG including MS Copilot) generally fails with aggregate data reasoning.

44. HITTING USAGE CAPS?
Maximize Your Query E
ff
iciency
Workaround by including multiple questions in a single query,
employing dynamic calling strategies, using ChatGPT 3.5 for simpler
questions, or using the API playground.
Limit: 60 calls per 3 hours (ChatGPT 4.0).

45. RESISTING CHANGE
Choosing not to use and resisting LLMs today is like choosing
to ignore the Internet back in the 90s;
It’s crazy.

46. CALL TO ACTION
Install ChatGPT, upgrade to Plus, apply the lessons learned
and avoid missing out on this Massive Productivity Leap.
At work, push for MS Co-pilot, GitHub Co-pilot, or ChatGPT
Teams to advance productivity.

47. victor_szoltysek@mac.com
HiRING