Many organizations ignore culture and overfocus on picking and implementing the right tools. However, these tools have underlying cultural assumptions. If the current culture does not support these assumptions, then automation will only have limited success, or even fail altogether. So how do you address this problem? By recognizing that overfocusing on tools is a problem in the first place. Start by understanding the cultural assumptions supporting the optimum use of the tools, as well as how your organization measures up in relation to high-performing organizations. Finally, address the smells that violate the tools’ cultural assumptions. This requires the organization and individuals to move out of their comfort zone and place their primary focus on implementing a high-performing DevOps culture. Tim Guay will draw upon his experiences to help you develop an understanding of the dangers of overfocusing on tools, what the underlying cultural assumptions of key toolsets are, the common cultural smells, and how to move beyond the comfort zone into a high-performing DevOps culture.

1. 2019-09-18
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A Fool With A Tool
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AgileWorks
Tim Guay, Agile Coach and Trainer
•Sits on the ICAgile DevOps Track Certification Committee
•Sits on the ICAgile DevOps Expert Candidate Assessment Panel
•Clients include; JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Accenture, Cisco, Intuit,
Comcast, State of Washington, and the Royal Canadian Navy ( to
name a few).
•Etc…Etc…
tim@agileworksinc.com www.agileworksinc.com
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The Quote
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Objectives
Provide a broad understanding of;
The dangers of over-focusing on tools as opposed to
culture
Why organizations and people do that
How our tools assume an underlying culture
Dealing with the over-focus on tools
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Number 1 DevOps Antipattern
90% of DevOps Failures are due to
cultual issues
Tools will not solve you cultural
Problems, only bring them to light
Sadder is that many companies call
mediocrity a victory
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Dangers of a Tool Focus
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Titanic’s Radio Room
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Dangers of a Tool Focus
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What do you think the dangers
of overfocusing on DevOps
tools at the expense of culture
would be?
Why do we focus on tools and ignore
culture?
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CI Cultural Assumptions
What does Continuous Integration mean?
What does that imply?
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CIoud Cultural Assumptions
What does a cloud allow you to do?
What does that imply?
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Continuous Delivery Cultural Assumptions
What does CD allow you to do?
What does that imply?
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Cultural Goals
Everyone understands the
cultural assumptions of
the tools
Everyone know that the
wrong culture will cripple
the best toolchain
And has the guts to do
something about it
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What makes a good DevOps Culture
Empowered team members
Shift-left
No silos
Cross-trained team members
Correct behavior incented
Trust
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Then What!
Determine what the cultural and
process assumptions are for your
toolchain
Determine where your culture clashes
with the above assumptions
Answer the WIIFM for the cultural
changes required
Change one dysfunctional behavior or
process at a time
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