“Once upon a time”: powerful words that begin many oral narratives and indicate that the story to be told will be imbued with magic and myth. Organizational folklore can be a very powerful force for instilling or perpetuating behavior, systems, and culture within an organization. Too often, fear and negativity are the driving forces in the folklore behind many organizational traditions. A positive narrative that embraces the customs and traditions of a healthy, balanced feedback loop can help jumpstart your DevOps journey. This talk will help you frame your narrative alongside metrics and use folklore as a catalyst for positive change.

1. Magic, Myth and the DevOps
Jennifer Davis @sigje
Cascadia IT 2015
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2. Who am I?
Automation Engineer, Chef
Co-Author of "Effective Devops"
from O'Reilly Media
DevOpsDays SV Organizer
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3. Sparkly devops
princess
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4. Started #coffeeops
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5. Expectations
• talk for ~40 minutes
• time for discussion and questions at the end
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6. Goal
Communication and Feedback
• Twitter: @sigje
• Email: sigje@chef.io
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7. Why this talk?
• Focus on the "magic" outcome
• Limited view of the effort to build
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8. Opportunity
• Intentional Selections based on Value.
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9. High Performing devops Teams
are more Agile
30X more frequent deployments
8000x faster lead times than peers
2014 PuppetLabs State of DevOps Survey
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10. High Performing devops Teams
are more Reliable
2x change success rate
12x faster mean time to recovery (MTTR)
2014 PuppetLabs State of DevOps Survey
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11. Devops is a Myth
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12. Myths
guide behaviors.
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13. Myths
based in tradition.
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14. Myths
explain the world and our
significance.
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15. Myths are the oral
history passed around
to give value to the
unknown.
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16. Myths ...
1 part promise
1 part warning.
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17. Myths are stories.
With power to cause action.
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18. Myths are magic.
Unseen, invoking behavior. Influencing us.
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19. Myths frame our choices.
We can make intentional selections based on our values.
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20. Myths are programs.
Allow us to alter our central algorithm.
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21. Insanity is doing the same
thing over and over and
expecting different results.
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22. Story of a typical
team
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29. 29

30. Exposing Hidden Myths
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31. Myth: Finding "The One"
• rockstar
• ninja
• 10x Engineer
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32. Job Req: Site Rebel Engineer (SRE)
Talented team of Jedi, we have, gained significant traction that
a business model has, and to expand a real need - - quickly!
Looking for smart, we are, energetic, to grow our company at a
lightening pace hard-working individuals who want a chance.
This is a position that is relegated to the shadows not - your
contributions -, have dramatic input on the direction the
company goes, thoughts and input will. There are a variety of
challenges and obstacles that await you and, excited to see
how you go about solving them, are we.
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33. • Certified Jedi Master
• 4 years lightsaber experience
• ability to carry 80 lbs for 1 mile
• X-Wing pilot license
• 24 hour oncall
With force push and mental persuasion - experience.
To join and contribute to a team of smart - desire, talented, to
create something bigger than themselves hard-working
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34. Myth: Interview as a gauge of
skills
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35. Myth: Interview to identify the
"bad" engineers
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36. Myth: Education
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37. Myth: Outdated Engineer
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38. Myth: Productive Loner
SPOF as an individual
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39. "Used to Be"-isms
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40. Myth: The "right" way.
• identify good culture
• current team, background, and effective
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41. Fear Culture
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42. Stormtrooper Syndrome
• Agency
• Adaptability: Role adherence
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43. Role adherence
Farm boy
Smuggler
Princess
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44. Constraining individuals
• A developer does...
• An ops does ...
to the detriment of the team.
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45. Learned Helplessness
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46. Borg Syndrome
• no individuality
• no family/outside interests
• no celebrations
• encourages system blindness
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47. Red Shirt
• Tackling challenges
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48. Smarter Teams build better value
• Lots of Communication
• Contribute equally to team's discussions
• Theory of Mind
• Increased diversity
Why Some Teams are Smarter than Others
Anita Woolley and Thomas Malone
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49. Speaking up
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50. Why?
• Change your organization.
• Educate peers.
• Influence community of practioners.
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51. Key strategies
• Explicit.
• Informs decision making.
• Encapsulates aim and key values.
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52. It takes a thousand voices
to tell a single story.
— Native American saying
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53. Listen
• who is involved?
• what is the current state?
• cultures?
• beliefs?
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54. Ensure diversity
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55. The language of the culture also reflects the stories of the
culture. One word or simple phrasal labels often describe the
story adequately enough in what we have termed culturally
common stories. To some extent, the stories of a culture are
observable by inspecting the vocabulary of that culture. Often
entire stories are embodied in one very culture-specific word.
The story words unique to a culture reveal cultural differences.
Roger C. Shank
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56. Opportunity
• Intentional Selections based on Value.
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57. Vision or Mission Statement
Clear statement about the problem
• direction
• identity management
• team cohesion
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58. Identify Inconsistencies and Defenses
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59. Organizational Learning
Chris Argyris and Donald Schon
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60. Theory of Action
Theory In Use
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61. Model I
Single Loop
• encourages defensive behaviors (blame)
• Behaviors learned early on
• Skilled Incompetence - Aversion to learning
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62. Organizational Defense Routine
bypass and coverup
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63. Organizational Malaise
• organizational failures, no responsibility
• focus on negative
• the unimplementable values
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64. Model II
Double Loop
• slowed reasonings
• increased analytics
• increased reflection
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67. Technology
Graphs with overlays
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68. Technology
Graphs with overlays
Kanban boards
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69. Technology
Graphs with overlays
Kanban boards
Time Tracking
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70. Thank you
❤
Twitter @sigje
Email sigje@chef.io
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71. Want to learn more?
Effective Devops:
Collaboration and Tools
Training at Velocity Santa Clara
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72. DevOps or DevOps not.
There is no try.
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