2022 was writing
Last year, I announced that I was leaving behind my role as director of product, data, and development. Having built many software delivery teams, I wanted to challenge myself by pivoting into a new career path. In February 2022, I started my new role as a writer at Octopus Deploy.
I've used Octopus many times to automate deployments. From the first time I tried it to my most recent roles, Octopus was my first choice for managing environments, versions, deployments, and runbooks. I even wrote a book about it (which needs an update, thanks to all the amazing work from the product and R&D teams!)
Learning to write
Since February, I've been locked into an intense learning mode as I discover how to write better. All credit for my improvement this year goes to Lee Carlon, Andy Corrigan, and Tegan Ali, who are helping me to adapt to the Octopus Voice and present information in a short, clear style.
Of course, technology is always close. Alongside writing, I've been on expeditions to find out the best way to use some of the Octopus Deploy features, I've worked on static site generators in both Ruby and TypeScript, and I've written tests using Playwright and Jest. I also led some work in Q4 that opened up my view of the world and let me work with some brilliant folks, which I hope to continue in 2023.
DORA and Microsoft
I'm now a regular member of the DORA (DevOps Research and Analysis) community and received my fifth Microsoft MVP award this year. If you'd like to ask me questions about DevOps, please make sure your diary is clear, as I'm happy to talk all day about culture, capabilities, and metrics.
Octopus Deploy
Octopus had a bumper hiring year in 2022, and I've met many fascinating folks in informal "donut" meetings and social gatherings. One thing that has amazed me is that no matter which business area they are from, they are all super-smart and generous with their time. The values in the Octopus Handbook are alive and well.
领英推荐
Listening to our customers, over following market trends.
Helping each other, over being efficient individual contributors.
Doing the right thing by our customers & team, over short-term gain.
Doing a smaller number of things at high quality, over trying to do everything or arbitrary deadlines.
A bias for action, over risk aversion, or the pursuit of the perfect plan.
I'm excited to continue my writing in 2023!