DevOps core values

Many of us may be aware of Patrick Debois, who is also known as the godfather of DevOps.

let`s start with some of his words :

"That the word DevOps gets reduced to technology is a manifestation of how badly we need a cultural shift" -Patrick Debois

Core values of DevOps can be understood as in four subcategories, as CAMS.

C: Culture

A: Automation

M: Measurement

S: Sharing

These are the four fundamental and mutually reinforcing values to bring to a DevOps implementation.

DevOps is often thought of as a technology problem but in reality, it is a cultural and business problem.

So, what is Culture? How it is related to DevOps?

Well, Culture is a lot more than free food in the company cafeteria!

Culture is driven by behavior. It exists among people with a mutual understanding of each other and where they are coming from.

Early on in IT Organizations, Teams were split into two major groups as Development and operations. The Development group was charged with creating features while the Operation group was charged with maintaining stability.

Now, today after this pattern has had a long time to metastasize, these groups don`t speak the same language and they don`t have a mutual understanding. Changing these behaviors and assumptions is how 'change' can be driven in the company`s culture.

Coming to the A of CAMS, which is Automation.

What do most people think of, when they hear the word "DevOps"?

Do they first think of Automation?

Well, DevOps is not just about automated tooling, people, and processes. It has a slightly different perspective expressed as 'people' over 'process' over 'tools'.

Automation is a critical part of the DevOps journey. It is that accelerator that is going to get all other benefits of DevOps, once we begin to understand our culture, we can create a fabric of automation that allows us to control our systems and our applications.

Coming to M of CAMS, which is Measurement.

One of the keys to a rational approach to our systems is the ability for us to measure them.

If we talk about the pitfalls in metrics, There are two major pitfalls. First, sometimes we choose the wrong metrics to watch, and Second, sometimes we fail to actuate them properly.

Let`s point out some key metrics that can be possible across any organization :

• Meantime to recovery
• Cycle time
• Costs
• Revenue
• Employee Satisfaction

All of these are part of generating a holistic insight across a system. These metrics help in engaging the team and overall goal.

Coming to S of CAMS, which is Sharing.

Sharing ideas and problems is the basis of collaboration and the best thing is that sharing is the heart of DevOps. Sharing helps in placing at high premiums on openness and transparency.

This drives "Kaizen", which is a Japanese word that means discrete-continuous improvement. Sharing is the feedback loop, that helps in continuous improvement.

If you are here till now, shows "how curious you are"!

See you "curious" in the next article. In the next article, we will be talking about the principles of DevOps.