devopsy.kinsta.cloud

Tag: communication skills

  • DevOps Institute Upskilling the Enterprise

    DevOps Institute Upskilling the Enterprise

    DevOps Institute released its annual Upskilling the Enterprise survey and the results are as interesting as last year. The organization of DevOps teams and its interaction with speed/success was one area that intrigued me, and sent me off looking for more information on the topic. This led me to this interesting site that does a great job of delving deeper than “We’ve all heard of Conway’s law.”  Good descriptions there on what works and why that will be useful to many organizations. The only true weakness in the content that I found was the “vacuum syndrome” that doesn’t delve deeply enough into what’s right for your organization, which certainly impacts your choices.

    DevOps Institute’s discussion of soft skills and DevOps roles being hybrid is also interesting. It creates a bit of a conundrum. We all wish the technical genius was also a charming personality, but often that is not the case. In the end, our job is technical, and we need to deliver technical solutions. There is a balance between making the genius more personable and finding personable people capable of achieving the goals. Considering that hiring is currently a struggle, we often do not get to choose. Training can help a lot, and in the end, finding a balance that works for a given organization is going to be a bit of work for management.

    What comes as no surprise is the finding that CI/CD are the entry level required skills for DevOps. No matter how far along on your DevOps journey you are, CI and CD are core to the job at this point. Expect that to change over time as deployment and security become more core and commonplace. In the end, great CI/CD is not much help if deployment and monitoring are weak, so the tools that win these battles will rise in importance over time without taking away from CI/CD.

    Their idea of the E-shaped human is interesting, but in diagramming, some detail is lost in the abstraction.

    I once worked with a super-genius DBA that could do anything with the database. We (managers) met with him on issues and let him tell us how impossible it was and that we were destroying the enterprise’s data integrity. Then gave him a day and let him tell us how it would get done effectively without major disruptions. Only after we’d met with him the second time did we move forward with the project, talking to business owners. Essentially, we became the wall between him and anyone who would be put-off by his face going red and his angered declarations. It was an acceptable arrangement, and he never let us down. I worked with him on dozens of projects, and only once did I see him exposed to outside consultants (against the wishes of several of us), it was ugly, and they pegged him as a stone-waller. He wasn’t, just needed to vent first.

    This person was responsible for the stability of our data, for upping the volume of throughput when needed and for making sure SQL didn’t get past DBAs without being safe. Would we have liked him but with a sunny disposition? Sure, but given a choice, I for one was happy with him and an angry disposition. I worked other places I wished I had someone with his unparalleled skills on the DBA side. So, all of IT needs to get better at interpersonal communications in a DevOps world, but “better” is relative. I’d still keep him in the back, making sure our systems got what they needed.

    The survey head-nods to this reality where soft-skills came in third as important skills. Still high on the list because it is important, but it shows that technical skills are why we have the job. Soft skills are how we do the job with less friction.

    Considering that I am the communicator/negotiator, it might sound strange for me to stand for tech skills first, but that is who we are–technicians. Highly skilled and highly compensated, but technicians. There are few (as a percentage) people who can handle both technical and communications, but by the same token, there are few people who can be an absolute boss at their technical responsibilities and see each unexpected event as a challenge to be overcome. I love to learn new things, and at that job I learned a ton of Oracle stuff from our tech genius. But I would be foolish to believe I’d ever match him in both domain and tech knowledge when it came to databases and our employers’ needs.

    Anyway, I picked three of the points that interested me to expound upon. The entirety of the report is definitely worth a read to get a feel for where others are on their DevOps journey and offer some ideas for yours.

    Meanwhile, keep kicking it. We’re in the midst of COVID-19, and I hear you, some of you are simply buried in organizations that weren’t prepared, others are suddenly looking for work because your previous employer is suddenly not a viable business. Here’s hoping it gets better for each of you, while the rest of us struggle on.

    — Don Macvittie

  • Communication Skills Matter in DevOps

    Communication Skills Matter in DevOps

    While the precise definition of DevOps is an evolving matter, a simple way to describe it is this: DevOps is a change of mindset toward an agile and inclusive approach to IT. DevOps enables IT professionals to think and work beyond technology silos, thereby deriving meaningful results at a faster rate than with more traditional methodologies.

    This involves going outside of our comfort zones and collaborating outside the confines of our own cliques. By working across operational boundaries, DevOps will require an understanding of technical, operational and service aspects of the business. This means the heart of DevOps lies not in technology, methodology nor administration: The heart of DevOps lies in communication, which brings all these together.

    DevOps professionals seem to agree. In Incapsula’s DevOps Salary Survey conducted in 2015, the California-based cybersecurity firm identified communication skills as one of the highest priorities for DevOps professionals, almost as much as operational skills.

    In other words, effective communication across the organization is considered as important as actually building the product, and it is integral to building the product itself. This means when you’re in the field of DevOps, a smart investment in communication skills will pay off for both individuals and the team.

    Communication Fosters Teamwork

    There usually exists a disjoint between technical and non-technical departments, particularly in technology companies. Engineers, for example, might be fascinated by an elegant piece of code, an algorithm that automatically governs a process or an infrastructure that does exactly what it’s supposed to do. But to the rest of the organization, those things take place purely in the background and work best when they aren’t noticed at all.

    Tech people take pride in the technology, while operations people take pride in business results. The two often find themselves at odds due to a lack of communication about what is really needed, and how to get there. Successful communication in DevOps focuses on finding common ground and working toward achieving this.

    For communication to be effective, the emphasis should be on the user of your message. You’ll need to have a deeper understanding of where they’re coming from. No amount of expertise matters if you can’t convey it properly. You can’t gain any growth or value for your career or organization if there is always a unidirectional disconnect.

    Bottom line is, you need to correctly identify your intended recipients and find a common ground to better engage.

    You Can Increase Your Value as a DevOps Pro

    Trust is an essential component of teamwork, which is also important in the development life cycle and in decision-making processes. Being a communicator enables you to better establish trust among your colleagues—something that, unfortunately, is lacking in many IT project life cycles.

    This is why pure technologists don’t necessarily make good DevOps professionals—an observation highlighted by the Incapsula survey, which shows that a mix of general and technical skills are essential for a successful DevOps career. In fact, general skills are usually more important in securing higher-paying jobs in this field. These include understanding business operations, developing communication skills and remaining flexible and open to change. In addition, the rising trend in outsourcing DevOps pros across a global talent pool means your communication skills have to transcend languages and contexts.

    A good DevOps professional knows that value is not just about the technology, but rather about the product. Even the best technologies in the world are just abstract concepts until you translate them into a product people can actually use and enjoy. Thus, going beyond technical capabilities, you will need to know how to collaborate to transform technologies into useful and marketable products.

    You Can Advance Your Career Faster

    Chatting up the project managers, glad-handing the operational staff and picking the brains of departmental leaders may not come naturally to pure technologists. However, for DevOps professionals increasingly engaged in conversations across the enterprise, knowing the language unique to the organizational culture—verbal and nonverbal—can make all the difference in terms of career advancement.

    Such organizational language can be considered as its own kind of coding. This facilitates everything from a working knowledge of financial reporting, to the listening skills needed to understand the technology goals meaningful to each business unit. It’s also how unwritten rules about business priorities or hierarchies are communicated.

    After all, the career survey cites at least 26 job descriptions among DevOps professionals, including project manager and operations manager, among others. This means you don’t necessarily have to get stuck in one position or job description. In an organization that fosters the DevOps culture, your value goes well beyond your technical capabilities, but rather the focus is more on organizational skills.

    The Takeaway

    Since DevOps involves cross-functional teams instead of compartmentalized departments, everyone will need to be more involved in business operations, product development and support. Being an effective communicator is at the heart of all this, and it can spell the difference between success and failure in a DevOps environment.

    It’s easy to think that there is little more to learn in terms of communication, especially if your DevOps integration is already mature and your team is functioning optimally. However, your investment in becoming a better DevOps communicator begins with learning the language and culture of the organization. This also includes a continuous reassessment of skills and the ability to build connections from each and every encounter with colleagues, partners and other stakeholders.

    About the Author / Laureen Fagan

    LaureenFaganA senior PR counsel and thought leader, Laureen Fagan has 15 years experience as a media and PR professional, which includes her stint at CBS and Fox broadcast affiliates in the United States, and in print and wire-service newsrooms in Chicago, Washington D.C., and Jerusalem. Laureen received her MSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and completed additional graduate study at University of Notre Dame in Theology / Hebrew Bible that includes French, Arabic and Hebrew study. In addition to tech and business, Laureen creates informed content and deep analysis on international affairs, health care, culture and religion.