5 Steps for
High-Performing DevOps Culture
DevOps enables us to
push decision making
to the edges of the
organization, driving
teams to deliver more
quickly.
DevOps also encourages
continuous and pervasive
testing, allowing teams to
do work more safely.
However, an unintended result of DevOps
is cross-functional teams working closer
together than they’re accustomed to;
causing new bottlenecks, challenges,
and cultural issues.
DevOps teams must be
coordinated and organized.
But how?
Step 1: Develop Trust
• Be open to new ideas
• Don’t shoot the messenger
• Fully support and empower the
person with the most knowledge
of the work to share their
perspective with the team at large,
including their superiors.
• Take a community approach to
solving problems
• Hold “blameless postmortems”
• Make quality, availability, and
security everyone’s responsibility
(not just one department)
• Treat each individual on the team
as valuable
Step 2: Experiment Often
• This is how an organization
learns, adapts and evolves
“Out-experiment”
the competition.
• Build “safe systems” at work, which
allow you make changes and deploy
code at any time of the day without
risking a catastrophic collapse
When experimenting, always wear
safety goggles!
Step 3: Maintain Safety
• Detect and correct problems before they
get bigger and before a customer is
impacted
Half of good safety is
early detection.
• Encourage clear communication on
potential issues throughout the entire
value stream
Your best detection system is your staff.
Step 4: Encourage
Monitoring
“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”
Remember murphy’s law:
Put sufficient monitoring
in place to quickly
find out what is going
wrong, restore service,
and resume normal
operations.
•Especially customer metrics, so you
know exactly what customers are
experiencing and how
to improve
Follow key performance
indicators (KPIs).
• If something does go wrong,
figure out how to prevent it from
happening again in the
future
• Or at least enable quicker
detection and discovery
Have a culture of
relentless improvement.
Step 5: Support a Culture
of Learning
Q: What’s more important
than daily work?
Q: What’s more important
than daily work?
A: The improvement of
daily work.
• Discover best practices and
implement them
• Turn local discoveries
into global improvements
• Make efficient systems
even more efficient
In order to have a
culture that rewards
learning , you must
understand that learning
comes from failure.
Good leadership doesn’t
punish mistakes, but
a good leader must
identify mistakes and
encourage learning from
them.
“Failure is an option here.
If things are not failing,
you are not innovating
enough.”
-Elon Musk-
For high-performing
DevOps culture, implement
these 5 steps throughout your
organization.
Key Takeaway:1
3
5
2
4
Check out our entire eBook:
The Guide to Doing More Faster.
Now with IT Control
In this eBook, thought leaders Gene Kim (author and
DevOps evangelist), Rajat Bhargava (CEO JumpCloud),
Ben Kepes (Forbes contributor), Alan Shimel (DevOps.
com Executive Editor) discuss actionable steps for
how modern IT teams build decentralization into their
organization while maximizing the security that their IT
team needs to keep their organization safe.

5 Steps for a High-Performing DevOps Culture

  • 1.
  • 2.
    DevOps enables usto push decision making to the edges of the organization, driving teams to deliver more quickly.
  • 3.
    DevOps also encourages continuousand pervasive testing, allowing teams to do work more safely.
  • 4.
    However, an unintendedresult of DevOps is cross-functional teams working closer together than they’re accustomed to; causing new bottlenecks, challenges, and cultural issues.
  • 5.
    DevOps teams mustbe coordinated and organized. But how?
  • 6.
  • 7.
    • Be opento new ideas • Don’t shoot the messenger
  • 8.
    • Fully supportand empower the person with the most knowledge of the work to share their perspective with the team at large, including their superiors. • Take a community approach to solving problems • Hold “blameless postmortems”
  • 9.
    • Make quality,availability, and security everyone’s responsibility (not just one department) • Treat each individual on the team as valuable
  • 10.
  • 11.
    • This ishow an organization learns, adapts and evolves “Out-experiment” the competition.
  • 12.
    • Build “safesystems” at work, which allow you make changes and deploy code at any time of the day without risking a catastrophic collapse When experimenting, always wear safety goggles!
  • 13.
  • 14.
    • Detect andcorrect problems before they get bigger and before a customer is impacted Half of good safety is early detection.
  • 15.
    • Encourage clearcommunication on potential issues throughout the entire value stream Your best detection system is your staff.
  • 16.
  • 17.
    “Anything that cango wrong, will go wrong.” Remember murphy’s law:
  • 18.
    Put sufficient monitoring inplace to quickly find out what is going wrong, restore service, and resume normal operations.
  • 19.
    •Especially customer metrics,so you know exactly what customers are experiencing and how to improve Follow key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • 20.
    • If somethingdoes go wrong, figure out how to prevent it from happening again in the future • Or at least enable quicker detection and discovery Have a culture of relentless improvement.
  • 21.
    Step 5: Supporta Culture of Learning
  • 22.
    Q: What’s moreimportant than daily work?
  • 23.
    Q: What’s moreimportant than daily work? A: The improvement of daily work.
  • 24.
    • Discover bestpractices and implement them • Turn local discoveries into global improvements • Make efficient systems even more efficient
  • 25.
    In order tohave a culture that rewards learning , you must understand that learning comes from failure.
  • 26.
    Good leadership doesn’t punishmistakes, but a good leader must identify mistakes and encourage learning from them.
  • 27.
    “Failure is anoption here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” -Elon Musk-
  • 28.
    For high-performing DevOps culture,implement these 5 steps throughout your organization. Key Takeaway:1 3 5 2 4
  • 29.
    Check out ourentire eBook: The Guide to Doing More Faster. Now with IT Control In this eBook, thought leaders Gene Kim (author and DevOps evangelist), Rajat Bhargava (CEO JumpCloud), Ben Kepes (Forbes contributor), Alan Shimel (DevOps. com Executive Editor) discuss actionable steps for how modern IT teams build decentralization into their organization while maximizing the security that their IT team needs to keep their organization safe.