Creating and Maintaining an Inclusive DevOps Culture
- 1. COPYRIGHT 2019 DEVADA Fireside Chat: Creating and Maintaining an Inclusive DevOps Culture With Judy Johnson Exclusive DZone Core Virtual Event courtesy of
- 2. Agenda ● Introduction ● How does Diversity help us do better and more DevOps? ● How does DevOps encourage Diversity and Inclusion? ● What can you and your organization do to encourage Diversity and Inclusion? ● Discussion/Questions
- 3. About judy Judy (she/her) has been a software engineer for many years, and at Onyx Point since 2015. Her many job titles have included Software and System Engineer, Project Manager, ScrumMaster, and retail (CD store) clerk. Her hobbies include baking, attending hockey games and rock concerts, and trying to finish a good book. Judy loves to volunteer, especially in events that promote diversity in technology. She’s especially proud that both of her awesome daughters are engineers. Twitter: @miz_j LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyfinkjohnson/ (disclaimer: my opinions do not necessarily represent those of my employer)
- 4. Wiki DevOps Definition DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. DevOps is complementary with Agile software development; several DevOps aspects came from Agile methodology.
- 5. DevOps - “The Three Ways” Three Ways (via Gene Kim) ● The First Way emphasizes the performance of the entire system, as opposed to the performance of a specific silo of work or department — this as can be as large a division (e.g., Development or IT Operations) or as small as an individual contributor (e.g., a developer, system administrator). ○ Team over individual ○ Encourage people to speak up ○ Mix together people with various skills ○ No silos
- 6. DevOps - “The Three Ways” Three Ways (via Gene Kim) ● The Second Way is about creating the right to left feedback loops. The goal of almost any process improvement initiative is to shorten and amplify feedback loops so necessary corrections can be continually made. ○ Feedback, Retrospection ○ Continuous Improvement ○ Blameless post-mortem
- 7. DevOps - “The Three Ways” Three Ways (via Gene Kim) ● The Third Way is about creating a culture that fosters two things: continual experimentation, taking risks and learning from failure; and understanding that repetition and practice is the prerequisite to mastery. ○ Taking risks ○ Always learning ○ Not being afraid to fail
- 8. DevOps DevOps initiatives can create cultural changes in companies by transforming the way operations, developers, and testers collaborate during the development and delivery processes. Getting these groups to work cohesively is a critical challenge in enterprise DevOps adoption. DevOps is as much about culture, as it is about the toolchain. (Wikipedia) ● DevOps is not just automation ● It’s about Culture, Communication, Community, Valuing people, Breaking down silos, Reducing fear
- 9. Diversity Dimensions of diversity ● Individual differences between employees can create value and foster innovation and creativity, or can lead to conflict. ● How diversity is constructed and reproduced within diversity management and inclusion determines how employees feel accepted and included and, thus, how they are able to realize their potential and to contribute to the organization’s vision and aims.
- 10. How does Diversity help us do better and more DevOps? ● Diversity of thought, people feel free to express ideas ● Multiple perspectives encourage out-of-the-box thinking ● “Edge Cases” - not only does having multiple backgrounds allow voices to be heard but often these concerns are universal ● There is not “that one expert” © 123RF
- 11. How does DevOps encourage Diversity and Inclusion? ● Multi-functional teams (stemming from Agile) encourage people with different strengths work together for a holistic view of the tasking ● DevOps creates community, we do not want everyone doing the same thing or thinking the same way ● Contributions are always valued ● DevOps processes include documenting, testing, code review, pair/mob programming, all of which allow a person that may be new to the team, or even the field, to be immediately productive ● “Minimize harm,” “Reduce Fear”
- 12. Attracting a Diverse Team ● Recruit from universities, meetup groups ● Community involvement - attend/host meetups, encourage volunteerism ● Don’t be afraid in the interview process to look for folks who may not have the exact experience, but show a willingness to learn ● Ensure the environment they see when they interview is welcoming and diverse
- 13. Inclusive Hiring ● Specialized websites https://www.diversifytech.co/post-a-job ● Care in wording of job descriptions https://breezy.hr/blog/3-simple-rules-for-using-inclusive-language-in-y our-job-ads ● Gender decoder for job ads http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/ ○ “Male” words (aggressive, confident, driven) vs ○ “Female” words (interpersonal, supportive, collaborative)
- 14. Maintaining good people - Why we Stay ● Understanding ● Belonging ● Meaningful work ● Challenge ● Flexibility ● Feeling valued and heard ● Not being afraid to be themselves (this is where I have my baked-goods part of the talk) ● Happy employees will bring friends
- 15. Maintaining good people - Why we Leave ● Feeling invisible ● Feeling undervalued ● Extra work “representing the underrepresented” ● Lack of respect ● Silos - lack of communication, lack of “big picture” exposure ● Bro / Frat Culture ● Toxic environment
- 16. Mentorship ● Mentors ○ Many and diverse ○ Bidirectional relationships ○ Similar backgrounds, situations ● Local Role Models ○ Yeah, I can aspire to be CEO, but who can I find that is fewer steps away and has time to listen? ● Allies/Advocates ○ We can’t do it alone!
- 17. Thanks! ● Larry Gordon at XOps @laurencemgordon ● The 3 DevOpsDays friends that helped put together the original talk: ○ Victoria Guido @victori_ousg ○ Jameson Hampton @jameybash ○ Banjo Obayomi @banjtheman ● My friend, Amanda Arnold, who convinced me to talk inclusion with her for the very first time at a Diversity in Tech event at the University of Maryland ● All the folks I have learned from (both good and bad examples)
- 18. Creating and Maintaining Inclusivity - Discussion ● What DevOps work can you give someone with less experience? ○ Test, document, code review - productive and learning from start ○ Pair/mob programming ● What benefits does an inclusive environment bring to technology systems? ○ Different experience brings different thought processes ○ Ideas, needs, “edge cases”
- 19. Resources ● Black Lives Matter - How the Tech Community can Provide Support (Jennifer Riggins) ● http://www.incontextdesign.com/womenintech/ (Karen Holtzblatt) ● https://www.inc.com/mariyam-khaja/how-to-be-an-ally-to-black-lives-matter.html ● Better Allies - (Karen Catlin, Former VP of Engineering at Adobe) @betterallies ● Black Code Collective - blkcodecollctve@gmail.com ○ "We are black software developers creating a welcoming community to grow our skills, share knowledge and help each other progress through our careers. " ● Diversify Tech (Veni Kunche @venikunche) - Find folks looking for jobs - Sites and resources ● Compassionate Coding (April Wensel @compassioncode) - Training, blog, other resources ● http://gendershades.org/overview.html (Joy Buolamwini)The Gender Shades project evaluates the accuracy of AI powered gender classification products.