The Importance of Embedding a DevOps Skillset into Your Team, with Eric Landes and Barry Matheney Agile Coaches' Corner

Your host, Dan Neumann, is excited to bring you two guests for this week’s episode — repeat guest, Eric Landes, and Barry Matheney. Eric and Barry are both Agile thinkers, experts in the DevOps space, and colleagues of Dan at AgileThought.
 
Eric Landes is a Scrum.org certified professional Scrum trainer and currently serves as a Senior DevOps Consultant, ALM Director, and Solutions Architect. Barry also is a Senior DevOps Consultant. Previously to his role at AgileThought, he served as Director Enterprise Applications at Kforce Inc.
 
Today, they’re talking about DevOps and the importance of having it on Scrum teams. They cover whether it is good or bad that there are barriers between Agile, Scrum, and DevOps; what well-functioning Scrum teams look like when they have a DevOps skillset embedded into them; how to incorporate DevOps into organizations; what a DevOps skillset could bring to a team; and how DevOps can fit into even the most traditional of companies.
 
Key Takeaways
Is it good or bad that there are barriers between Agile or Scrum and DevOps?
It is disadvantageous to separate DevOps from Agile or Scrum because it is important that your team has all the skills they need to deliver software You need the DevOps skillset on your team and it should be a goal to incorporate it What do well-functioning Scrum teams look like when they have DevOps skillsets embedded into them?
Self-sufficient Not limited by dependence on other teams or organizations Eliminates walls and allows for continuous delivery How to incorporate DevOps into organizations:
Use baby steps Use it to inform the beginning of the development cycle and product decisions down the line What the DevOps skillset brings to a team:
Experimentation or hypothesis-driven development Rapid deployment and continuous delivery Tons of not-so-visible benefits (such as auditing, compliance, security, deployability, and testability) How DevOps can fit into traditional companies:
Remove constraints (such as specific deployment dates) Automate the value the compliance brings  
Mentioned in this Episode:
Eric Landes (LinkedIn)
Barry Matheney (LinkedIn)
The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations, by Gene Kim, Patrick Debois, John Willis, and Jez Humble
Podcast Ep. 9: “Exploring Expert Facilitation Tips with Adam Ulery”
SRE — Site Reliability Engineering
Cowboy coding
 
Eric Landes and Barry Matheney’s Book Picks
The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done, by Stephen Denning
Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale, by Jez Humble, Joanne Molesky, and Barry O’Reilly
Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations, by Nicole Forsgren PhD, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
 
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