Leading DevOps

 There are many different articles out there and Twitter comments about the Basecamp drama.  I am not going to post any here because it might seem biased depending on the article.  Google them yourself.  In short, Basecamp made a policy to not allow political discussions at work.  Coinbase did this previously too and applauded Basecamp for it.   Apparently, for years there has been a list of funny customer names at floating around Basecamp.  This list or even the knowledge that Basecamp had a list, was disturbing to some employees.  Also, some employees tried to start a Diversity and Inclusion practice.  Despite how much the founders of Basecamp promoted DI, they didn't feel they were being taken serious.  They felt the company was only about the founders and not about employees.    If this isn't enough, the founders debated and even called out employees for their comments regarding the topics, publicly.  This is my s...

 How do you lead without stress?  I am finding that many leaders are under a lot of pressure, not healthy and not sleeping well.  A good leader may have ups and downs but their trust should never be questioned.  Your day to day work will be hard and require a lot but when you know you are making decisions with high integrity and treating your employees right, you should sleep well each night.   Each day is a new day.  You should begin each day with some quiet time, exercise and make a plan.  Then, you do your best that day.  Solve problems, help your team, mentor leaders, architect or remove toil.   Above all, do everything with character and integrity because when things get hectic or when you have to move on, you know you led with trust and integrity.   People will remember the way you lead more than what you did.  If you are weak in an area, hire someone to fill that need or go learn more.  This is part of leadersh...

 Leaders should be setting the vision for the company or team.  When tech teams are always jumping from priority to priority, they will get frustrated.  When you set the vision, show the team you stand behind it.  Get the buy in from your team.  The companies ability to set a vision for a team or project and work towards it, will set long term culture and retention.  Thoughts: 1. Create a long term vision with short term goals. 2. Use OKRs to communicate the actions and measurements of the goals. 3. Post regular messages or videos about the goal progress. 4.  You may never reach the full vision but you worked toward it. 5.  If you don't the vision or goals, ask around.    Lead with a daily passion for the companies vision.

 Here are a few tips I recommend. 1. Practice your pitch.  Start with what you want to accomplish in your next role.  Then, highlight your career and accomplishments that build your career testimony to today.  This will be in every interview.  You should even right it down for practice.  The higher the role the better the pitch needs to be.   2.  Research the company and ask questions about them.  Hard questions.  Make them squirm and show they need you.  I asked one panel of senior leaders, can you tell me about your financial stability and budgets for the next year.   In a more technical panel, I asked how they were managing and deploying their containers in the cloud.  They weren't.  There are plenty of jobs out there and you have to find the right fit for you. 3.  Don't talk about what you did or do.  Talk about what you will do.  Don't say "We" do this or "We" use this tool.  Say, "I...

As I look for my next opportunity to help a company scale and advance their IT organization, I have seen many interesting job postings.   Examples: 1. Must have experience in XYZ framework.  During the interview I asked if they were just now rolling out the framework or was it fairly mature.  The hiring manager says, what is that?  I said it was mentioned 3 times in you job posting.  2.  Many DevOps Directors or even VP of DevOps.  Then, you review the job description and it seems like every buzz word they could find. 3. I talked a recruiter at one company and I couldn't remember where I had heard of them.  Then, I remembered one of their founders was a popular guy in Tech now.  Everything they said they needed, was what the guy promotes all over the world.  How did they lose touch with a founders principles so fast. With all that said, it is really hard to get noticed or get interviews today.  Then, you get on the interview an...

 This article is a good summary of things to consider on your DevOps journey.  We should just be careful to say what is right or wrong for any organization.   13 Clues to good devops

 This is an excellent report for all IT Pros and Engineers.   Highlights: Storage is most impacted solution Open security groups or network configuration Secrets are not so secret Unused resources are not secure. Take a look at these.  Look again.  These are not highly skilled problems.  They just need guidelines and proactive management.  The article uses policy as code as a solution for many of the problems.  I will drill into each of these more in the future.  I wanted to get the awareness out first and then, come back to solutions.  

 Yes, I know.  It has been a while.  I have been off honing my leadership skills helping a small company double in size rapidly.  I believe without DevOps and Remote Technologies our country would be even worse off than it is today.  The ability to pivot is DevOps.  The ability to think outside the box is DevOps.  The ability to work anywhere is DevOps.  Collaboration across teams and countries is DevOps.   We have been building these skills for years to be prepared for Covid19.