“DevOps Culture and Practice with OpenShift”: The experience-driven, real world guide to building empowered teams

With a wealth of information about DevOps adoption readily available on the market, a group of Red Hatters felt that some critical elements were missing—pieces they've found to be successful in their own work with customers adopting DevOps. 

Technology is the cornerstone of DevOps adoption, but containers and Kubernetes need DevOps practices to maximize the business impact of modern application platforms. The team pivoted to focus not just on the technology, but on those practices and the role that people, process, and culture play in supporting the technology; a key change in approach that is imperative to success.

Background

“DevOps Culture and Practice with OpenShift” is the result of a years-long effort by five dedicated authors who met on a chilly week in the UK, to chronicle, collaborate and ultimately create the plan for this book. Their goal was to help individuals and organizations build the empowered teams needed to be successful; all underpinned by a metrics-driven approach to measure success. 

The team consists of solution architects and engagement leads Tim Beattie, Mike Hepburn, Noel O’Connor, Dónal Spring, and Ilaria Doria. They apply their experiences with customers, agile philosophy, tools from the Open Practice Library, and a little bit of old-fashioned humor, to provide insights, practical advice, and illustrative stories to readers looking to advance their adoption of DevOps practices. And yes, there is techy stuff in the book—because the truth is, successful adoption needs solid technology. 

Iterate and move forward

As the first chapters took shape, the authors continued to integrate their professional experiences into shaping the process. In much the same way they work with customers to create and deliver products using agile processes, the book became their product. 

Staying true to those ideologies, the team followed the proven process of release early, gather feedback, iterate and move forward. To implement this and make the process truly open, a blog and survey were created and socialized globally. Readers reviewed the first three chapters and were asked for their candid feedback about how likely they would be to read the rest of the book, what they liked or disliked, and their general thoughts. By using the same open source approach the book is based on, they now had validation on their approach, understanding of the global perspective, and some fresh ideas to explore. 

Show, not tell

The most compelling parts of the book center around real world customer stories from the team’s own experience—they call it “show, not tell.” Readers are immersed in these engagements both visually and narratively through photos and stories. 

Relating the process, the outcomes, and even some of the pitfalls that organizations have faced while adopting a DevOps approach, gives readers real insight into what their own journey might look like, along with the tools to manage those challenges. 

Let’s dive in

The book is broken up into seven sections, each addressing a different step in the DevOps journey. It’s been compared to a “travel guide” in that readers can jump right into the part that resonates with them, or look for inspiration in other sections. 

Do you need to establish your foundation, learn continuous delivery methods, organize by business value and risk, or dive into the technology? Get the DevOps Culture and Practice with OpenShift e-books here!