Lessons Learned From DOES 2017

DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) 2017, San Francisco, CA
- 13 Keynotes
- 36 Breakout Sessions
- 15 Sponsored Learning Tracks
Lessons Learned
- Other shops like us have gone through successful Agile Transformation, so you can and will
- Even organizations that have gone through successful transformations still have to deal with culture debt
- We’re on the right track with our DevOps transformation, just need a few key adjustments
- Transformation needs to pay down 3 debts; technical, process, and culture
- The DevOps community is very pragmatic
- Most attendees and speakers were in IT Leadership roles
- Your company should be represented on stage at DOES 2019

Ah, it’s that time of the year again. DevOps Enterprise Summit 2018 is around the corner. A handful of my colleagues and I attended the 2017 DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) Conference in San Francisco. It wasn’t the usual SF we’ve come to know; it was cool, raining and grey. That kept everyone in the conference ballrooms. Perfect conference weather. After 13 conference keynotes, 36 breakout sessions, and 15 sponsor-led workshops, below are a summary of what I came away with from the conference.

Other shops like yours have gone through successful Agile/DevOps Transformations

Small shops and enterprise organizations alike (Verizon, Capital One, Nike, Disney, Barclays and more) discussed transformation journeys that are quite similar to yours. It was encouraging to see that possibility for a company of any size. They discussed their challenges and strategies that led to success.

Even successful transformations still have to deal with culture debt

A recurring theme throughout the conference was paying down cultural debt. While there were a variety of approaches, it was abundantly clear that cultural debt affected companies large and small, beginner or advanced in DevOps adoption.

We’re on the right track with our DevOps transformation, just need a few key adjustments

Most encouraging was discovering that we’re right on track with our plan. From an implementation perspective, we may need to refine our processes by leveraging other’s experiences, but we’re taking the necessary steps in the right direction with our goals, workshops, Community of Practice, alignment with the Agile CoE, etc

Transformation needs to pay down 3 debts, technical, process, and culture

Understanding that we couldn’t just buy and implement tools alone was critical. While we knew about culture debt, process debt was fairly new. Elevating the process constraint is now a high priority as we try to foster collaboration between operations, quality, and development.

The DevOps community is very pragmatic

Finding one’s professional identity is pretty important. I came away from the conference extremely proud of being a part of the DevOps community. It’s filled with practical, passionate, reality-based, outcome-based, business focused individuals. People who want to win in the most responsible way and who are willing to share what they’ve learned with others.

Most in attendance were in IT Leadership roles

A big surprise was the professional roles of the audience. I was surprised to find a lot of managers, directors, vice presidents etc; from the speakers to the attendees. This showed me companies are taking DevOps extremely serious and vital to their success. And also some ideas about who should attend next year.

Your company should be represented on stage at DOES 2019

After seeing so many similar (if only in size) companies presenting and showing their DevOps wins and capabilities, I was convinced that your on behalf of your company should aim to present at the 2019 conference. How to get there? Well, everything we do from now on must lead to getting us there. Set goals, measure, and plan towards presenting your wins are DOES 2019.