DevOps Isn't a Job. But It's Still Important

Every company today knows it needs DevOps. It’s just that no one can agree on what DevOps really is.
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Traditionally, companies have at least two main technical teams. There are the programmers, who code the software that the company sells, or that its employees use internally. And then there are the information technology operations staff, who handle everything from installing network gear to maintaining the servers that run those programmers’ code. The two teams only communicate when it’s time for the operations team to install a new version of the programmers’ software, or when things go wrong.

That’s the way it was at Munder Capital Management when J. Wolfgang Goerlich joined the Midwestern financial services company in 2005.

As a security specialist, Goerlich served as sort of a go-between for the developers, operations, and legal compliance staff, making sure everyone was building and maintaining technology safely while following all relevant laws. In 2011, Goerlich was promoted to the role of information systems and security manager and tasked with combining the development and operations teams into a single unified team, tearing down the walls that separated them.

‘It’s as fundamental a shift in the way we build technology as it was when we went from a hunter-gatherer society to a farmer society.’

Instead of speaking only occasionally, both the development and operations team would collaborate on the entire process of conceiving, building and maintaining software. The idea of creating such unified teams is called “DevOps.”

The important thing was, he says, getting away from the mindset of software projects as ever being complete. Instead, they should be thought of as ongoing processes that continue long after an application has been delivered to the user. That means thinking about updates, security fixes, and maintenance in a more holistic way.

“It’s as fundamental a shift in the way build technology as it was when we went from a hunter-gathering society to a farmer society,” he says. “We stop viewing as a one-and-done and think of it as a series of cycles over the entire lifecycle.”

What Does DevOps Actually Mean?

Dominica DeGrandis, who teaches DevOps techniques, tells us that thus far, DevOps has been mostly defined by what it isn’t, rather than by what it is. But she suggests that it can be described as a collection of practices that improves automation of IT processes, increases trust and collaboration between different departments, and speeds up the process of getting feedback from end-users.

The DevOps movement grew out of a related idea called agile software development. In 2001, a group of programmers published the in part, a response to that.

Since the term was first coined for an event in 2009, DevOps has become a trendy buzzword. The term has always been fraught with controversy, but the debate reached a fever pitch last year when tech marketer and humorist Jon Hendren branded himself as the “DevOps Thought Lord” and published a series of tweets and articles satirizing the entire movement.

But Hendren doesn’t hate the concept of DevOps. In fact, Hendren works as a marketer for a company called ScriptRock, which makes tools for DevOps teams. Cynically, Hendren’s Thought Lord antics could be read as a bizarre marketing campaign for the company’s product. But his core point remains that many people use the term DevOps, but their definitions are often so vague as to be meaningless.

“The problem with ‘learning DevOps’ or ‘doing DevOps’ is that the word means different things to different people,” he tells WIRED in an email. “Even the guy who came up with the term chooses to leave it without a solid definition, so the legion of ‘thought leaders’ surrounding it have twisted it every which way—usually to promote a product or e-book or certification program.”

Goerlich says a big part of the problem is a result of DevOps being a new idea. That means a lot of consultants and companies can jump on the bandwagon and no one can really say for sure that what they’re selling isn’t really DevOps. But he thinks over time that the practices will standardize. Even then, one thing he, DeGrandis, and Hendren all agree on is that DevOps will always be different at every company.

How To Prepare for a Career in DevOps

DeGrandis says DevOps isn’t really a job, it’s an organizational strategy. Goerlich agrees. He left Munder Capital in 2013 and now serves as a security strategist for a consulting firm called Creative Breakthroughs Inc., where he helps other IT departments adopt DevOps practices. But his job title doesn’t even include the word “DevOps.” For him, DevOps is just one of many strategies to help his customers make better and more secure software.

‘The legion of ‘thought leaders’ surrounding it have twisted it every which way–usually to promote a product or e-book or certification program.’ Jon Hendren, a.k.a. @fart

That said, there are skills that tech professionals can learn that will help them adapt to a DevOps way of thinking. Goerlich suggests IT operations staff get started by learning about automation tools like Puppet, Chef, and Microsoft’s PowerShell language. “Then use the time that frees up to spend more time with developers and end-users to understand what they’re doing and why,” he says.

Developers on the other hand should start by learning more about the infrastructure their applications actually run on, and by learning about tools for continuous integration, which help programmers manage constantly changing code bases.

Ultimately, DeGrandis says that DevOps is mostly about soft skills like listening, being adaptable and, mostly importantly, communicating—useful for any tech job, no matter what you call it.