Happy, Happier, DevOps
The team over at Puppet Labs just released their 2014 study, “2014 State of DevOps Report”. According to Puppet Labs, this is the “largest and most comprehensive DevOps study to date.” Over 9,200 individuals from organizations of all sizes and a wide variety of businesses took the survey. Over 30% were from technology companies, including web software. About 30% of respondents identified themselves as workers in IT operations. In general, only few C-level personnel (2.3%) responded to the survey.
While many companies, larger enterprises in particular, are still in the early stages of DevOps; the report confirms the undeniable improvements to process, performance, and output of IT organizations applying DevOps practices. Puppet Labs did a similar report a year ago and found improved performance of teams practicing DevOps since then.
The report mentions 5 predictors of high IT performance (I changed the order 
):
- High Trust culture
- Win-win relationship between dev and ops
- Peer-reviewed change approval process
- Version control for all production
- Proactive monitoring
Happier with DevOps
One very interesting finding is the influence of DevOps-style work environments have on job satisfaction. As we all know from personal experience, the happier you are in your job and with what you do, the better your performance.
“We mentioned the virtuous circle earlier in reference to IT performance, and we see it at work here, too: People who feel supported by their employers, who have the tools and resources to do their work, and who feel their judgment is valued, turn out better work. Better work results in higher IT performance, which results in a higher level of organizational performance.
This cycle of continuous improvement and learning is what sets successful companies apart, enabling them to innovate, get ahead of the competition — and win."
Performance through empathy
The report closes with a good set of recommendations for teams embarking on their DevOps journey - practitioners and managers. One of the many sound recommendations that stands out for me is about empathy:
Work with other teams, and find ways to build empathy. Building bridges between teams will increase your understanding of the challenges at every point in the lifecycle. As a developer, try to put yourself in the shoes of the operations team: How will they monitor and deploy your software? As an ops person, think about how to help devs get feedback on whether their software will work in production.
A great report with lots of valuable insight. I just wish the report would contain more detailed numbers.
You find the full study on the Puppet Labs website.
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