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Key Summary
This article from InApps Technology, published in 2022 and authored by Phu Nguyen, recaps an InApps Technology Makers podcast episode featuring Gene Kim, author of The Unicorn Project and co-author of The Phoenix Project. It explores the challenges developers face in modern DevOps environments, despite advancements in open-source tools and Git repositories. Through the fictional character Maxine in The Unicorn Project, Kim illustrates the developer struggles with bureaucratic organizational cultures and clueless business leaders who hinder innovation. Maxine’s journey, marked by excessive red tape (e.g., needing “30 tickets” for basic tasks), reflects real-world frustrations. Kim emphasizes the need for management support to enable DevOps transformation, fostering workplace engagement and joyful work environments. The article underscores that all companies are now software companies, and business leaders must understand DevOps to ensure enterprise survival.
- Context:
- Author: Phu Nguyen, summarizing insights from Gene Kim in an InApps Technology Makers podcast.
- Theme: The Unicorn Project highlights developers’ struggles in dysfunctional DevOps environments and the critical role of management alignment in fostering innovation.
- Sponsor: CloudBees, a leader in DevOps tools and services.
- Key Points:
- Developer Challenges:
- Despite a DevOps Renaissance with advanced open-source tools and production pipelines, developers face bureaucratic obstacles (e.g., excessive ticketing, delayed onboarding).
- Maxine’s Plight: In The Unicorn Project, Maxine’s struggles (e.g., needing “30 tickets” for license keys or environments) mirror real-world developer frustrations in rigid organizations.
- Management Disconnect:
- Many business leaders lack understanding of DevOps, failing to support developers’ creative potential, leading to low engagement and punitive cultures.
- Impact: Environments where “every mistake is punished” and “no one has time to help” stifle innovation and productivity.
- DevOps Evolution:
- Since The Phoenix Project (published ~2013), DevOps has transformed how companies operate as software-driven enterprises.
- The Unicorn Project (2019) provides a fictional case study showing how developers, with management backing, can drive DevOps transformation.
- Key Takeaways:
- Developers’ Power: Despite challenges, developers can drive change by advocating for better tools and processes.
- Business Leaders’ Role: Must recognize the importance of DevOps for enterprise survival, fostering environments where work is engaging and mission-driven.
- Workplace Joy: Kim stresses creating workplaces where developers find joy and purpose, contrasting with oversubscribed, unhelpful systems.
- Broader Insight:
- All companies are now software companies, requiring DevOps fluency across roles, from developers to business stakeholders.
- The Unicorn Project is a must-read for DevOps stakeholders, offering actionable insights into overcoming organizational barriers.
- Developer Challenges:
- InApps Insight:
- InApps Technology, ranked 1st in Vietnam and 5th in Southeast Asia for app and software development, specializes in DevOps solutions, using React Native, ReactJS, Node.js, Vue.js, Microsoft’s Power Platform, Azure, Power Fx (low-code), Azure Durable Functions, and GraphQL APIs (e.g., Apollo).
- Offers outsourcing services for startups and enterprises, delivering cost-effective solutions at 30% of local vendor costs, supported by Vietnam’s 430,000 software developers and 1.03 million ICT professionals.
- Relevance: Expertise in DevOps and cloud-native development aligns with implementing efficient pipelines and fostering collaborative cultures as advocated in The Unicorn Project.
- Call to Action:
- Contact InApps Technology at www.inapps.net or sales@inapps.net to develop DevOps-driven applications or streamline software delivery pipelines for organizational transformation.
Read more about ‘The Unicorn Project’ Author Gene Kim on Why Management Still Doesn’t ‘Get It’ – InApps Technology at Wikipedia
You can find content about ‘The Unicorn Project’ Author Gene Kim on Why Management Still Doesn’t ‘Get It’ – InApps Technology from the Wikipedia website
CloudBees sponsored this podcast.
Many might believe developers are living in a period they could only have dreamed of just 10 years ago. With the explosion of open source tools, the only thing between the software engineer and access to many new and exciting ways to create, deploy and manage code, are always-improving Git repositories. They also often share how ongoing improvement to DevOps, with these new tools, translates into production pipelines that are having a profound effect on how all companies, as software companies, are created and run.
And yet…
Your day-to-day life as a developer is likely not that Renaissance-esque as some would think. Sure, you might have some great science projects going on at home or at work, but the company you are working for and the DevOps structure — that is, if your company even has a working DevOps — might foster an ingrained culture with often clueless business leaders preventing developers from applying their creative magic to allow the enterprise they are working for to offer great things.
However, the developer still has the power to make a difference, even though it may not seem that way oftentimes. You might, for example, feel just “doing your job” and staying out of trouble is the best you can do before going home at night to sit in front of Netflix as you hammer out code for a great open source project you are contributing to in your free time. But, regardless of how dismal things might seem at work, there are always rays of hope.
Maxine, the fictional character in Gene Kim’s latest book “The Unicorn Project,” likely shares your plight as a developer. She should also be of interest to any DevOps stakeholder including, of course, the business leaders. In this edition of InApps Technology Makers podcast, Kim, who is also the co-author of the seminal and now classic DevOps guide “The Phoenix Project,” discusses Maxine’s daily struggles and — without disclosing spoilers — successes and how they reflect developers’ lives today.
Gene Kim – “The Unicorn Project”
Also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, PlayerFM, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn
Maxine shares the developer’s modern-day angst in this paradoxically open source and DevOps Renaissance. While her plight is fictional, Maxine shows how developers, with management’s backing, can transform an enterprise’s DevOps with this from-the-front-lines fictionalized case study with human drama to spare.
And, of course, it is never easy, whether you are trying to convince management to back you or your team to implement DevOps — or if you are Maxine in “The Unicorn Project.” In the first third of the book, Maxine is stranded on an island and “everything requires a ticket — not one ticket but like 30 tickets,” Kim said. “She’s having to pester people to get even license keys or environments,” Kim said.
Kim also discusses a number of other themes in speaking about how DevOps has changed during the past five years since the publication of “The Phoenix Project,” which, with “The Unicorn Project,” should absolutely be must reading for anybody involved in DevOps. This holds true whether you are a developer, a team manager or a business stakeholder who might be clueless about programming, but is at least curious about how becoming a technology company is crucial for any enterprise’s survival.
In other words, a key takeaway for business leaders who do not necessarily “get it” when discussing DevOps or what is involved, should be aware of the consequences. As Kim tries to convey in “The Unicorn Project,” for the DevOps team member, it is no fun to “when you can’t do anything for 30 days right and every little mistake is punished,” he said. “Everyone’s oversubscribed — no one has time to help you get on-boarded and learn the tools, or even get the tools to you,” Kim said.
“It’s the opposite of what we want work to feel like. And so I think most business leaders really care about workplace engagement and the feeling that you’re on a mission that you want to be on with work, you can get joy out of,” he said.
Feature image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay.
Source: InApps.net
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