DevOps Culture - The Practice of Cloud System Administration - page 185

First, make operations feedback available to the overall project team. This can take sev-
eral forms. Most commonly, organizations make monitoring available to developers and
ask them to do joint root causes analysis of issues or failures, identify recurring problems,
and collaborate on solutions.
Second, begin to embed product knowledge into operations. Invite developers to key
operations meetings on deployment and maintenance, and set escalation paths that involve
developers being reachable after hours.
Third, enable operations knowledge to be available during all project phases. This in-
volves operations being included in daily or weekly status meetings, being involved in pri-
oritization of the product backlog tasks, and being a full partner in planning meetings.
8.5.1 Getting Started
To start a DevOps relationship, you must first get off the computer and begin face-to-
facediscussions.Wheredoyoustart? Beginwithdevelopment, productmanagers, orother
members of the product team for the product(s) you support.
It is best to choose someone approachable, with whom you may already have some rap-
port. You can arrange a meeting or simply go get coffee some afternoon.
Your initial conversation should be about mutual problems that can be solved. As part
of the conversation, explain the improvements that could come from closer collaboration,
such as improved release efficiency or better operations response to developers' needs.
As you discuss problems to solve, you will find one that will be a good starting point
forajointDevOpsproject.Choosesomethingthathasobviousbenefitstothedevelopment
team rather than something that is primarily operations focused. It is best to describe the
project in terms of mutual benefits.
As part of the collaboration on this project, get in the habit of holding regular meetings
with the development and product teams. Attend their planning meetings, and invite them
to yours.
As you successfully complete your starter project, identify another project for collab-
oration. Good candidates are processes that affect both development and operations, such
as roll-outs or build toolchains. Involving multiple stakeholders from development, opera-
tions, and the product team is a good way to build relationships.
Once again, one easy way to measure your DevOps success is to ask, “Who do you go
to lunch with?” If you're routinely going to lunch with folks from development, network-
ing, release, or similar groups, chances are very good that you are doing DevOps.