While in Peru for DevDays LATAM 2016 I was asked if I had witnessed any DevOps anti-patterns. The first thing that came to mind was employees asking for permission to do the right thing for their company. Many customers meet with me and ask how they can convince their CIO or CEO that Agile and DevOps are good things. I simply tell them stop trying. Words will never convey the power and benefits of a well-run agile team or a mature DevOps pipeline. However, results will. Stop asking for permission to do the right thing for your company. Just start doing it today. If you do not have a continuous integration build, just create one. If you do not have a unit test for the code you just wrote, write one!
Put yourself in their shoes. Many of these people are leading very successful businesses that have become giants in their industry without Agile or DevOps. So why would they fix what they believe is not broken? To them, things are great and they are driving on the highway of success with clear road ahead. What they are failing to realize is those faint lights in their rearview mirror are their competition that is racing to catch them. Yes, today they are not a threat, but they are travelling so fast to catch up that by the time they pass you and you finally realize how fast they are going, there is no keeping up with them. They completely disrupt your industry like Amazon did for shopping and Uber did for transportation. Either embrace DevOps or lose to your competition that does.
Our customers are demanding constant innovation which can only be achieved with automation. If you fail to deliver what your customers desire they become someone else’s customers. It is much easier to keep a customer than to reclaim one you have lost.
Nothing ends a debate quicker than results. Deliver faster with higher quality. Only when your CIO or CEO asks how you did that do you explain Agile and DevOps to them. Not before.