To me the biggest problem is the same problem that always crops up: the people who sign the checks (the "business owners") don't fundamentally "get" this stuff, nor do they particularly care. And so there's a perpetual "impedance mismatch" where you may want to do things a certain way because you believe in (devops|agile|CMMI|OOP|function points|whatever) and the business people won't support you because they don't understand or care.
They just want results. They see IT/development as a "black box" where the internals can be ignored. It's usually only when you get companies founded by techies, or a handful of visionary types who really see the fusion of tech & business, that you get away from that.
So my take? Sure, go into DevOps. Read the books, read the blogs, watch the videos, learn the "received wisdom." But try not to be overly disappointed when you're unable to implement things exactly according to that wisdom in practice. Do the best you can and accept that there are some things you can't control. Or, start your own company where you can control them.
Technical founders help, but it's not required. Structured goal setting, call it OKRs if you want, is the secret sauce. Can't just cargo cult it. Has to be an entire company working together towards goals. That's where the dream of DevOps happens.
Best example I can give is the lore of SpaceX's spending policy. Every purchase was authorized, if it could get the company to Mars faster. True? IDK, I wasn't there, but it's the type of clarity most companies struggle to define. There is no DevOps without that clarity.
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To me the biggest problem is the same problem that always crops up: the people who sign the checks (the "business owners") don't fundamentally "get" this stuff, nor do they particularly care. And so there's a perpetual "impedance mismatch" where you may want to do things a certain way because you believe in (devops|agile|CMMI|OOP|function points|whatever) and the business people won't support you because they don't understand or care.
They just want results. They see IT/development as a "black box" where the internals can be ignored. It's usually only when you get companies founded by techies, or a handful of visionary types who really see the fusion of tech & business, that you get away from that.
So my take? Sure, go into DevOps. Read the books, read the blogs, watch the videos, learn the "received wisdom." But try not to be overly disappointed when you're unable to implement things exactly according to that wisdom in practice. Do the best you can and accept that there are some things you can't control. Or, start your own company where you can control them.
Technical founders help, but it's not required. Structured goal setting, call it OKRs if you want, is the secret sauce. Can't just cargo cult it. Has to be an entire company working together towards goals. That's where the dream of DevOps happens.
Best example I can give is the lore of SpaceX's spending policy. Every purchase was authorized, if it could get the company to Mars faster. True? IDK, I wasn't there, but it's the type of clarity most companies struggle to define. There is no DevOps without that clarity.