Applying to DevOps

You’re probably not trying to necessarily buy a new tool as your first step to adopting DevOps. Most likely you’re trying to get another team to agree to do something as a partnership with you.

Let’s take Containerized CI builds as an example. Let’s say you have Jenkins doing your CI builds and you use Java. You have another team install and manage the Java version you need on the Jenkins server, they also manage Jenkins itself. If you need a new version of Java for some project, normally you’d ask them to install that new version and patch it for you.

You see how building with Java containers could be simpler both for your development team but also for the other team.

Look at it from another perspective, the operations folks. You’re asking them to install new software on their servers that they’re never managed before to run stuff that they feel might replace their job. They have a lot of unknowns and long-term implications of doing this that is scary.

Before trying to pitch this work and burning bridges with anger to the resistance to change, try this approach.