Jeff Smith on DevOps Antipatterns

In this episode of Semaphore Uncut, Jeff Smith, DevOps advocate, director of Ops at Centro, and author of the book Operations Anti-patterns, DevOps Solutions, talks about adapting DevOps patterns and avoiding pitfalls as companies grow out from startup to full size. We talk about the types of engineers companies need as they evolve and how to achieve the right balance between letting your engineers experiment and keeping things sane.

Key takeaways:

• The usual way companies implement change management doesn't work.
• There are three types of engineers. Companies need the right mix as they scale.
• Self-contained teams make better decisions about DevOps patterns they adopt.
• Engineers need the freedom to experiment and fail.
• At the same time, adding new technologies has a cost. Companies need to balance innovation with standardization.