Skip to main content

conclusion

Key Takeaways​

Crafting compelling narratives

  • The 7 C's of communication: Clear, concise, correct, coherent, complete, concrete, courteous
  • Tailoring messages to medium and audience
  • The importance of non-verbal communication

Leading with impact

  • Core concepts in effective leadership: Clear communication, collaboration, continuous improvement, experimentation, recognition
  • Guiding, supporting, and trusting team members
  • Fostering collaboration, continuous improvement, experimentation, and recognition
  • Aligning words and actions to build trust

Fostering team alignment

  • Social interactions and informal spaces: Coffee break, lunch, etc.
  • Teaching and learning together strengthens bonds
  • Co-creating and mobbing for enhanced outcomes
  • Social interactions and informal spaces foster creativity and cohesion

Navigating priorities and tasks effectively

  • Prioritization as an art: Strategic, adaptive, well-communicated
  • Time management as a science: Techniques, tools, overcoming challenges
  • Capacity planning as magic: Aligning effort, preventing burnout, visualizing work

Embracing continual evolution

  • Cycle of continuous learning and growth: Learning new skills → Applying in practice → Receiving feedback → Refining approaches → [Repeat]
  • Learning as a necessity for staying relevant
  • Integrating learning into daily work, creating supportive environments
  • Overcoming discomfort, stagnation and embracing new ideas and skills

Managing clients all around us

  • Various stakeholders involved in DevOps: Boss, coworker, employee, client
  • Identifying and aligning with leadership peers
  • Collaborating with internal and external clients
  • Critical thinking, problem-solving, and methodical appr

Summary

  • This section highlighted the journey you have taken through the various soft skills presented here
  • Creating meaningful communication, managing clients, navigating priorities, and creating awesome teams were the topics covered here
  • Our last video will show a possible moment to bring all these things together
  • Next, a checklist of both additional resources and new experiments to try will be provided

A Week by Week Checklist of Skill Building​

Communication

  • Active listening
  • Clear and concise writing: When writing emails or other documents, focus on the 7 C's of communication
    • Clear
    • Concise
    • Correct
    • Coherent
    • Complete
    • Concrete
    • Courteous

Leadership and empowerment

  • Empowering and supporting team members, peers, and employees
  • Reflecting on leadership style
  • Seeking feedbacks from frank collaborators

Building trust

  • Psychological safety, vulnerability, and trust
  • Initiate conversations about having an honest and frank environment for real conversations about the work and challenges
  • Practice vulnerability by sharing a challenge or mistake or a lesson learned
  • Establish some ways of working that set norms for respectful communication and behavior or reinforce what you already have

Collaboration and trust

  • Organize a knowledge sharing session (30 min minimum)
  • Facilitate the creation of learning circles, guilds, tribes, or some other subject-focused group
  • Do a session of pair programming either for a problem you have or with someone else (can be done with any building experience)
  • Get a group of people together and solve a problem, whether it is troubleshooting or a decision (mobbing)

Prioritization and time management

  • Time blocking
  • Pomodoro technique
  • Visual representation of priorities
  • Sharing priorities with the team

Continuous learning and growth

  • Personal learning goals
  • Learning plans
  • Sharing learning journeys
  • Seeking input and support

What to do?

  • Reflection and self-assessment
  • Identifying areas for growth
  • Committing to ongoing practice
  • Continuous improvement

Summary

  • Weeks
    • Week 1: Communication
    • Week 2: Leadership and empowerment
    • Week 3: Building trust
    • Week 4: Collaboration and trust
    • Week 5: Prioritization and time management
    • Week 6: Continuous learning and growth
    • Week 7: What to do?
  • Communication, empowerment, prioritization, collaboration, and continuous learning were some of the topics covered in this section
  • Developing DevOps soft skills is an ongoing journey that requires focus, commitment, and repeated practice
  • In the end, what you practice will be about what you want and need to improve the most
  • The next section will cover learning resources for a deeper exploration of these topics

Story - An End of the Beginning​

Context

  • Samantha is an imaginary DevOps engineer working on a critical project with a tight deadline
  • The project involves collaboration across multiple siloed teams: Development, testing, operations, QA, project management, machine learning, and database teams
  • Samantha faces challenges requiring soft skills like active listening, empathy, collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, and adaptability
  • Each scenario illustrates how Samantha applies these skills to address specific issues during the project lifecycle

Actions and result

  • Addressing development team concerns
    • Samantha actively listens to John, the lead developer, who expresses concerns about meeting deadlines due to limited resources. She empathizes, acknowledges his worries, and proposes breaking tasks into smaller, prioritized chunks based on must-haves versus need-to-haves
    • John appreciates her approach, agrees to the plan, and collaborates to create a realistic timeline, aligning the team on high-impact priorities
  • Resolving testing phase issues
    • Samantha notices issues with automation scripts during testing. Instead of escalating, she collaborates directly with QA lead Emily to identify the root cause. She maintains transparent communication across teams, sharing updates and lessons learned
    • Samantha and Emily fix the scripts, resolve the blocker, and empower all teams with shared knowledge, keeping the project on track
  • Handling deployment delays
    • When the operations team reports slow deployment processes, Samantha schedules a meeting with operations lead Mike. Despite Mike's frustration and blame toward the development environment, she remains calm, uses conflict resolution to deescalate, and proposes a collaborative approach to identify bottlenecks
    • The team optimizes the deployment process, significantly reducing deployment time, enabling on-time project delivery
  • Reflecting on leadership and success
    • After project completion, Samantha receives praise from her manager, Lisa, for her leadership and communication. She reflects on how soft skills enhanced her effectiveness as a DevOps engineer
    • Samantha recognizes her growth, becoming a more valuable team member, and the project succeeds due to her ability to foster collaboration, manage expectations, and adapt to challenges

Conclusion​

Mastering DevOps soft skills for engineers

  • Soft skills are just as important as technical skills in the DevOps world
  • Effective communication, leadership, collaboration, and continuous learning are crucial for success
  • Building trust and psychological safety within your team fosters innovation and resilience
  • Prioritization and time management skills help you stay agile and adaptable in a fast-paced environment

The power of soft skills in DevOps

  • Break down silos and foster a culture of shared ownership and accountability
  • Facilitate smooth and efficient workflows across development, operations, and other stakeholders
  • Drive continuous improvement and innovation through open and honest feedback

Your journey continues

  • Practice, practice, practice! → Embrace challenges → Continuous learning → Champion for collaboration → Trust and psychological safety

Your impact on the future of DevOps

  • Lead by example and inspire others to prioritize soft skills development
  • Foster a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and improvement
  • Advocate for the importance of soft skills in hiring, training, and performance evaluations
  • Contribute to the wider DevOps community by sharing your experiences and insights

Call to action - Embrace the power of soft skills to enhance your career

  • Commit to ongoing practice and development of your soft skills
  • Seek out mentors, coaches, and learning opportunities to support your growth
  • Celebrate your successes and learn from your challenges along the way
  • Be a catalyst for positive change and help shape the future of DevOps in your organization and beyond
Last updated on