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In a conversation today with Ken Mugrage (organizer of DevOps Days Seattle), the scope of the term 'DevOps' came up enough to purposely double-click into it.

'DevOps' Is (and Should Be) Limited In Scope

Ken's view is that the primary context for DevOps is in terms of culture, as opposed to processes, practices, or tools. To me, that's fine, but there's so much not accounted for that I feel I have to generalize a bit to get to where I'm comfortable parsing the hydra of topics in the space.

Like M-theory which attempts to draw relationships in how fundamental particles interact with each other, I think that DevOps is just a single view of a particular facet of the technology management gem.

DevOps is an implementation of a more general theory, a 'next' mindset over managing the hydra. DevOps addresses how developers and operations can more cohesively function together. Injecting all-the-things is counter to the scope of DevOps.

Zen-in: A New Management Theory for Everyone

Zen-in (ぜんいん[全員]) is a Japanese term that means 'everyone in the group'. It infers a boundary, but challenges you to think of who is inside that boundary. Is it you? Is it not them? Why not? Who decides? Why?

By 'management' theory, I don't mean another 'the silo of management'. I literally mean the need to manage complexity, personal, technological, and organizational. Abstracting up a bit, the general principals of this theory are:

  • Convergence (groups come together to accomplish a necessarily shared goal)
  • Inclusion (all parties have a voice, acceptance of constraints)
  • Focus (alignment and optimization of goal, strategies, and tactics)
  • Improvement (learning loops, resultant actions, measurement, skills, acceleration, workforce refactoring, effective recruiting)
  • Actualization (self-management, cultural equilibrium, personal fulfillment)

I'll be writing more on this moving forward as I explore each of these concepts, but for now I think I've found a basic framework that covers a lot of territory.

I Need Your Help to Evolve This Conversation

True to Zen-in, if you're reading this, you're already in the 'group'. Your opinions, questions, and perspectives are necessary to iterate over how these concepts fit together.

Share thoughts in the comments section below! Or ping me up on Twitter@paulsbruce or LinkedIn.

 

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