In our July 2021 edition of interview series, we have been fortunate to briefly speak with Richard Hundhausen about DevOps as a IT skills for leaders. He also shared views on up-skilling with certification courses and where the DevOps community heading.
Let’s read;
Q1. DevOps is one of the hottest buzzwords in the industry these days. Why do you think it is much more than a buzz?
Richard: I don’t. I think DevOps is the latest attempt to solve people/cultural problems via tools.
Q2. Is continuous integration a must?
Richard: It’s not. If teams swarm/mob, they will “integrate” continuously.
Q3.Please suggest top 3 DevOps skills IT leaders need for the next normal.
Richard:
- How to enable/foster self-managing teams,
- How to enable/foster the Scrum values (commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect),
- How to stop managing (in a traditional way) and start leading (by helping remove impediments, assisting in organisational change, Gemba walks, etc.).
Q4. What is your view on up-skilling with certification courses?
Richard: Learning is always important and organisations/leaders should foster a culture of learning. The need/desire for certification should be secondary to that, if at all.
Q5.What is the inspiration behind writing ‘Professional Scrum Development with Azure DevOps’?
Richard: Many teams and organistions still think that tools will solve their problems. They won’t. People solve problems. For those still thinking that the next shiny button, branching strategy, or automated test platform will help them arrive at DevOps, they are in for more of the same. My book dispels these myths while explaining how to break the cycle. (Hint: it’s about the people, not the process or tools).
Q6. Where do you think the DevOps community is heading in the next 5 years?
Richard: The community is moving at a fast pace right back to where it started, which is discouraging. It’s also why the message of Professional Scrum, as hard as it is to hear, is so important as it can be used to address the underlying impediments and conditions while introducing empiricism so that the people doing the work (not the managers or tools) can improve their own conditions.
Richard is the president of Accentient, a company that helps software teams deliver better products by understanding and leveraging Scrum and DevOps. He is a certified Professional Scrum Trainer, author of Professional Scrum Development with Microsoft Visual Studio, and co-creator of the Nexus scaled Scrum framework. As a software developer and consultant with over 30 years of experience, Richard understands that software is built and delivered by people and not by processes or tools.