#71: The World of DevOps with Carlos Nunez

In this episode, Brian dives into the world of DevOps with guest Carlos Nunez. Listen in as they explore the origins, debunk myths, and unlock the potential of DevOps in optimizing software delivery on the Agile Mentors Podcast.

Overview

On this episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, join Brian as he welcomes guest Carlos Nunez, to explore the origins, debunk myths, and unlock the potential of DevOps in optimizing software delivery.

Listen in to explore DevOps, its tools, and its profound impact on fostering effective communication and collaboration between development and operations teams.

Listen Now to Discover:

[01:18] - Brian welcomes his special guest Carlos Nunez, a DevOps consultant at VMWare, to discuss DevOps and its relationship with Agile.
[02:40] - Carlos introduces the concept of DevOps and the need for collaboration between development and operations and the importance of both sides understanding each other's work to improve communication and efficiency in software delivery.
[03:36] - What DevOps is not. Brian and Carlos discuss the various aspects of development, testing, and deployment in software development.
[04:25] – Carlos shares a common misapplication of DevOps.
[05:35] - Fostering a culture of communication and collaboration rather than using technical knowledge to obstruct progress and create bottlenecks.
[05:48] - Brian shares the core concept of DevOps with the agile mindset.
[06:20] - Brian asks Carlos why DevOps was developed and what can be gained when teams advance their DevOps practices.
[06:30] - Carlos discusses the origin of DevOps, (hint: it started at an Agile conference).
[07:05] - How DevOps can enhance team operations by fostering better communication and collaboration between developers and operators.
[08:35] - The importance of looking at software and operating systems holistically.
[09:54] - Brian expands on the importance of breaking down rigid skill boundaries to work more efficiently to enhance teamwork and results.
[10:40] - Carlos discusses the common issue of Scrum Masters who only focus on facilitating ceremonies without understanding the product aspect.
[11:57] - Are Scrum Masters still effective?
[12:49] - Brian delves into the relationship between DevOps and Agile, addressing occasional pushback from DevOps practitioners who claim that DevOps and Agile don't work well together.
[13:16] - Carlos shares insights from his talk, where he explored criticisms of Agile from DevOps practitioners, where some of the criticism originates from and his thoughts on the negative perception.
[15:15] - Are you thinking about getting certified as a Scrub Master? If so, you will want to check out the resources and training options with our sponsor, Mountain Goat Software. They run certification classes every week. Each course comes with 4 hours of training videos from Mike Cohn and includes twelve months of membership in the Agile Mentors Community. You can find the schedule here.
[16:34] - Brian asks about the categories of software that people use in DevOps.
[16:41] - Carlos discusses DevOps tools and approaches, categorizing them into two ways: traditional Agile tooling and pragmatic programmer-type tools.
[18:19] - Carlos highlights the significance of behavior-driven development (BDD) as the second bridge between DevOps and the broader business while noting that BDD tools are generally user-friendly and can help enhance collaboration between different roles in the software development process.
[19:20] - How test-driven development (TDD) forms a bridge between developers and operators, allowing both to understand how to write tests, get them to pass, and refactor—like the developer's "red, green, refactor" process.
[20:25] - Carlos discusses Jira, a widely recognized (and polarizing) Agile tool, and the two reasons he prefers it.
[22:19] - Carlos discusses how the concept of story points can sometimes turn into person-hours. He emphasizes that the key is to focus on addressing the process to make it more effective and user-friendly.
[23:12] - Why story trackers are crucial for operations teams.
[23:55] - Brian offers his take on Jira.
[24:35] - Carlos highlights the importance of CI/CD build systems and value stream mapping to understand the path from inception to production.
[26:31] - Carlos highlights that having DevOps tools is important but not sufficient.
[27:37] - How people with DevOps skills add value.
[28:12] - You can find Carlos’ teaching on LinkedIn Learning, including DevOps Foundations, Kubernetes fundamentals, his Docker Essential Training Online Class, and more.
[31:07] - Brian offers a big shout-out to Carlos for coming on the show. If you want to connect with Carlos, you can email him here.
[32:33] - If you like this more technical episode, email us and let us know. As always we’d like to invite you to subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts. Do you have feedback or a great idea for an episode of the show? Great! Just send us an email.
[33:49] - Brian sends a special thank you to all Agile Mentors Podcast listeners.

References and resources mentioned in the show:

Email Carlos Nunez
LinkedIn Learning Courses By Carlos Nunez
Carlos’ DevOps and Agile Slides From the Agile 2023 Conference
Agile Mentors Podcast from Mountain Goat Software
Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts
Certified Scrum Master Training and Scrum Certification
Certified Scrum Product Owner Training
Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner®
Advanced Certified ScrumMaster®
Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum and Agile Training Schedule
Join the Agile Mentors Community
Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts

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This episode’s presenters are:

Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Carlos Nunez is a DevOps consultant at VMWare, who enjoys making engineering and product development in complex environments fun, fast, and profitable through DevOps, everything-as-code, and clean software. You can find his training courses on LinkedIn Learning.