The fundamental idea behind DevOps is simple: by including people with operations and security skills as part of the team, we make it possible to build operability and security into the software, rather than adding it as an afterthought. In this session, Jessica Kerr joins us to explore these ideas further.

Jessica Kerr is a software developer, speaker, and symmathecist—a participant in a system where people, tools, and software all learn from each other. She works to maximize the flow of learning within such systems, and between those systems and their environments. Jessica works on observability at Honeycomb, teaching code to teach us what’s happening.

Reading:
📖 DevOps chapter intro
📖 Build for Operation

🎙 Discussion prompts:

• What does DevOps mean to you? How is that different from what organizations actually do?

• Operations and security are often treated as an afterthought. What are the benefits of building for operability and security from the beginning? What does it look like in practice?

• What does it mean for software to be observable? Given a limited budget, which aspects of observability would you prioritize first?

• What are some common mistakes you see developers make in the name of operability and security?

About the Book Club

From October 2021 to August 2022, I hosted a call-in talk show based on the second edition of The Art of Agile Development. The series used the book as a jumping-off point for wide-ranging discussions about Agile ideas and practices, and had a star-studded guest list.

For an archive of past sessions, visit the book club index. For more about the book, visit the Art of Agile Development home page.