What the Devil Teaches Me About DevOps

This is not a text about religion, but rather about the lessons we can draw from any experience, whether good or bad.

Why the Devil?

Regardless of your religious beliefs or the existence of the devil, what matters here is being open to learning from everything around us. According to the dictionary, the word “devil” comes from Greek and means “one who denies” – one who does everything to deny the truth. I am not here to preach, but as a mentor, I want to guide you beyond the confusion that the IT market currently faces.

Nowadays, we see many flashy titles: DevOps Engineer, Platform Engineer, SRE, among others. These are labels created to identify professionals with knowledge in software development process automation or monitoring. However, the truth is that we don’t need fancy titles; we need to understand who we really are and what we do.

My experience

For a long time, I identified as a DevOps Engineer, but honestly, this profession shouldn’t exist. It contradicts what DevOps culture really means: integration, unity, communication, collaboration. Centralizing all knowledge of automation or infrastructure in one person goes against these principles.

It’s as if we are denying the truth within the IT industry itself. DevOps culture emerged to break paradigms and promote collaborative work, but we insist on staying within our boxes, assigning fancy titles without implementing the true spirit behind this culture.

DevOps should be a construction that involves the entire company, not just a team or an individual. First, it involves people – and it is people who need to adopt new habits. DevOps relates to processes, adjusted based on behavioral changes. Finally, DevOps involves automation, so that the adjusted processes are not repetitive.

There is no point in hiring more “DevOps Engineers” or “Platform Engineers” and trying to implement Continuous Delivery if people do not understand or live this concept. We should not deny what DevOps really is by pretending it’s just a job title, distorting a culture that brings results because leaders do not want to change their habits.

What really is DevOps?

DevOps is not about tools or processes. Primarily, DevOps is about people. Changes must occur in people – with more collaboration, willingness to step out of the comfort zone, openness to understand and explain to others.

Before criticizing me for seemingly undervaluing automation tools and processes, know that everything has its place. DevOps is a complete set, but built on an essential foundation: culture.

Share your opinion! What do you think about the cultural transformations necessary in the IT sector? Do you agree that DevOps is more about people and culture than tools and titles? Leave your comment below, and let’s continue this conversation! If this text resonated with you, share it with your colleagues to broaden the discussion.

Schedule a call and let’s change the IT World, putting the DevOps in the right way.