The New Hybrid: DevOps
Interesting article about a topic I've been discussing quite a bit lately: the notion of "DevOps".
http://somic.org/2010/03/02/the-rise-of-devops/ I'm a firm believer that everyone in IT should be a developer. For example, QA needs to be able to create test scripts, automate processes, and generate coverage reports. Ops needs to be able to develop scripts to automate monitoring, troubleshooting, provisioning, and capacity management. One of the problems in enterprise IT is hiring people who don't have development skills because their job title isn't "developer" or "programmer". The ability to write software and automate processes needs to become the norm in IT if we're going to progress beyond silos of responsibility and truly work together as a team. Being able to write software is a basic skill now and should be part of every job description. This transition is similar to the changeover from the "spreadsheet specialists" of 15-20 years ago who knew the intricacies of Lotus 1-2-3 or Microsoft Excel to the current day where everyone uses spreadsheets and word processors as part of their daily life. IT always wants to work smarter, cheaper, and more consistently - these are the by-products of good software development efforts. It's time to spread those benefits across the organization.
