A Short History of DevOps explained how DevOps got started and how it acquired its name.
The origins of the DevOps movement are commonly placed around 2009, as the convergence of numerous adjacent and mutually reinforcing movements:
- The Velocity Conference movement, especially the seminal “10 Deploys A Day” presentation given by John Allspaw and Paul Hammond
- The “infrastructure as code” movement (Mark Burgess and Luke Kanies), the “Agile infrastructure” movement (Andrew Shafer) and the Agile system administration movement (Patrick DeBois)
- DevOps became an IT grassroots movement [over Twitter]. The movement folks created all new software which had the possibility of helping a lot of people. They were able to get it into big firms and different parts of the firms to create what DevOps is today.
For those of you still trying to figure out this whole DevOps thing, here is a good definition and summary.
What is DevOps?
Just trying to help you to comment. Feel free to comment on this or other articles you read, if you don't like my questions. See Assignments on D2L for more about this post.
Here is a powerpoint slide deck about DevOps that I created, with the help of Nicole Forsgren, a DevOps expert and also a previous Ph.D. student from our MIS dept, and Gene Kim's article on "The Top 11 Things You Need to Know About DevOps" D2L, Week 11.
ReplyDeleteImagine a world where product owners, Development, QA, IT Operations, and Infosec work together, not only to help each other, but to ensure that the overall organization succeeds. By working toward a common goal, they enable the fast flow of planned work into production (e.g., performing tens, hundreds, or even thousands of code deploys per day), while achieving world-class stability, reliability, availability, and security.
ReplyDeleteIn this world, cross-functional teams rigorously test their hypotheses of which features will most delight users and advance organizational goals. This enables organizations to create a safe system of work, where small teams are able to quickly and independently develop, test, and deploy code and value quickly, safely, securely, and reliably to customers. Simultaneously, QA, IT Operations and Infosec are always working on ways to reduce friction for the team, creating the work systems that enable developers to be more productive and get better outcomes. These are the outcomes that result from DevOps.
But for most of us in IT, this is not the world we live in. More often than not, the system we work in falls short of our true potential. In this world, Development and IT Operations are adversaries; testing and Infosec activities happen only at the end of a project, too late to correct any problems found; and almost any critical activity requires too much manual effort and too many handoffs, leaving us to always be waiting. As a result, we fall short of our goals, and the whole organization is dissatisfied with the performance of IT, resulting in budget reductions and frustrating employees who feel powerless to change the process and its outcomes. DevOps is a best way forward, but it is not an easy process.
Questions: From what you read, and your own experiences working in cross-functional project teams (at school or work), as well as your IT experiences, respond to these questions or consider others.
Q.1 Under what circumstances is it especially difficult dealing with people who have different backgrounds? This can be both your boss, other teammates, or those external to the team (e.g., clients).
Q.2 What are some of the factors that would create successful cross-functional teams, i.e., what work processes reduce friction for the team, creating work systems that enable more productivity and get better team/organizational outcomes?
From the slides and talks, we learn that DevOps is (1) tooling and automation implemented as Continuous Delivery, (2) practices and processes seen in Lean Management principles, and organizational culture.
Q.3 - Consider these aspects of DevOps and comment on which you think will be hardest to implement and why you think so.
1) Dealing with people from an entirely different country and culture can make communication extremely difficult. While interning in Hong Kong this summer, speaking with coworkers who did not speak English as a first (or even second) language proved challenging at times. Learning from my feedback was difficult for this reason, and I had to ask a lot of questions whenever given instructions to clarify. Communicating between Western and Eastern cultures can be difficult as well, since people from Western culture tend to be more direct in communication.
Delete2) Cross-functional teams work best in my experience when the individual members are bought-in to the team’s purpose and not overly individualistic. Having one of two team members try to dominate a cross-functional team tends to be ineffective because members of other backgrounds will often struggle to understand them, or not speak up. Single members dominating the group also stifles creativity, since the other members often won’t speak up with their own ideas. So to work optimally, cross-functional teams should give each other a chance to voice their input, and ask lots of questions to make sure they understand one another since they may use unfamiliar language or communication style.
3) I feel that tooling and automation in continuous delivery will be harder to implement for DevOps than the processes and practices of Lean management principles. Since companies have been working with Lean management principles for decades now, they are generally more familiar implementing these processes and practices than continuous delivery. Toyota and other Japanese auto manufacturers for example have shared plenty of information and instruction on adapting Lean management principles. Continuous delivery, on the other hand, is a more disruptive practice. Since DevOps’ “10 deploys a day” was introduced in contrast to 1-2 deploys a year that were allocated for most systems, the change is more radical, sudden, and disruptive. Because of this, I believe continuous delivery will be much harder to implement.
1) I feel that one may experience difficulty in dealing with people of different backgrounds due to many issues such as a difference in culture or a language barrier that exists. Everyone has their own way of looking at things and how they feel is the best way to solve a problem, which makes dealing with people with different backgrounds difficult. However, if a team is able to effectively utilize the different backgrounds it can be a major advantage to that team over having everyone who thinks the exact same way about a certain problem.
Delete2) Understanding the dynamic of a team and what each person brings to the team is probably the most important way to ensure the success of a cross-functional team. I feel it is also important to establish specific roles for each member in the team, as this ensures that each person knows who to go to should they need something and it also prevents multiple people working on the same thing at once.
3)I feel that the hardest aspect of DevOps to implement would have to be lean management. This requires a team operating at essentially 100% efficiency, with each member of the team in a role that plays to their strengths ensuring the best success of the team. This is difficult to attain as some people may not be as good as others in their specific roles, leading to some areas performing better than others. Lean management may also cause some employees have to change the way they go about a problem, as lean management is focused on reducing cost and more often than not the best way to do things is usually the most expensive way.
Q1) Dealing with others who have different backgrounds is always a learning opportunity. Just being able to learn from someone who lives life in a different way is a great way to gain valuable skills and learn new tricks to help your own knowledge grow. However, it can be a tough task to handle as well. One of the most challenging parts to working with someone of a different background, is trying to get on the same page. Most of the time whether it be at work or school, we have the same goal. Finish the project, get an A, make a profit. But how we get to those end goals is usually different. You might have a way that you love, but the other person has a different way that you have never tried before. This can create conflict and takes more time to adjust. That is why it is crucial to communicate as much as possible and create compromise when possible. Perhaps, combining the two ideas might be better than one idea by itself.
DeleteQ2) The biggest factor for success in a cross functional team is to have great communication. It is important to keep everyone on the same page.
Another important factor is to have a common goal or goals to reach. Not only should the goals be common to help improve teamwork and reduce conflict, but they should also be well defined to make it easier to know if the team reached their goal or not.
Another factor is keeping the team motivated and keeping at a good pace. I have been on teams that have no motivation for the project at hand and it always ends up with our worst work being produced. It is also important to having a good flow of work at all times. You do not want to overwork your team or else you can create fatigue which causes mistakes. You also do not want to slow down their work force too much which could cause them to be sluggish and miss deadlines.
Q3) A company that is introducing Devops one of the hardest parts is lean management. If a company has operated by having scheduled testing of their products, they might feel uncomfortable switching to a system that tests often and always. This sort of testing is done by the users from the start of the project, to the end. This means the company needs to have the proper resources to switch to lean management which might be too difficult.
Q.3, #2 follow-up. Recall that lean software principles came out of lean manufacturing. Maybe you read about Toyota's Total Production System (TPD). By adopting Lean principles and practices, manufacturing organizations dramatically improved plant productivity, customer lead times, product quality, and customer satisfaction, enabling them to win in the marketplace.
ReplyDeleteBy 2005, with the widespread implementation of Lean practices, average product lead times had dropped, and more than 95% of orders were being shipped on time. Organizations that did not implement these lean practices lost market share, and many went out of business entirely. You can Listen to This American Life for insight into why GM could not adopt Toyota's lean principles.
Given the success of Toyota's TPD systems and its success in U.S. markets (over American cars), why do you think lean management practices and processes are followed by high performing companies in DevOps? (Consider the HBR article we read earlier.)
Q.1 From my experiences working with multiple groups of students throughout my college career, I find that the most difficult part of working with people from different backgrounds is due to differences in culture and thinking styles. While these differences can often times be beneficial to groups by showing unique perspectives and approaches, other times the differences lead to frustration and disagreements about how to handle the project. For example, a student from a different country may not sure the same views or concerns as the next student. While that is fine, these differences can create challenges for the group. In my opinion, the best way for diverse groups to work together is to communicate and find common ground.
DeleteQ.2 Some factors that would create successful cross-functional teams are communication and finding a mutual understanding between the team. Communication is key to any team, and as we learned in agile development, there is a practice where each team member discusses their progress and the development towards the goal of the project. This can be a great tool to understand how the team is working together and to find what areas need improvement. Finding a mutual understanding is also invaluable to a team’s success. I find from my group work experiences that determining what goals need to be accomplished, who will work on what, when things will be completed, etc. early in the process that things will flow much more smoothly.
Relating to work processes that help the success of cross-functional teams, I find that cloud-based platforms, such as Googledocs or Word Online, are great tools for teams. Since they are on the cloud, it is easier for users to contribute work at their own pace, keep files updated, and it is easily accessed by group members. This helps to reduce friction for the team as tedious processes are eliminated.
Q.3 I believe the most difficult part of DevOps to implement is lean management. To incorporate lean management principles, there must be a very clear understanding of the organization and which lean management tools would work well with the organization. Another challenge of implementing lean management principles is the fact that changing business processes and cycles is something that takes time, requires commitment from upper management, and can face backlash from employees.
1. Dealing with people is always tricky. Especially if these people have different backgrounds and especially if you work close with them. While working at GoPro over the summer, I was working closely with engineers from Zürich, Switzerland and us having different backgrounds turned out to be a bit of a challenge. They would continuously ask questions and I would have to try and clarify what their task is supposed to be. A majority of the time I had to tell the person who understood the most English and he would pass it along. Besides this obvious example of a language barrier, there are also many other reasons why working with people whom have different background is difficult such a time difference.
Delete2. Each team is very unique and is composed of individuals who are different and react different to certain situations. In order to maintain solid communications, one must be able to adapt. Adaptation is the most important factor in creating a successful cross-functional team. Individuals have to adapt their roles for the greater good of the overall vision. Being in Eller, there are many presentations for a number of classes. Work processes that have helped my team and I communicate include GroupMe. This is a group messaging app that allows you to share documents and set reminders and has proved to create successful teams.
3. I believe that lean management would be hardest to implement in a company. A company’s and individuals schedule when changed can lead to problems. I feel that the idea of continuous testing and improvement could feel as invasive at times to employees who are already used to a different way of management.
Q1. Usually different backgrounds in team members can be most difficult when those backgrounds lead to thinking through problems in different manners that lead to conflicting solutions. Someone with a background in marketing will have a different solution for a problem or a client than someone with an MIS background. While differing backgrounds can be difficult, in my experience the problems occur in communication. If team members, or a teams and a client, can communicate effectively diverse backgrounds can be a strength and not a weakness. Diverse teams are like a group of people on a roadtrip. Effective communication and an equal share of creative input and responsibility would lead to reduced blind spots on the road, equal time divided driving and a general smooth trip. If this isn’t the case, it’s like having four people with hands on the steering wheel which is when accidents happen.
ReplyDeleteQ2. Like previously mentioned, a balance of work and communication is key for successful cross-functional teams. We see this in agile methodologies like Scrum. Each team member has a clear role (eg owner, scrum master, etc) and there is a good balance between quick, effective communication like daily standups and work done autonomously. Minimizing the pain of meetings is while still keeping everyone on the same page is key. The broader the backgrounds of cross-functional teams (eg a development team vs. a team of developers, ops folk and financial employees), the more important keeping everyone on the same page is.
Q3. Like all things in life, the answer is that it probably depends on many different factors. It seems that the largest determining factor in implementing successful DevOps and lean methodologies is the leadership. GM is a good case study on this. As seen in the This American Life episode, it is certainly possible for a company to do a complete 180 and implement drastic, sweeping changes at an organizational level. The NUMMI plant successfully implemented Toyota’s lean manufacturing methodologies, and this can be traced back to leadership. Larry Spiegel, one of the plant managers, transformed the plant and got the workers to buy into the new system. At one point the episode went into how Spiegel appealed to the employees by explaining that they were not part of the problem but rather management and leadership. It’s a trickle down effect. This is seen when the NUMMI plant is contrasted with GM as a whole. While the plant successfully implemented lean manufacturing as a result of good leadership, the company as a whole couldn’t adapt these principles due to a lack of leadership from the top down. As we all know, this came crashing down in ‘08.
If I had to choose one or the other as more difficult to implement, I would pick lean management principles. Continuous delivery is a streamlined way to do what Ops and IT people are already doing, but lean management principles is a massive cultural overhaul that is an even larger commitment to change at a granular level. Neither are easy, but both are worth it.
I also believe that the balance between work and communication is key for a cross-functional team to be successful. Everyone needs to be on the same page will still finishing their tasks.
DeleteI'm glad I was on the same page with you regarding lean management principles being harder to implement in an organization. Exactly like you said, it's more of a bigger overhaul that affects the entire company culture. And I agree, they are both necessary just challenging to implement.
DeleteI agree with you about communication being important in a cross-functional team. I also think that understand the difficulty each person works with is important so that we can learn to sympathize and help when necessary.
DeleteQ1: I think it's always somewhat challenging to work with people of different backgrounds but that's what makes it beneficial to the group or work unit. When I worked at the Rec Center I worked with students of all majors and backgrounds and it made approaching challenges a bit more difficult than working let's say with primarily business majors. Even though business majors can come from any walk of life, our education is more similar making some tasks easier to handle. But it's the different backgrounds that make solving problems easier because you have lots of different perspectives.
ReplyDeleteQ2: Similar to what has made DevOps successful is what would make any cross-functional teams successful. It starts with the team and understanding each members’ strengths and weaknesses, and ensuring smooth communication throughout the project life cycle. From personal group experience, team members (units) can’t work in silos, as in each team members can’t work on the same deliverable, and then expect that deliverable to be done well and quickly. If someone can oversee the editing phase, then the team can deliver final products free of errors sooner. I found in groups, that something always needs editing, and it’s not a good feeling when you think something is ready to hand in and then realize it needs a lot of editing. Teams also need a strong leader to keep the team on track (if not ahead of schedule).
Q3:
When reading over definitions to try to get a better understanding of continuous delivery v. lean management, I personally thought they seemed somewhat similar. Lean Management is creating more value for customers with fewer resources (less waste) while continuous delivery is the ability to get changes of all types into production (or the hands of the users), safely and quickly in a sustainable way (continuousdelivery.com). Both are focused on the end delivery of the product, whether it’s creating the most value or getting it to the end user as efficient as possible. Yet it looks to me like continuous delivery is more focused on the design/manufacturing portion of product development while lean management is focused on customer value in the deployment of it its product. They both seem difficult to implement in different types of organizations. If a company is more technology-centric than continuous delivery would probably be an easier change in comparison to trying to change the value process of the entire organization. I’m interested in hearing other people’s point of view.
In regards to your answer to Question 2, my BCOM case comp team worked with two leaders. The other leader and I butt heads frequently, but our work ended up being that much better as we challenged each other to be better, which in turn challenged the other members of the group. It's a small sample, but is it possible that having two strong leaders could be more beneficial than just one, given the correct circumstances? I do agree that teams need an editor at all times (even newspapers need editors, how could we be expected not to have one?)
DeleteI'm so agree with you on get to know your teammate's strength and weakness. If every team member in the team are able to use their strength to do what they are good at, the project will be so much easier to do.
DeleteI'm actually quite shocked you managed to have a team with two leaders! But that's pretty interesting that you made it work and that you felt it made the work better overall. I do think two leaders of different leadership style could be beneficial as long as they spend the time getting work done effectively and not spend the entirety of the time arguing over their leadership styles.
DeleteIn regard to your answer to Q1, I agree with you that it's challenging to work with people from different backgrounds because everyone understands things differently. However, I believe it's still great to work with people from different background because that would bring creativity and new ideas to the table.
DeleteI agree in terms to your answer to Q1. Different backgrounds creates grounds for different problem solving ideas. Sometimes I find it harder to work with people of different backgrounds because they may tend to feel entitles or smarter in regards to the problems that we are trying to solve.
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ReplyDeleteQ1: I think it is very true that work with people who have different backgrounds, these backgrounds can be major, culture, etc. But sometimes different backgrounds can bring us some new perspectives. In my entrepreneur class, we have 4 people in our team, and we all have different majors. In our team, we have business management, accounting, marketing and MIS. The class project requires us to come up with something new on the market you think it will be profitable, and we need to consider every business perspectives of our product, such as distribution channel, sales model, financial, technology, etc. This is where all 4 different majors can help in this project. Working with different background is difficult at the beginning, but once you and your team really know each other’s strengths, it will be so much easier to solve all the problems and work with them.
ReplyDeleteQ2: First the team need to know each other’s strengths and weakness, and try to make everyone in this team working on a project with their best strength, and help them overcome with their weakness. For example, if someone is an accounting major who is expert at accounting, is will be not smart to let him doing programing and ask the computer science person doing the accounting job. Therefore, it is very important to understand your teammate, and what they are good at. Also, a good team leader is necessary too. The team need someone to keep everything on track and find every team member’s potential.
Q3: I think the hardest aspect of DevOps to implement is lean management. Because there are too many issues need to be address in order the company to achieve lean management. As we know, lean management requires highly trained and educated employees, and for most of the companies, there are not a lot of employees can fit these requirements. Also, once the company start implementing lean management, it will change the ways of their workers, employees doing their jobs since the one of the key focus of lean management is to reduce waste and cost. Lean management also require every employee in the company to fully commitment and participate in the process, which is another issue for the company.
I agree that implementing lean management is very difficult. I think it because more difficult because employees are used to executing work processes one way, and change is always difficult. There's always people that won't be on board, it's a matter of convincing everyone that I think is tough.
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ReplyDeleteQ1. I would say that in general, working with people with diverse backgrounds can be beneficial to a team overall. Different backgrounds and experience allow for diversity of opinions and solutions to problems. From experiences working in groups through my time as a student at Eller, I feel that the largest hurdle is communication. I’ve personally found that most effective way to combat a communication barrier is with patience and respect for the individual. When I was working in a BCOM class, I found that individuals were more willing to work with me when I told them how important their diversity in education and background was to the completion of our overall goal. When it comes to diversity in clients, communication is also key. From my experience interning in an IT department at The Venetian, it was important to make sure that clients understood what the IT employees were doing for them, while also making sure that IT employees understood the needs of the client who might have a different background.
ReplyDeleteQ2. There are many factors that can create a successful cross-functional team. As I discussed in question 1, it is important to identify what unique skills and opinions a team member brings to the team. It is also important to know what weaknesses an individual has. Although weaknesses are not necessarily positive elements of a team, it is important to address them and give parts of a project or task to individuals knowing both their weaknesses and strengths. Communication is also key. For example, in agile development, there is a daily standup where each member of the team states their progress since the last stand up and goals for the day. The team member will also state if anything is hindering their progress on a project. This allows the team to know the state of the project as well as allows the scrum master or project manager to know the progress of the project and assess the team’s success. During my experience working with a project manager at The Venetian on a system upgrade, I found that the daily standup was one of the most important parts of ensuring group cohesion and the overall success of the project using the agile development framework.
Q3. I think the hardest aspect of DevOps to implement is lean management and overall implementation. Implementing DevOps in an organization may also be difficult for an organization. It is important to utilize management that truly believes in the benefits of DevOps when it comes to making a change in the workplace. An effective management team with confidence in the lean approach can act as a catalyst for other employees within the organization. Implementing the practices and processes of a lean process is also difficult. Changing organizational culture is one of the most difficult aspects of implementation. An organization’s culture is often something that employees are used to. A change is something that will take time and communication between leadership and other employees. It is also important to communicate throughout the organization that DevOps is good for an organization. When using a lean approach, teams have seen an overall positive impact on performance and culture. An effective manager should communicate the benefits of a lean approach to instill confidence throughout the organization.
In response to your answer to Q1, I think you had a great solution in terms of how to get individuals to listen to you when you praised their diversity. That's something I know is important, but had never thought about actually saying outright. When you were at the Venetian, were clients more likely to be patient or accepting of what you were trying to do after you explained things to them? Or did they just take it as excuses?
DeleteHi Benjamin! Great question!
DeleteWhen I was working with the Project Managers at The Venetian, we were working to upgrade a system within the organization. Our clients were the users of the systems related to gaming (gambling) and general aspects of the casino. We would conduct interviews of the users and assess their needs based on what they wanted to be added to the systems that they used, and what parts were unused and considered wasteful. There were times when employees in areas other than IT such as marketing did not understand why an upgrade or feature would take so long to implement. We would tell them that they were on a list with other requirements throughout the casino and the development team would get to their user story as soon as possible. I definitely learned the importance of continual communication throughout a development process during my time at The Venetian.
Q1
ReplyDeleteI have worked on many teams throughout my time in Eller and during extracurricular activities. I have definitely had my fair share of teammates with different backgrounds. Sometimes this can lead to new and creative ideas, or it can be a challenge to collaborate with them. A lot of the difficulties are a result of either a difference in opinion, or a difference in cultural background. For a lot of my group projects I like to play the role of group leader. I run into a lot of problems when I have conflicting opinions with my team members and refuse to believe that my opinion could be wrong. I have also had some issues with cultural barriers when working with international students on my team. I sometimes assume that the way I have been taught to do things is the right way, so sometimes I am thrown off when people from other cultures want to put a project together in another form.
Q2
I think two of the most important factors in creating successful cross-functional teams are communication and organization. There are a lot of tools that are available that have made communication and organization easier than ever. I personally like to utilize all of the cloud-based platforms offered by Google that allow team members to create, edit, and share their documents and projects with their teammates. One of the biggest problems I have with group projects is holding teammates responsible for equal amounts of work. Using platforms like Google docs makes it much easier to
Q3
It is very difficult to determine whether continuous delivery or lean management would be harder to implement. Both systems clearly have their benefits, but they also have challenges and are going to be implemented differently by each organization. After researching further into the topic, it seems like continuous deliver is something that tech companies can implement into their system much easier than lean management. It is difficult for technology companies to focus solely on items of their business that bring value, while ignoring the little details. This is why they use continuous delivery to make sure that everything can be implemented into the software in a timely fashion.
Similar to what you said in Q1, I have the same sort of "i'm always right" assumption which is why I always like to lead my teams as well. But I've learned that's not always the case and often my first instincts are either not right or just not developed enough. It really does take more than one person to succeed in a group setting. And I'll admit now I definitely don't have the answer to everything. But we learn each time we lead what to do and what not to do, right?
DeleteQ1: During my time in Eller, work, and internships, I have had to work with a wide variety of people coming from different backgrounds and walks of life. Most of the time working together was great. People from different majors and backgrounds have specific skills that they are good at that can be used to their full potential in a group setting. However, this can sometimes also create frustration and disagreement on how a project is completed. Varying people will have their own idea of the best way to solve a problem that others in the group might not agree is the most effective.
ReplyDeleteQ2: There are many different factors that contribute to creating a successful cross-functional team. Like previously mentioned, people come from all kinds of different backgrounds and acquire different sets of skills throughout their lives. Being able to capitalize on each person in the team’s unique skillset can transform a mediocre team into a great one. This is also similar to how teams should deal with team member’s weaknesses as well. If someone lacks skill in a certain aspect, then another team member who is more suited for the role should complete it. Another important trait of a great team is communication. Working in teams while in Eller has taught me how important communication is. Dealing with deadlines, team member’s schedules, and assignment dates need to be communicated well in order to ensure the success of the team.
Q3: Personally, I believe one of the hardest aspects of DevOps to implement is lean management. Lean management is a bigger change to the overall business and IT operations of a business compared to continuous delivery. Continuous delivery is a very smooth flowing principle that IT departments are comfortable with doing already. However, lean management deals with changing the culture and way of thinking for the company. Drastic changes can sometimes harm a company but it takes a great leader to make sure that the integration is seamless and streamlined.
Q1: Within the Rec Center, it can be really difficult dealing with those from foreign backgrounds who don't understand why the Rec has certain rules in place. Some believe that closing time means time to start packing up, meaning that they don't leave until 20 minutes after the Rec has closed. This is problematic for students who are already closing late at midnight, and now aren't getting to leave until 12:20 or even 12:30 sometimes. In terms of people from the same team in different backgrounds, the difficulties may come from communication errors or conflicts in believes. If one member believes something to be absolutely true, and another believes that same thing to be absolutely false, there is going to be gridlock where potentially nothing can get done.
ReplyDeleteQ2: Successful teams, from business to sports, must first rely on knowing each other. In basketball, knowing when and where a player will cut to the basket can lead to an easy alley-oop, but mistiming the player because you don't know their game can just as easily lead to a turnover. I believe the same thing applies to business. Group members must understand each other's abilities in order to become truly efficient. Group members need to communicate their strengths and weaknesses from the beginning to their fellow teammates to reduce future error.
Q3: It seems to me that lean management would be the most difficult aspect of DevOps to implement. Being lean requires an efficient team that can all play to their strengths and cover each others weaknesses. Further, it's very hard to determine what parts of the system is "fat", and what parts are beneficial without being essential to the process. Cutting non-essential but beneficial processes could end up hurting the software in the long run, which would leave the team in a worse position than when they started.
I had several communication problems during my time at the Rec Center as well! It's very hard to enforce safe policies if patrons put up a continual wall of disagreement. Especially those who believe we are there to solely serve them... But as you know, through good customer service training we are taught ways to not let our emotions get the best of us. To listen, and find alternative solutions, or to put ourselves in their shoes. And sometimes you can't win but you can learn something new each encounter.
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ReplyDeleteQ1. In my opinion, the most difficult part of working with people who have different backgrounds is when the group is just getting started. People with different backgrounds can have differing approaches to solving problems. In the beginning stages of a group, each member has to get a sense of how the other members approach getting their work done, and I feel this is the most difficult part of working with people who have different backgrounds. However, once members get accustomed to each other, I believe that the different backgrounds of group members contribute to a better overall solution than if the whole group were to think the same way.
ReplyDeleteQ2. I think that the biggest factor in creating successful cross-functional teams is communication. When team members are able to effectively communicate with each other, they are able to produce higher quality work. Effective communication can solve, and prevent, many problems that may arise throughout the course of a project. It also allows each team member to feel confident that they are on the same page as the other members.
Q3. I think that, out of the two options, Lean Management principles and organizational culture would be harder to implement. This is because it is difficult to get people to change their current way of doing things, especially if they have become comfortable with them. As we learned in class, it took a long time for Agile Development to gain popularity, even though it had many advantages over the Waterfall method, mainly because businesses were resistant to changing their current system. It would be much more difficult to get a company to change their entire organizational culture than to change their frequency of delivery. This is the main reason that I believe implementing Lean Management principles and organizational culture would be more difficult than Continuous Delivery.
In response to your answer for Q2, I definitely agree that good communication plays a large role in working with any team. I think the most difficult times I've had working with group projects was due to team members not responding to messages, or not showing up to team meetings. Good communication allows everyone to understand their role, and also understand what the other members are offering.
DeleteQ.1 In general, when members in a team have different interests and expectations, efforts will not be concentrated and communication will not be able to go through as effective. This problem, however, should not exist in the first place if you have a cohesive and bonding team. But when you are in a randomly assigned team, which is quite common in a classroom setting, dealing with people in order to have them at the same pace with you is especially difficult. For example, once I was in a team, randomly assigned to be with five other students, I lost contact with them after our first meeting. They would never respond back to me nor reach out to me. They did care of the result of the team project obviously.
ReplyDeleteQ2. Like I said in last question, a successful cross-functional team should have a common goal and interest in the first place. The team would know what to deliver and how to deliver. They will know each other’s strength and weakness so to assign the work accordingly. They should also have a strong communication and organization plan as they are processing through the end result.
Q.3. Companies that are implementing DevOps programs have one thing in common. They strive to deliver the best possible services and products with the least possible amount of resources. Those would require no friction between the development team and the operation team. Those would ask the reduction of the waste during the production process which is how Toyota start to utilize the lean management practices originally. So I think that out of all aspects of DevOps, having a right corporate culture which can support the development of the lean management and DevOps is most important and also difficult. For any big organization, changes are something that will take communication and time efforts between upper and lower management. DevOps is needed to be communicated as something that is important for the contingency of the entire company.
In response to Q2, I agree that those are all necessary for a successful cross-functional team. I think it's important that you acknowledged the importance of knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses. To expand upon that, I think it's also crucial that team members understand each other's personality and communication styles, as those aren't necessarily the same thing.
DeleteQ1. It can be especially difficult dealing with people who have different backgrounds when those differences leave people at odds in terms of how they communicate. For example, between different countries and cultures there exists a wide range of what is socially acceptable in regards to how respect is shown and how interactions are held. Furthermore, if people with differences are close-minded or unable to compromise, it becomes even more difficult. In my semester in Eller, I had an international student on my team and he was one of the best group members I have ever worked with. He was an integral part of our group in garnering different perspectives to achieve a common goal through excellent communication and acknowledgment of our different backgrounds and perspectives.
ReplyDeleteQ2. A clear common goal and work plan are both factors that would create successful cross-functional teams. If from the offset the common goals is not only established but also qualified by specific measures of success, the team has the same mindset throughout work. This then translates to the ability to create a clear work plan that minimizes confusion and potential setbacks down the road.
Q3. I think that the hardest aspect to implement would be transitioning to lean management principles and reconciling those with the organizational culture to result in effective processes. Oftentimes people are creatures of habit, and undertaking a large change in organizational culture is a massive undertaking. In order for lean management principles to truly take root and work, they can't just be offered up to the company as a process. They need to become inherent to management and how decisions are made at every level. Given Toyota's success, I think lean management practices and processes are followed by high performing companies in DevOps because they exhibit a culture without that disconnect that non-DevOps companies might have. A culture of lean management principles resembles a high-performing DevOps company in the way it is inherent to their culture.
Q1.) Dealing with people from different backgrounds has a wide variety of possibilities. From my experience, working with individuals from different countries, upbringings and work experience has always had a very positive impact on the work that needed to get done. Having so many different views and approach can lead to a more well rounded and better outcome. Now this isn't always the case, difference can cause conflict and issues. I really believe it comes down to the individual to be accepting or not. Having worked with so many different people, I understand where conflict can arise. The group has to make an open effort to be open-minded.
ReplyDeleteQ2.) A successful cross-functional team is a team where everyone is on the same page. Every individual in the group has a common goal and knows their purpose in achieving the goal. People will have different skills, comes from different backgrounds and plays different roles. The combination of all their skills and ideas will allow them to work successfully and efficiently. Team members know when they are needed due to great communication throughout the entire group. When particular people are needed, they step-up. You don't have to go tracking people down to get their work done.
Q3.) When reviewing both approaches to devop's it is hard to make a distinct conclusion which would be more difficult to implement. Continuous delivery and automation is a technical approach to devops that every IT department should start adapting to. It is different and difficult at first but it does make jobs easier and more efficient in the long run. Lean management, basically an approach that attempts to create more value with less resources. This is a difficult approach as well that is being adopted by many. From my own personal experience, working on IT automation, was a really difficult confusing task. There are so many different systems and networks that need to be tied into together. It takes a lot of experience and a deep understanding of IT. I do believe continuous delivery would be more difficult to implement.
In regard to your answer to Q1, I agree with you Cole that dealing with people from different backgrounds could be a different experience for each of us. I believe that people could find a common ground to communicate with each other, which would help the two parties to get the job done. But, sometime people just do not make effort to make things work, and that's where the challenge occurs. From my personal experience, I like to work with different people from different backgrounds because I get the chance to learn from them and understand new ways of communication, which will result in enhancing myself.
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ReplyDeleteQ1: There’s quite a few instances where it can be difficult dealing with people who have different backgrounds. The first thing that would make it more difficult is the different country and language barrier. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand what a person is trying to say and you may misinterpret something. Communication in this instance would be difficult. For example, English wasn’t my first language so sometimes it can be difficult to express or find the right words to use to explain or ask something. In addition, working with people with different academic background will make it more difficult to work with them. Every person looks at aspects differently and have strong beliefs in what they have learned or when they have been doing it for so long and they believe to be experts. Even though working with people with different background can be difficult, if handled correctly it can be beneficial to the overall success of the team.
Q2: A cross-functional team should be a group of people with different expertise that are working toward a common goal. It’s important to gather members from different departments such as finance, marketing and operations. These members should also be from all levels of an organization. Even though every member may be a part of a team with specific tasks, it’s important to be able to work as a team and have good communication. As others have stated, the key for a successful cross-functional team is to have a balance of work and communication.
Q3: Considering the aspects of DevOps, I believe that automation and continuous deployment is the most difficult to implement. Companies usually hire engineers to automate deployment for frequent deliveries. This means that every organization requires people to spend time deploying, configuring and troubleshooting builds and communication with project leaders while still being required to work on automation deployed and configurations. I feel that the result of all this is a team of stressed and overworked members who are usually working on aspects that they aren’t interested in.
I thought that was pretty smart when you mentioned about selecting team members with different expertise. I totally agree with you on that! You wouldn't want a group filled with finance people for a marketing project. You want to differentiate and have people from different departments and work together. This will create more productivity and better team outcomes.
DeleteQ1) Dealing with people who have different backgrounds has its strengths and weaknesses. If they’re from a different country, they may have different views or may not have the same belief you may have. Communication is one of the biggest concerns and can be extremely difficult when working with a team on a school project or at your job. When I was working at a Chinese restaurant, I had some working knowledge of Cantonese but not Mandarin. Most of the co-workers I worked with did not speak English as a first language. Communicating with them was difficult. When it gets busy, we had to look each other in the eyes and uses our hands as a form of communication. Communication plays an important role when working and having that language barrier throws off your working process. I found out that when communicating with my coworkers, I had to ask a lot of questions and clarify any instructions we might have.
ReplyDeleteQ2) I think that communication is the biggest key for successful cross-functional teams. Communication is a key aspect of teamwork, and a team that works together well is crucial to high performance and achieving objectives. Effective teams need to work well together and that team cohesiveness depends on the building strong relationships among team members. I believe that when teams have strong communication skills, it raises the chance that good ideas and best practices will be shared openly. Communication is critical and is driven by the team leader who will work with the team to establish rules, assign parts to bring the team together so that they can accomplish their goal. It will create a high level of productivity and have a better outcome when teamwork and communications are involved.
Q3)I think that both aspects are similar, but I think that lean management is the hardest to implement. Having the organizational culture that the organization already has and changing it, it will affect not only the organization but the employees as well. Changing something like the organizational culture takes not only time, but also communication between leadership. Once implementing a change within an organization, it will change the functionality requirements of the employees. Every employee within an organization must fully commit when converting to lean management and rarely that happens.
I totally agree with you in the Q1 and Q2. I also think that communication plays an important role in the cross-functional teams. I wish management in general put more efforts to guarantee that the communication between the team members is satisfactory.
DeleteQ1. Overall, I think working in groups with people who have diverse backgrounds can be difficult, but also beneficial. I've had a lot of experience with working with a team between class projects in Eller, and my past internships. I believe the most difficult part is when people have different approaches to how they want to get a project done. Some people are very on top of things, and like to complete assignments as soon as possible. On the opposite end, other people may tend to procrastinate and leave things to the very last minute. I think this can be very difficult because its often hard to find a compromise on when things should be completed by. However, when people come from different backgrounds and have had different experiences, this can often help a team because group members can learn from each other and be able to understand different approaches that may be done often by someone else. I think the most important part of working with a group of different backgrounds, is being open minded to their opinions and approaches.
ReplyDeleteQ2. When working in cross-functional teams I think its important to establish each individual's role from the very beginning, this will lead to less problems in the end. Very few people are great at everything, so it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each person from the start. For example, in past group projects where I have worked with people from different majors, we were able to assign roles in order to most efficiently complete the project. Finance majors often focused on budgets, while marketing majors focused on the more creative aspects, etc.
Q3. I believe both aspects to DevOps can be difficult to implement, but ultimately it really depends on the type of company, their culture, and who their customers are. I think out of the two aspects, implementing Lean Management principles tends to be a little more difficult. Lean Management involves a lot of user research frequently being done during all parts of the product life cycle. In addition, I think the most difficult part of Lean Management is having people change their routine on how they do things. It is also difficult to have to continuously revise what is being done and analyze which parts can be eliminated to produce less waste. On the other hand, continuous delivery, although not easy, is something that I feel is consistently being pushed in many companies and really focuses on more of the actual design portion.
Q1: I believe it is especially difficult to work among those with different backgrounds in a larger organizational scope as opposed to small teams. In a small team there is a clear overall goal (e.g. complete a project / build a thing) that affords everyone a clear vision as to what they are working toward and how they fit into the equation. Furthermore, there is more wiggle room with regards to making sure everyone understands each other. In teams with a broader scope the end goal tends to be more nebulous (e.g. turn a profit) and all the sub units have their own internal goals that are intended to serve the greater purpose. Sub-units or departments with different backgrounds tend to have different measures for success or ideas of what is valuable. This can cause conflict as each team believes they are doing what's best while potentially feeling slowed down by the requirements or desires of another team.
ReplyDeleteQ2: I would argue that open avenues of communication is one of the largest enablers of a cross-functional team. Not just in business but in most of life misunderstandings can be solved with successful communication. If everyone knows where they stand with regard to the project/goal and their other teammates they are more likely to work happily within their function.
Q3: I believe that the initial transition to a lean management culture would be quite difficult to accomplish. That having been said, once it is in place I think that it would be far easier to maintain and operate a lean culture. Automated deploys are something that would need to be meticulously crafted and monitored. Even though it is automated the activities involved in creating the system I believe would be more difficult.
Q1. I believe that it is extremely difficult to deal with people who have different backgrounds when there is too much uncertainty about the job being done. A salesperson would have almost the same needs and activities independent of the different background. There are clear rules and steps to make this job better. In the other hand, when creating a product or a company, people with different background can potentially be harmful since people from different background can insist in contradictory ideas. This, may be healthy in some situations, but too much conflict can impede the product or company to be successful. Another problem can arise when the people from different background have problems in accepting each other culture, or having communication issues.
ReplyDeleteQ2. There are many factors to consider when creating successful cross-functional teams. One of the most important factor is the environment where the team is since a team is generally inside a much bigger organization. If the organization does not promote a healthy and vibrant environment, it is unlikely that a cross-functional team will work out. Another important factor is communication. The job done be the team will be as good as the communication between their members. There is a great necessity to exchange feedback and promote good ideas to better improve the team’s result. A better comprehension of the team members can also be an important factor for the success of a cross-functional team. Some people are better in some determined areas or subjects, and utilizing this knowledge to assign the team members to work on based on their strengths can enhance the whole team.
Q3. From the aspect of DevOps, I believe that Lean Management principles are the most difficult to implement if a company did not use it already. A good example of this is GM which tried to implement Lean Management without success. Even though part of the GM failure to implement Lean Manufacture was because of the trouble with employees and the employee’s syndicate, the biggest problem was the company lack of interest in cultivating good relationship with their employees. Lean management process and practices are followed by high performing companies in DevOps because it accelerates the release of features that are important for the consumer, and motivates the company to cut costs. This continuous adaption make the company more efficient. Thus, it increases overall profits for the companies.
I totally agree to your answer to your Q3. The example of the GM failure gives great perspective to this issue. I also think implementing a lean management system gives companies the opportunity for the most profits.
DeleteI agree with you Matheus that different cultures can be somewhat harmful to teams. If teammates disregard ideas form someone just based on their cultural background will not end well for the team. The great thing about diverse teams is that it brings in more perspectives and creates solutions that are different than the obvious. the rest of the members just need to be able to be open to the new perspective.
DeleteThe large corporation setting presents an issue for the teams that are within. if the organization is too large there is a large disconnection to the communication network. when that happens teams feel like their ideas do not matter in the bigger picture.
Lean Management would be difficult to implement because it has to be implemented to the entire organization and if it does not work, it takes time to reset and to recover form the failure. an organization looking to use lean management tools such as Kaizen, Kanban, or six- sigma, they need to do effective research and see which one fits the organization the best.
Great work answering the questions.
1) Working with people from different backgrounds can be very difficult at times but this can also give your team added tools when dealing with problems. From my experience working with a team in my BCOM class each team member was from a different geographic location, including a member from Syria, which enabled each member to give a different perspective into each issue we encountered. I would say the most difficult aspect was having a slight language barrier and being accustom to different cultural tendencies. Although we had some small instances of miscommunication our group was able to utilize each of our backgrounds to complete our projects and further ourselves as individuals in the work force. I believe having teams such as these broadens the mind and gives us more perspective as to how teams can be very beneficial rather than working individually.
ReplyDelete2) I believe the key aspect of having a successful cross-functional team is fully understanding the strengths of each team member and the ability of the team to comfortably work together to achieve the best possible outcome. Creating a successful cross-functional team means each member should contribute the skills they are most efficient at and also divide the work accordingly to where team members aren’t working on the same processes simultaneously. Keeping each team member focused on the overall goal and how to combine their skills to achieve the goal is also a very important factor in the success of a cross-functional team.
3)When transitioning to a DevOps system I believe it would be more difficult for a company to implement the lean management culture. Both lean management and continuous delivery would be difficult for a company to adopt but I believe lean management would be a more difficult task to handle. I think lean management would be more beneficial for a company as well. Once the lean management culture is established the company will be able to function more efficiently by using less resources. I do think continuously delivery would be very beneficial to a company but I think lean operations would be very like that system and would potentially save the company more resources.
In response to your second answer, I agree that that understanding and incorporating the strengths of each team member is essential. In DevOps, you have the software development people, or the “makers”, and the operations people, or the “people that deal with the creation after its birth”. Each of these people have their own strengths and abilities. Incorporating said strength and abilities into a cohesive, collaborative environment is part of what makes DevOps so revolutionary.
Delete1) In general, working with different people is difficult because time needs to be spent bridging the differences together to try and complete the task at hand. Some parties instantly click and get to work. Others take some time to find common ground, and some just don’t function and end up falling apart because the differences are too great. If a group has many different discipline backgrounds, each with its own method of finding a solution, there will be issues when it comes to brain storming or applying skills to the task. Another barrier would be cultural and language barriers. Some tasks need a global perspective and not every ethnicity agrees with the other. Experience level also takes a huge role in how teams function. The more tenured veterans might disregard the opinion of the newcomer and essentially shut down their input at every meeting. The same can be said when the boss’s idea is countered by a subordinate. The boss can just shut them down and take back control of a meeting. Clients who are control freaks might micromanage the consultant and take away any creative freedom that has been presented. Navigating professional relationships is a time-consuming task, but figuring out how to bridge the gap quickly can lead to more time being spent focusing on the task at hand.
ReplyDelete2) I believe that cross-functional teams work best when all members feel comfortable to pitch their ideas without feeling like their opinions are not welcomed. In my experience, my goes around talking about their ideas about the project. No matter if we did not agree with how the idea sounded in the beginning, we all heard them out. We voted on the best ideas to add to the project and have been very successful in doing so. Also, creating roles for people with different skill sets enhances the team dynamic and project process. If someone is good at a certain task or has technical skills that are at a more proficient level than other members, then they should be tasked with similar project tasks.
3) The hardest to implement would be the multiple deployments. It comes down to the overall skills of the team and the availability of each member. If the group is not particularly skilled to an advanced status, then productivity will decline and less deployments will be released. If the team has trouble in some areas or if the team is using legacy systems that can’t create many deployments, both these factors can affect their productivity. Operating cost will go up due to the amount of time taken to complete projects. Unless the team is up to date with processes and is equipped with the latest technology, multiple deployments might be difficult to achieve.
1) Working with people from different backgrounds is a gift and a curse. Some people approach problems completely differently, which can be a great thing. There are also differences in the way people approach their coworkers, which I have found the most detrimental in my experiences. For instance, I had a coworker who liked to try and micromanage, which took away from my ability to work and be creative. On the other hand, she was great at doing things quick and efficiently.
ReplyDelete2) Work and communication in balance is vital to any team’s success. The most important part of communicating is sharing your strengths and weaknesses with your team. This way, group members can utilize their peers and see potential that would be hidden otherwise. This results in trust and creativity in solutions.
3) The most difficult aspect of DevOps to implement is probably lean management. Achieving perfect efficiency is a great goal, but it is unattainable for most. Lean management means using highly skilled employees in a way that they are not used working. Change is tough, and that is why continuous delivery is an easier option. Tech companies are often focused on the little details, but it is very hard to determine which detail is vital to the operation and what is non-beneficial.
Q1. I believe one of the factors that creates difficulties when working in groups of different backgrounds, is that one member may have a different perspective that differs completely from other members. As we know cross functional teams within an organization or a company are made up of members from different backgrounds like marketing, engineering, sales, etc. Each of those members may have his or her own perspective in a specific subject or have strong ties to his or her own department, creating conflict to the overall objective of cross functional teams. On the other hand, I believe it is a lot easier to work
ReplyDeleteQ2. When forming a cross functional teams, all team members should be open to other people opinions and the main objective of the team (the problem they are solving) should be clear. Also, everyone's role within the organization should be clear. Not to forget, communication skills and strong leadership are also important factors that play in the successfulness of cross functional teams. Everyone has a weakness and strength, identifying those strength and weaknesses of every member within the team plays a positive attribute to the overall successfulness of the team.
Q3. In my opinion, the hardest aspect of DevOps to implement is lean management. Since it focuses on long term continuous improvement to ultimately achieve or improve efficiency and quality. Also this approach requires every employee in the organization to work at maximum and use less resources. Such culture if introduced to a new organization might affects the employees negatively as it requires them to change the way that they are used to. However, if it was implemented perfectly, the organization will benefit since they will perform more efficiently using less resources.
Q1. From my point of view, when the team is working on a pretty complex project, it is usually and particularly challenging to deal with people who have different backgrounds. For example, this semester one of my team is working on a smartphone app developing program, and I am the only one who majors in MIS and Accounting. When it comes to technical or financial problems, I feel it is hard for me to explain some concepts to my teammates. Especially, when my group members and I are working on the same report, it is my responsibility to explain to them how and why should we do this, in order to make sure everyone is on the same page. Communicate with people that from different countries or different cultural background can be hard too. As I am an international student, I feel that language is one of the biggest barriers that keeps me from communicating efficiently. What’s more, people from different background also have different thinking model, which also results in difficulties.
ReplyDeleteQ2. I would say that, an efficient communication can definitely contribute to a team’s success. It is important for the team to make sure that everyone is on the same page. Otherwise, if everyone in the team just focuses on his or her own part and do not care what others do, the outcome can be fractional and unsuccessful. Moreover, incompetent communication can lead to conflicts. If the friction has ever happened, there is a great chance that the whole project will be failed. I believe that in a cross-functional group, each group member should be responsible for explaining to others in his or her own field and ensure that everyone has a clear understanding. Also, everyone should try their best to cooperate with others, in order to get a better outcome.
Q3. I think the hardest part to implement is to understand each department’s work and request, in order to successfully enable a higher productivity and practice lean management. In my opinion, an effective lean management should base on the two departments’ coordinating. Therefore, the two departments should make sure that they understand each other’s requirements correctly and precisely so that the whole process can reach high efficiencies. In other words, the two departments should implement well-organized communication levels to enhance interaction and cooperation within employees. If not, wastes are very likely to happen, and the lean management principles can be failed.
Q1. I believe that it can be difficult dealing with people from various backgrounds when brainstorming ideas to various problems or when planning the logistics on how to go about executing plans to solve problems. Individuals with various backgrounds have different strengths and may use those strengths to come up with a proposed solution. For example, a marketing major may come up with a more creative or abstract solution to a problem and an accounting major may come up with a more technical and calculated solution to a problem. These two solutions may not always work well together and this is where difficulties may arise. While it may be difficult to reach a mutual agreement on a solution that incorporates both parties’ ideas, it is ultimately beneficial in the end because solutions are more innovative and dynamic in nature. When teams are comprised of individuals with different backgrounds, they have the benefit of having different perspectives look at the same problem, which enables them to brainstorm more alternative solutions to choose from.
ReplyDeleteQ2. In my experience in cross-functional teams, the two factors that reduce friction for the team the most and increase productivity are effective communication and time management skills. The ability to hear everyone’s voices and take everyone’s input into consideration helps to make coming to a consensus much easier. Each individual in a team brings different strengths and weaknesses. It is important to communicate with team members so that a cross-functional team may take advantage of the different perspectives that each team member contributes and come up with the best possible solution to a problem that individuals may not have come up with on their own. I believe that time management skills are critical in assuring that projects go smoothly as well so that a team does not waste valuable meeting time on redundant topics that could have been delegated and briefly reviewed instead. By shortening the amount of time spent on these redundant topics, a cross-functional team can spend time on critical topics that need discussion and have a large effect on the outcome and final product of different projects.
Q3. I think that continuous delivery will be the hardest aspect of DevOps to implement because I think that changing business processes and changing the way that an organization accomplishes things can be difficult. I think that it could also be difficult to have effective communication when going through the service lifecycle from design to development to production support and assuring that members of each step of the lifecycle understand exactly what the goal of each deployment is and assuring that it is accomplished in a timely manner. If members of development and operations are not on the same page and there are some aspects of a project that are unclear, the work done by each side may not be as productive or efficient as it could be.
Q1: A diverse background in a team is a double edge sword. On one hand, a free and diverse team has been proven to boost creativity and efficiency (https://hbr.org/2012/05/want-a-team-to-be-creative-mak & http://news.mit.edu/2014/workplace-diversity-can-help-bottom-line-1007). But, on the other hand a diverse team has the possibility to disrupt smooth communications and may cause team members to constantly disagree with one another. Personally, I've encountered this problem before withy past with groups I've lead or been a part of. As an IS major we're constantly reminded of the importance of data and technology in the business environment-thus, this is the mindset I bring to my group work. However, not all majors think this way- in fact, an IS student may be more analytical in the way they approach problems and a non-IS major may be more creative in the way they approach an issue. This constant disagreement among group members then leads to altercations between members and may potentially destroy a project/venture.
ReplyDeleteQ2: The biggest driver in a successful cross-functional team is a clear path of communication between management and employee. In order to reduce friction for a team a lean approach must be applied to the current corporate hierarchy. This entails moving away from a centralized complex corporate hierarchy and move to a more communication friendly hierarchy (lean), where teams are encouraged to communicate and work along one another. With this lean system a firm can create an open channel of communication where all employees can work together to improve a system- thus, increasing productivity and efficiency. This approach to solving issues and working together brings out innovation and cooperation, which not only improves processes but improves team satisfaction.
Q3: The hardest aspect of DevOps in regards to implementation is creating the lean management discussed in question 2. Although clear communication and cooperation seems easy and reasonable at first it is difficult to actually implement this in a firm. Mostly, this difficulty can be seen in diverse teams where cross-functionality becomes difficult to achieve due to different backgrounds, ideals, or work processes. Consequently, this issue is a leading cause as to why clear and efficient communication channels are never established. However, once achieved this approach to management leads to continuous improvement in process, quality, and product.
Q.1 It has been difficult for me dealing with people of different ethnic backgrounds because we have different opinions and different ways of communication. For example, problems have arisen because of the way team members have said things, perceived to be rude or careless, when the person who said it meant no harm. In a professional setting, often times it's been where some people feel more entitled and aren't open to the opinions of others. Whether it be a hierarchy thing or an individual believing that he or she is just flat out smarter than everyone else so they don't consider what others have to say. That is when it is most difficult for me because I have witnessed some people's opinions be invalidated because of the background they come from.
ReplyDeleteQ.2 I have worked with different backgrounds of people my entire life whether it be sports, education, work, or volunteer work and in my experiences, there has always been tension about people thinking they do more work or always get the hard parts or aren’t appreciated enough for the hard work they do etc. Furthermore, what I have found to create the most success in these situations is 1 specific exercise. On the soccer team, there was always girls complaining about all the work they do and their position is the hardest and other players in different positions just need to do their job so that the pay off in the end is good (a win). The solution to this problem involved splitting up the team into 2 teams and from there, each person on each team had to pick and play a position that they don’t play – forwards play as defenders, midfielders play as forwards, defenders as forwards etc. Coach put on this exercise at least 1 time per season so that incoming freshman could understand and so that veteran players were reminded that everyone has a different challenge in the work they put in. This exercise was successful because everyone understood that maybe they don’t always have the hardest part and everyone puts in hard work in their own way. I think fully understanding the work others out in would create successful cross-functional teams.
Q.3 I believe that organizational culture is the most difficult to transform. There are employees in companies that have been working there and been doing their job in a certain way for their entire career and changing the way the organization works can be a difficult thing to adopt. I read an article on Zappos not too long ago on their transition into a new organizational culture and many people did find it very difficult to adopt. In fact, the Zappos CEO sent out an email sometime after the change was instilled (many weren’t following the new culture), informing employees that they had about a month or so to adopt the new strategy. It was an ultimatum. They either start abiding by the new rules or they get some sort of compensation to leave the company. Therefore, I believe it is organizational culture because after so many years of doing something one way, it is hard to get people on board to start doing it another way.
I completely relate to your comments about Q2. I have also been surrounded by different backgrounds my entire life and it can be frustrating when you are not on the same terms as them. I think you can relate to being on a sports team to exactly how it is being on a professional team where you all are trying to meet the same goal (win a game) but if some people are not pulling their own weight, then it brings down the whole team. I really like the coach's solution of interchanging the positions. I think that could also be useful in the business world by having other people try something new to continue to build on their weaknesses and grow as a teammate.
DeleteQ.1 Working with people with different backgrounds can be difficult at times. Communicating and teaming with people from different cultures can be hard as well as if language barriers exist as well. I have no job experience with these difficulties but I can definitely relate to language barriers on my soccer teams growing up. I think a lot of practices together and understanding each other’s actions and signals, being from different backgrounds does not matter as much. I’m when it comes to projects and work related issues, it can be more challenging.
ReplyDeleteQ.2 The first thing I think that a group should do is identify everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, and from there, establish everyone’s role within the team. From there, work should go smoothly when assigning everyone’s tasks because team members know exactly what they can expect of each other and the stronger group members can step up and take on the workload that they know maybe the weaker group members aren’t capable to do.
Q.3 I think the hardest part of DevOps to implement would be lean management. Every team member will be having to working with their own strengths, while working at complete efficiency. This can lead to inconsistencies if some team members are stronger than others. The quality of the work can variate if some team members have different definitions of efficiency. Lean management can extremely change the way a company works already, that would make some employees and staff frustrated.
Q1. I believe that working with people who have different background could be challenging sometimes. Sometimes we mean to do the good thing, but the others understand it as a bad thing. When I moved to the United Stated five years ago, I experienced a lot of challenges in order to acclimate myself with American culture. People act and deal with each other’s differently, so I had to socialize with people in order to understand the culture, and overcome any barriers that could affect my life. Moreover, I always try to communicate with my teammates in order to understand what we need to do to get the job done. I always ask for help if I needed to and since English is my second language I always put an extra effort in order to avoid and language barriers between my teammates and me.
ReplyDeleteQ2. I believe that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, so we should identify what we’re really good at and what areas we need to work on in order to improve our work and ourselves. Identifying our strength would help us in order project because we would know how to divide the work among the team members. Also, we can learn from each other’s strengths and experiences to improve our work. I believe that working with different team members would be very beneficial because it would help the members exchange their experiences and learn from each other, which would improve the work and create creativity in the work.
Q3. Lean management could be one of the hardest aspects of DevOps since some team members could have some strength that the others do not have. When any group leader divides the work between the team members, he or she divides is based upon the strength of each member. I believe this would make the person do the same job redundantly and with the passage of time, the person will get bored and that will lead him or her to be less creative and less efficient. I believe that every team member should has the chance to try different things in order to create new ideas and methods that would help the team members.
In response to your first question, I definitely see where you're coming from. It's extremely difficult to acclimate to a new culture and language, but as long as everyone's willing to communicate and make it work, it tends to end up being beneficial for everyone involved. Over the summer, I worked in Malaysia and there was a huge cultural and language barrier. I had a really difficult time speaking up at first, because I wasn't confident that my ideas would be interpreted correctly. However, with more effort on my end, as well as a lot of patience from my coworkers, I was able to adequately explain myself in a group setting. Ultimately, this ended up making the team experience much better and more fulfilling.
DeleteQ.1
ReplyDeleteI think it is most difficult to deal with people of different backgrounds when no one is willing to compromise their beliefs in any way. Many times, I’ve been in teams where everyone has had an extremely strong viewpoint, and no one is willing to be swayed in any way by the opinions of others. This, of course, hinders communication and makes it impossible to overcome any differences among members. If a diverse group of people is not willing to share ideas and incorporate the viewpoints of all members, the objective of diversity is lost entirely. Instead, conflict arises, making it impossible to bridge the gap and truly understand and respect the diverse opinions of the group.
Q.2
I think that one major way to enhance the success of cross-functional teams is adopting empathy. In class, we discussed empathy’s role in design—it is essential for designers to align themselves with the customer. However, a few of the same principles of empathy can be applied within a cross-functional team environment. In order to make the team environment most effective, everyone must get comfortable with the fact that they don’t know everything, and show a willingness to learn; they must shift their perspective by getting to know different team members’ points of view at different levels. This would ensure better organizational outcomes, as it would ensure that everyone approaches the project with an open mind, ready to work in a collaborative setting.
Q.3
I think that it will be harder to change the practices and processes to ones that reflect Lean Management Principles, as well as change the organizational culture. In our slides, it was made clear that organizations are able to vastly increase their number of daily deployments. For instance, Etsy increased its deployments from 30+/day to 80-90/day within the span of one year. This goes to show that continuous development can be implemented relatively quickly and effectively. However, organizational and management principles take a much longer time to implement, and require a much more fundamental shift in the way an organization operates. It takes a lot of time and dedication to shift to leaner processes and practices.
Q.1
ReplyDeleteI think that there are many different types of difficulties when dealing with people of different backgrounds. There first comes the nature of conflict, where there could be initial disagreement about a project or idea that could make it difficult to get along with your teammate. There then could be the difference in age that could make it difficult in these times to relate to different generations who, for example, might not understand technology or other modern ideals.
Q.2
Some factors that would create better cross-functional teams could include team building activities, going out for casual lunches, or getting to know your team on a more personal. For example, this summer I am starting my full time job in North Carolina to train for 7 weeks and I am living in apartments with the other 7 new-hire associate consultants during this "bootcamp" training program. I think this will be very beneficial to spend our free time and live with these people to get to know them very well to help us work better on teams. We also come from different backgrounds, majors, for example business vs engineering vs bio chemistry, to relate back to the first question.
Q3
I think that the hardest one to implement would definitely be organizational change. From my experience at my internship at Avnet, once the large ERP implementation went live, there was difficulties with change management in this organization. They had hired 2 very young "Change Management" employees to help with the changes that were happening within Avnet. After that summer they soon fired the CEO, CIO, and other C-suite employees that could have been part of the failed ERP system. This required more change management as well as the changes in the company as a whole.