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Tag: skill set

  • The Value of ‘DevOps Engineer’ as a Title

    The Value of ‘DevOps Engineer’ as a Title

    Now that DevOps is proliferating in the enterprise (many companies including Disney, Nike and Walmart, for example, are all on the adoption train) the term is starting to creep up more and more in job titles. This is challenging organizations to consider the significance of DevOps Engineer as a role and the value of having someone with “DevOps” in their title on their team. There are steps you can take to ensure that DevOps candidates are the right fit for your company.

    When you are looking for someone with “DevOps Engineer” as their title, you are seeking someone who not only has the skills you need to complete technical work but also embodies the DevOps values and mindset. Part of the interview process needs to get at the DevOps culture you are seeking to create. You should ensure that you ask questions such as:

    1. What’s the most important business outcome for a DevOps team to deliver?
    2. Have you been able to achieve continuous delivery on the projects that you’ve worked on?  What were the keys to ensuring that you could deliver that value to the business?
    3. What’s the most important character trait for DevOps engineers to have to make sure that the team is successful?
    4. How do you ensure that the DevOps team communicates effectively across team boundaries?
    5. What’s the most important operational requirements to ensure that you understand early in the process?

    The goal of these and other questions is to dig into a candidate’s ability to work across teams, communicate effectively and understand of the full spectrum of DevOps capabilities. Communication skills are core to what we do as a consulting and digital software engineering services firm, so we may have an easier time and more background assessing the communication skills of engineers. But, we’ve seen clients also be successful by combining their typical technical interview process with some additional behavior-based communication questions.

    It is also important to understand that being a true DevOps Engineer entails technical capabilities and there are specific tools that need to be mastered if someone claims to be an experienced DevOps Engineer. So, in addition to soft skills and values, it’s important to understand the technology and deployment environment specifics to effectively assess a candidate for such a position. There are big differences in technologies depending on what development technology (Java, Node.js, C#, React, or some combination of all those things) and what deployment environment (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, etc.) you are working with. These differences are critical and must be understood. You should look for candidates who have experience with the tools your organization uses.

    It also can be helpful to look for someone who has skills that matches your clients’ needs or the needs of a particular project. In some cases, you may be looking for a pure AWS DevOps Engineer who will work completely in the cloud deploying Node.js applications. In other cases, you may be looking for an engineer who might be skilled with Microsoft technologies for a hybrid deployment (on some cloud, some on-prem) of a .Net core application.

    While progress is being made to try and abstract the platform differences, those technologies still require DevOps engineers have a good understanding of the underlying tools and infrastructure that will support the software.

    Bottom line: Candidates who seek DevOps positions and self-identify as DevOps Engineers are good candidates for the general set of skills you are looking for, but be sure you have solid technical evaluation in place to ensure that your hard skill requirements are also met.

    — Jonathan Fries

  • Achieving True Automation is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

    Achieving True Automation is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

    But It Starts in the Cloud

    Arguably, the most important goals for companies seeking to get into cloud today are agility and flexibility to innovate at speed and scale. Adding cost savings to the mix makes the possibilities all the more attractive. And these three pillars can only be achieved with automation.

    But while many companies may believe they’re automating (and thus attaining these three goals), they’re really not. In the rush to cloud adoption, they fail to see that this type of investment takes time and work—a lot of work. Think of it as a marathon, not a sprint.

    While it’s a significant step toward achieving scale and speed, simply moving an application to cloud is not enough to attain true automation. Adding genuine automation to your server means enabling it to spin up or down as needed, react to scaling requests and shut down when not in use. Only when these processes are in place can you then start seeing the cost savings and agility promised by cloud.

    While there is no simple road map to achieving true, seamless automation (near-Nirvana), there are clear and well-worn steps that organizations seeking these goals can take. Looking at it from a broad perspective, automation in the cloud depends on two major initiatives.

    Long-Term Value is in App Automation

    The first step is to figure out where automation will provide the most value (from an application perspective). In most cases, at least as far as what we’re seeing across the marketplace, the answer to this will likely revolve around infrastructure.

    The second step gets a bit trickier. You essentially want to connect automation to the applications themselves (replacing the manual task of writing a script). The challenge then becomes pulling the application back into the larger architectural context so that it can respond to an event without human intervention. This phase involves making the application cloud-ready—that is, furnishing it with the ability to trigger automation without someone sitting at the controls.

    This second phase bears closer scrutiny—it’s here that the people on the ground start to lose faith, because with some applications automation may seem all but impossible. Let’s face it: A fair majority of applications were not designed with automation in mind. Legacy applications in particular (which typically constitute the bulk of most companies’ IT estate) are fairly fussy when it comes to automation. This is when organizations start debating the value of opening code and making changes—whether the investment of time and capital is really worth it.

    Which brings us to the two biggest barriers to automation—costs and culture. Yes, it can be expensive to implement the processes and skills to achieve game-changing automation in the short-term. It requires moving application development specialists to new roles, a massive shift in culture and skill sets within IT. This is particularly true for code development, which has been manually focused for so long. Many companies fail because they don’t see automation as an ongoing true software development program (which, of course, it is).

    Attaining DevOps

    The Holy Grail of automation is achieving a seamless Development-Operations environment (DevOps), one in which software developers and the IT folks are continuously collaborating and communicating to automate software delivery and infrastructure changes. One of the chief goals of DevOps is to create a culture and environment where building, testing and releasing software happen frequently, rapidly and reliably.

    Achieving a true DevOps environment means that you are a functioning automated shop. Automation does not end with the first deployment. In fact, it is only the beginning. You will continually face new upgrades and changes in service, requiring near-constant tweaking. But automation smoothes the process, loosening the friction of life cycle management. Automation becomes embedded into the very fabric of your entire IT estate.

    For some companies (mostly startups), automation is not a luxury but a necessity. Look at Netflix (which, in some respects is less of a startup and more of an established player). The only way the company could scale and stabilize to meet customer demand with the success it has over the past few years was to automate. It would be physically impossible for Netflix to serve its customers any other way.

    Same with Amazon. Jeff Bezos figured out early on the value of automation in the cloud and built the flexibility into Amazon’s infrastructure to grow and scale according to exponential customer expansion.

    We’re seeing this happen increasingly across industries—from the financial sector to the healthcare industry.

    One large global financial institution is changing its very culture by putting automation at the very core of everything it does, from loan applications to payroll. It has taken the bold step of only adopting applications that can be automated. The simple rule of thumb here is, “If we can’t automate it, we’re not going to do it.” This has resulted in the financial institution being able to provide an improved customer experience, providing features for customization of services via their mobile banking app.

    Another is Avalon Healthcare Solutions, a laboratory benefit management company. The organization wanted to accelerate service delivery with a 100 percent cloud-based claims editor. So it developed a portal for providers, patients and health plans to offer appropriate access to data, claims and prior authorization. Avalon can now edit from 28,000 to 38,500 per hour in a single environment with 99.99 percent uptime and 99.95 percent accuracy,

    The lessons here are clear. By pacing their race with an eye for the long-term goal, Avalon, Amazon and Netflix—among others—trailblazers across industries, are reaping the benefits cloud-automation offers. Namely, they are scaling, becoming more agile, innovating and delighting their customers all at the same time.

    About the Author / Chris Wegmann

    Chris Wegmann is Managing director for Amazon Web Services Practice & Relationship lead, responsible for helping Accenture cross-industry enterprise clients leverage the power of Amazon Web Services including through the Accenture Cloud Platform. He has 20 years of experience in technology consulting and specialization in technical architecture, infrastructure design and engineering, legacy system migrations, cloud application architectures and systems operation. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

  • Communicating and Collaboration in a Digital Age

    Communicating and Collaboration in a Digital Age

    The way we communicate with the world has changed drastically in the last 20 years. Gone are the days of pen and paper, lengthy phone calls and, to a certain extent, even emails. Gone are the days of needing to have your entire team under one roof to accomplish anything. Gone are the days of communicating from one limited perspective.

    In our digital day and age, we can move mountains with keyboards, perform miracles via Skype and enjoy a thousand different perspectives of any project. There is one key behind all of this progress: code. Without it, we would not be where we are and couldn’t accomplish any of the amazing interdependent things we do. In fact, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is one of the fastest-growing areas of our economy, according to TechRocket. Between 2014 and 2024, the number of STEM jobs will grow 17 percent, as compared to 12 percent for non-STEM jobs.

    Unfortunately, not everyone speaks this language, which can lead to a breakdown of communication in the office when the goal is to work as a diverse but cohesive team. It’s infinitely more difficult to collaborate with someone when you can’t translate each other’s visions. That’s why it’s important to have a basic understanding of this vital skill if you want to build successful teams.

    Bridge Communication Gaps

    I’m not saying everyone on your team needs to have the expertise of a developer, but it is helpful if everyone can learn how to code from a very basic level. This basic understanding helps everyone understand the time and effort involved from their tech peers, the boundaries of what can and cannot be accomplished, and the importance of clear, precise details in communicating their ideas.

    It also makes troubleshooting and revising much easier to pinpoint and less time-consuming to correct. You can skip the IT-to-English translation that so often degrades communication on major projects because neither party feels they’ve been heard and understood.

    Encourage Collaboration Throughout the Process

    A recent poll by Gallup showed that 70 percent of U.S. employees are not engaged at work. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities for companies to bolster engagement through effective communication channels that keep everyone in the loop and invested in the ultimate outcome.

    Oftentimes, ideas flow from conception to initiation to implementation without ever having crossed the desk of the programmers charged with writing the code to bring these ideas to life. That’s the same as asking a carpenter to build a car. Although the carpenter may have a great design, understand the market and even be able to build some pieces of the car, at the end of the day the carpenter’s skills aren’t enough to do it alone and the carpenter’s vision will need to be communicated to someone with a different skill set.

    When everyone on the team understands how code works and the resources needed to turn these fantastic brainstorms into reality, the entire process becomes more streamlined and can be executed more efficiently.

    Be in the Know

    At the end of the day, everyone on the team benefits from understanding how the machine is programmed to work. Whether you’re launching a new website or the latest iteration of your app, somewhere along the line you will need to write code to convey your message in this digital world—and you will want that message to come across loud and clear.

    The good news is that it’s easy to harness the skill of coding these days. Employees can participate in a coding bootcamp, online courses or even mentorships with other employees who’ve already mastered the skill. The improved communication among teams and departments will help improve efficiency and help you realize visions.

    About the Author / Michael Peggs

    Michael Peggs is the founder of Marccx Media, a digital marketing agency specializing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Before Marcxx, Peggs worked at Google in business development, forming digital media and advertising partnerships in the United States and Asia. He is also a contributor to The Huffington Post, FastCompany and Business Insider and a podcaster, hosting the iTunes Top 10 New & Noteworthy Podcast You University. Connect with him on Twitter.

  • 3 Skills Developers Should Master in 2016

    3 Skills Developers Should Master in 2016

    The era of mobile and web is upon us, which has caused nearly every business decision-maker to ask the question, Is now the time to hire a developer to build our app or website? In 2016, businesses are going to be looking for the best developers to join their team and help scale their business. We’ve already started to see this trend, as a recent Harvey Nash Technology Survey 2016 found that developers are the most sought-after of all technology personnel.

    To stand out from the pack, developers must master the critical skills businesses are looking for. The most valuable developers will be those who can adapt to the changing technology landscape and further hone their craft to help companies scale and solve specific business challenges.

    To stay competitive in today’s market, developers need to invest in these three skills to be relevant in 2016 and beyond.

    Master the Skills to Scale a Product or Service

    Startups increasingly are evolving from early stage concepts to building a growth model to take their business to the next level. To be an asset today, developers need to master and specialize in scaling technologies that are key for businesses looking to expand their customer base and focus on technological innovation.

    There is a demand for developers that have not only a breadth of experience in bringing an organization up to scale but also depth in their technical skill set. Having the ability to work on major systems, support large amounts of traffic and customers and maintain the system for several years are critical competencies that companies will be looking for.

    Also, having a data model or database experience is very important—NoSQL solutions such as Cassandra, CouchDB or Riak, as well as traditional data sources such as MySQL, are in high demand. Middleware languages such as Java and Golang also are an important part of a developer skill set when building services and APIs.

    Understand the Customer Perspective

    When building a technology solution, an engineer must be able to look at the product from a customer’s perspective to understand what problem the product is fixing. While technical skills in developing a product and user experience (UX) are very important, the ability for a developer to understand and create a product that solves a customer challenge far outweighs the focus on building the most elegant software.

    Engineers who are able to demonstrate project management skills and have experience around scaling infrastructure and ensuring the platform is robust will be in high demand. Businesses increasingly are seeing a need to support growing customer bases and traffic with utmost end-user reliability.

    Become a Subject Matter Expert

    There is a gradual shift in the developer community, in which engineers are focusing on specializations and becoming subject matter experts. There is an opportunity for developers to create career highlights by merging their talent and passion with opportunities.

    Developers are encouraged to identify an area they are passionate about and focus on refining those skills. By being able to find these opportunities that build on their passion, these developers can demonstrate they are able to solve a challenging problem for a large number of users—a competitive skill in high demand across the industry.

    The overarching strategy of a successful developer career is to invest in learning how to scale a product or service, understanding the customer perspective and becoming a subject matter expert. Investing in your skills as a developer in 2016 can lead to a longer, more fulfilling career.

    About the Author/Sha Ma

    Sha Ma_SendGridSha Ma is the senior director, Software Engineering at SendGrid. She led development teams at both startups and Fortune 500 companies prior to joining SendGrid. In her current role, she drives strategic planning, development and management of large scale projects. Ma is a graduate of MIT where she earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.