Becoming SRE

Chapter 3. SRE Culture

The hardest thing about writing a chapter on SRE culture is that everyone and no one knows what culture is. It is one of those “squishy” words that we understand in context, but defining it can be difficult.¹ The second-hardest thing about writing a chapter on SRE culture is being able to clearly differentiate between “SRE culture” and any other kind of culture so that you can say, “Yes, this is specific to SRE culture; I can tell this is SRE culture and not something else.”² The third-hardest thing about writing a chapter on SRE culture is being able to express why you should care about this topic at all.

But those are all my problems, not yours, and this book is about your problems (though if you care about culture in your organization, you have the same problems). The good news is we can tackle both together. To do so, let’s start addressing each of these challenges, albeit in reverse order. First up: why SRE culture matters.

Happy Fish, um, People

Why should you care about SRE culture? Because the only way for the SREs on your team to thrive is if you understand and foster the sort of environment that SREs require. When you have (or desire) a nascent or aspirational SRE team, you have the same sort of concerns you might have caring for some new tropical fish. You want to know what they eat, how warm their water should be, what else should be in their tank, and how big of a tank they need to thrive.³

Ask yourself: what conditions and environment, that ...