Effective DevOps

Chapter 15. Scaling: Misconceptions and Troubleshooting

Let’s examine some common scaling challenges that individuals may come across, and how to troubleshoot them. This chapter will cover areas relevant to both managers and individual contributors, and while you might find the ones directly applicable to your current role more helpful, it can provide valuable insight to read and understand what challenges people in other roles are facing as well.

Scaling Misconceptions

As we discussed in the previous chapter, there is more to scaling than simply being a very large organization or doing some separate “enterprise devops.”

Some of Our Teams Will Never Be Able to Work Together

Often devops origins are described in terms of developers and operations teams at odds with each other. In general, teams can get into a state of high tension and conflict due to compiled misunderstandings. As mentioned in Part II, conflict is not bad. It’s an important signal for a healthy organization. It is critical to ensure that teams are not at odds with each other. With personal reconciliation, there is a one-on-one repairing of understanding, while team reconciliation requires a much more complex process. It’s important to repair the intrateam bonds, as well as the processes that have led to the failures.

Often the initial stages of repair are very difficult and awkward as teams relearn how to interact with each other. It takes time and the accumulation of positive experiences to rebuild the trust ...