The DevOps Adoption Playbook

CHAPTER 7Leading DevOps Adoption in the Enterprise

GENERAL MANAGER VERSUS THE COACH

The role of general manager in the NFL is perhaps the most vital position of every team. The GM is mostly forgotten on Sundays in favor of the personnel on the field. Our focus falls on players and coaches, but those players and coaches live and die by their GMs. A bad GM will destroy any team. A good GM can bring you a Super Bowl.

From 2008–10, Scot McCloughan put aside his search for a second “t” in his name and assembled a roster in San Francisco that would put the 49ers into the NFC Championship in 2011 and the Super Bowl in 2012. He did the same for the Seattle Seahawks from 2010–14. The Seahawks did one better than the 49ers and won the Super Bowl in 2013.

—Foss, 2015

Professional American football teams have a critical role in that of a general manager. Where it is done right—and with many teams it is not done right (Breer, 2013)—it can make or break a team. This is because while the general manager is a behind-the-scenes role and it is the players and the coaches on the team who get to play and win or lose games, it is the general manager who is responsible for putting the actual team together in the first place. The general manager also sets morale by managing salaries and, most importantly, by managing the culture of the team. Whether the role of the team executive is played by the owner (think Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys), the general manager (like it should be), or the ...