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Relearning to Learn in the DevOps and Agile Culture

7 min readApr 23, 2020

“If it’s too difficult, I’ll do it now. If it’s impossible, give me 5 minutes to prepare”. Unknown author

A new approach to learning is needed in the DevOps and Agile culture. The key to DevOps’ success is The Three Ways principle: systems-oriented thinking, amplifying feedback loops, and Culture of Continual Experimentation and Learning. Each day it’s necessary to learn the new skills required to manipulate new technologies and tools (See Table periodic DevOps). Along with the numerous tools, the time between releases is shorter and almost always containing new features. Therefore, constant learning is necessary.

How can we keep up with this learning marathon?

Today if you want to be agile, according to SCRUM, you must be adaptable. Being agile is not a synonym of being fast; it means to adapt to solve the problems in many ways, by exploring and learning through different methods.

A SCRUM developer team (up to nine people) deals with various situations and problems to deliver an end-to-end product. How to find nine people who can master all the content and knowledge necessary to resolve the complex problems, ranging from simple provisioning of resources in AWS (Amazon Web Services) to using machine learning techniques? How can you benefit from the DevOps Culture, to be agile, with the daily increase in tools and solutions that emerge and disappear at every moment? We want to find answers to these and other questions.

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. (Elbert Hubbard)

For a long time, the specialist career was valued because it focuses on a subject and deepens the knowledge in a particular area. In other times the generalist career (an ocean of knowledge with a finger of depth) was highly sought after because it was necessary to follow the evolution of all the technical areas to get the most out of them. Today the career that is the most desired is the T-shaped career (wide variety of skills and broad knowledge in depth where it’s needed), which can progress to a π (pi) or comb-shaped career:

A T, Pi, or Comb-shaped career is the most recommended.

Recruitment companies inflate job requirements and dream of hiring someone similar to the Neo character from The Matrix, where he could download skills directly to the brain as the need arose:

It seems crazy what we are looking for, but with the right mindset, we can achieve incredible results.

First, we need to deal with various concepts such as Mindset, self-learning, and a new teaching approach. I will leave several links at the end of this article so you can delve deeper into these themes.

DevOps and Agile Culture: How to be adaptable to deliver more in less time

Anywhere this culture is implanted, we will find a lot of resistance. Those who work with IT know that our co-workers are self-indulgent and are opposed to changes such as changing teams, learning new skills, or getting out of their comfort zone.

In the Brazilian public service, this is most evident, where the employees are good at passing the employment test and lousy to acquire new knowledge and develop solutions. The bureaucratic part also does not help in the training management, where the processual cost and the delay in hiring training often end up burning taxpayer money. In essence, outdated course courses with little absorption make applying the learned content in the workplace difficult.

Before implanting any of these cultures, it is necessary to change the learning mindset. How do we want to be agile with bureaucratic, slow, and outdated learning? How do we want to be always up-to-date if the only way to learn is through the old method of teaching with classroom teacher training?

Education in Brazil has never favored us in this regard. Remember how the college classes were. You will find that, for the most part, it was not a good experience. We were always dependent on the teachers and of the transfer of knowledge through theories. We always adopted the method of too much theory and little practice. We study to pass a test and not to learn (Watch Teacher Pierluigi Piazzi video), and our teaching is not aligned with the learning model, where we can choose what we want to learn. Learning could be more fun in these cases and be better employed for the future of a country.

“You can go to college … just don’t let it disrupt your studies and learning.” Unknown author

The humorist and lecturer Murilo Gun created the Cricricri course (Criando Crianças Criativas — raising creative children in Portuguese), where he addresses these terrible aspects of creative limitation that the school imposes on us (it’s not just a problem in public education). We are born creative and throughout life, the school limits our learning capabilities. Do you remember that time you asked your teacher a curious question, and she said, “You are going to learn this two years from now”? We have a thirst for knowledge and it should not be limited to the school curriculum.

For an agile culture of learning, we need a growth mindset, where all people can learn new skills. For that, it is necessary to have a mentality of persistence, and “continuous enhancement of teaching.” It is never late to begin learning and we should never stop learning. Right now, we have the opportunity of learning whatever we want with the help of DevOps and Agile culture.

“The more you know, you become more and more aware that you know nothing. The more you’re aware, the more unaware you become. What is the value of an experience that is worth nothing today?
Eternally learning, to infinity and beyond.”Podcast 115 #ResumoCast

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edson

Learning is a skill like any other, be aware that the human mind has no limit. Some parts of the book “No One Ever Taught Me How to Learn”. I. C. Robledo.

Advantages:

The more we enable humanity, the more it will be able to resolve complex problems.
Those who committed to leading a life of learning will have advantages in the stressful times and increased employability, reducing stress, improving productivity, creativity, and effectiveness of absorbing new content.
With the growth mindset, you can learn anything, including overcoming any weakness.
Learn better according to your style: You need to adapt to other forms of learning and have multiple experiences.

Myths

There is no way to increase the knowledge I already have.
You are good at evaluating your skills: we should look for feedback from others.
Easy learning is good learning: comfort zone.
The belief that only people born with talent are capable of learning specific skills.

Truths

In the beginning, learning takes time, effort, and persistence. Then some things become natural and trivial.
Challenges help in learning (getting out of your comfort zone).
What is essential to learn about a particular subject? Familiarize yourself with the vocabulary you want to learn.
What are the motivations or purposes for learning new things or acquiring a new skill?
Prioritize the most important elements.
Have mentors, authors, and specialists about a given subject.
Have several different sources of information about a specific area of knowledge.
Teach about the subject. It will make you master it. Learn by teaching, whatever level you are at, retaining and understanding the information you teach will take you to a high level of mastery. You will find your weak points, allowing you to work on them.
Learn from children: the ability to ask about anything.
With the habit of making questions, you learn to ask the right questions.
Be curious.
Use your imagination and creativity.
People born with talent (fixed mindset) do not learn by applying themselves to the task, nor do they handle setbacks well.
Share the content you’ve learned.

Finally, I’m leaving some tips on the forms of learning and how our brain learns: