What an excellent lineup of speakers we have booked for DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES17) London! If you have not had a chance to check out the list for yourself, you can watch this short video to see who else will be speaking at this year’s conference. The DevOps Enterprise Summit London is shaping up to be the best industry conference in all of Europe for the leaders of large, complex organizations implementing DevOps principles and practices. We are expecting the show to sell out early, and have extended early bird pricing to March 22, so now is the time to register!
As the conference gets closer, we want to help you get to know our speakers a little better. We’ve asked Jonathan Fletcher, CTO at Hiscox, some questions to learn more about his experiences implementing DevOps at a large insurance provider. Hiscox has more than 2,000 employees and insures businesses in 14 different countries. Jonathan Fletcher was with us last year at DOES16 London and conducted a popular session sharing the DevOps journey of Hiscox. We couldn’t be happier to welcome Jonathan back to the stage this year and look forward to learning from his latest experiences!
DevOps Enterprise Summit: Jonathan, in your opinion, what are the biggest problem areas or challenges of large scale DevOps transformations?
Jonathan Fletcher: The biggest challenge is getting everyone on the same page and committing to making this happen. The cultural and people parts by far take the most effort to get right—this takes time and as much senior sponsorship as you can find.
DOES: What are the top lessons you’ve learned while leading (or participating in) DevOps transformations?
JF: Start small and grow success. Don’t underestimate the time, effort and skill it takes to influence such a wide body of individuals—DevOps is a holistic view across all of IT and the business. That’s a big undertaking.
DOES: What do you think is the most important metric when measuring DevOps success?
JF: There isn’t one. Business goals change between companies and teams and therefore the metrics change.
DOES: Choosing a value stream for DevOps transformation deserves careful consideration—which would you start with and why?
JF: We should have started small, but we went big on a critical change program. Luckily we pulled it off, but bad press would have stopped the transformation dead in its tracks. I would say to others, find something that delivers tangible ROI and that people care about, but also one where you can make a mistake or two without killing you or the company.
DOES: What new Ops skills and roles may be needed in a DevOps future?
JF: Development skills for everyone. I believe there will be a great blurring of roles and skills over the next five to 10 years between IT teams and also the business.
Thanks for answering these questions Jonathan, we will see you in London in a few short months!
Another great way to prepare for DOES17 London is to tune in to our live video chats where we interview our speakers and other industry leaders on topics regarding DevOps implementations and provide sneak peeks of what to expect at the upcoming Summit in London. If you missed the last one, “Deep Dive into DevOps,” it featured Jonathan Fletcher as well as other speakers! You can watch the replay here.
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