We sit down with Devops Practitioner and Founder of SEAM, Barry Chandler to learn more about him and the new course “The DevOps Way” he will be leading alongside Adventures With Agile
Hi Barry – for those of us who don’t know you yet please tell me who you are what you do?
Hahaha – Where to start!
So, I’m Barry Chandler, 48 years old, father of 2 teenage boys, living in London.
Having worked in technology (mainly development) for over 26 years spanning multiple industries I now find myself overseeing an Enterprise Agility community (organising Conferences, Meetups, Webinars etc.) and delivering some DevOps training. Before immersing myself in the wonderful world of DevOps, I managed global development teams for a leading Investment Bank.
What do you most enjoy about the agile world?
That done correctly, seeing a continual flow of value and pivoting based around testing assumptions can often lead to quite different products and services than originally envisaged.
How did you first come to learn about DevOps?
When I read The Phoenix Project around ~2013. It’s essentially a rewrite of The Goal by Eli Goldratt set in a technology context.
What can you tell me about the impact that DevOps has on agility?
DevOps is an enabler for agility at scale. Simples.
What are the common challenges you are seeing with moving towards “enterprise agility”
By far and away it’s establishing a collective sense of purpose that everyone can unite behind. Following that, it’s organising the enterprise to align to that purpose.
What skills are you seeing that are becoming essential for bringing about real and lasting change?
- Effective Learning and Kaizen: Change is constant, being an effective learner and fostering a continual improvement culture is key to being adaptive
- Modern Leadership: How to define, measure, communicate and manage Purpose
- Process and Technology Automation
- Communication and Collaboration
Tell me about one thing you learnt recently that really made a positive difference to the work you are doing?
Psychology in the workplace, knowing what motivates, inspires (and the opposite) is absolutely key to achieving your goals
You recently became an ICAgile Authorized Instructor for our brand new ICAgile Certified “The DevOps Way” course. What was the experience like to get accredited? And what can our community expect to gain from this class?
Ah man, I got a right grilling!! Jokes, it was honestly a great experience all be it a late one, we carried on to Midnight setting the worlds to rights. The DevOps Way is a practitioner’s guide to DevOps in the enterprise. You will learn things that have up to now, the things you only learn through experience.
If you weren’t working in the agile and organisational change space what would you be doing instead?
Birdwatching ! lol
If you wish to gain comprehensive knowledge about DevOps, how it helps you, and the enterprises you are part of, succeed at scale then join our forthcoming ICAgiel Certified course this May. Find more details and book your place here.