April 22, 2020

April 22, 2020

[See the full CrowdChat]

Prior to DevOps Institute’s first virtual SKILup Day on April 30, a micro-conference dedicated to a singular topic, we joined more than a dozen DevOps Ambassadors from around the world for an interactive, online CrowdChat. Because April is Value Stream Management (VSM) month, the discussion explored key themes and trends surrounding VSM. The first Virtual SKILup Day is also centered on VSM, making the CrowdChat the perfect discussion for this month of events!

This CrowdChat served as a great opportunity for the DevOps to interact and exchange knowledge on the top patterns and practices shaping VSM today before the first Virtual SKILup Day. 

DevOps Institute will offer several Virtual SKILup Days throughout 2020. Virtual SKILup Days are micro-conferences dedicated to a singular topic with six hours of continuous learning, including how-to sessions from industry leaders, networking opportunities and a virtual exhibit hall. Learn more here.

The CrowdChat was hosted by DevOps Ambassadors BMK Lakshminarayanan, Solutions Architect and AJ Ajantha Godahewa, Senior Java and DevOps Engineer, and others who wanted to join the conversation.

DevOps Institute Ambassadors are volunteers from around the world who empower the Humans of DevOps through the SKIL framework: Skills, Knowledge, Ideas, and Learning.

The conversation featured insights from DevOps Ambassadors in a Q&A format that was distributed across Twitter – creating a conversation that extended well beyond the live chat. Some of the most popular discussion topics included trends in value stream management, preventing burnout in the IT industry, remoting working and more.

Here are some of our favorite questions and answers from the Crowdchat:

How do you define Value Stream Management?

“A management approach that focuses on the end-to-end flow of customers, their challenges, and ideas (as input) to target business value (as output) through best practices and by the elimination of wasted time and resources.” – Romnick Acabado, @DevOpsLeaderPH

What, in your opinion, are the top area(s) that could benefit from VSM in the modern IT Organization? Where is it best to start?

“Every industry and every business area can gain value from VSM. It allows you to understand the flow of information and value, and help your teams identify and talk about forms of waste..” – Paul Colmer, @DigitalColmer

Burnout is a big problem these days. What tips do you have to prevent it?

“Act of kindness every day, positivity, know your purpose and whys, proper time management, stress management, self-control, self-care and healthy habits (exercise, get plenty of sleep, meditation, connect with your love ones)” – Romnick Acabado, @DevOpsLeaderPH

Does anyone have any top tips or techniques for removing waste in organisations?

“Automate as much as possible.” – Lavanya Arul, @lavanyaa0

What skills do you see most relevant to develop in 2020 for DevOps professionals?

“Along with technical skills, we need soft skills as well, passion for continuous learning, experiment and also to share” – BMK Lakshminarayanan, @lbmkrishna

If DevOps was a movie, what would it be and why?

“Camelot – the quest for the holy grail of continuous improvement requires collaborative efforts of people (knights of the round table), process (laws of Camelot) and technology (the sword Excalibur)” – Marc Hornbeek, @mhexcalibur

The CrowdChat was a success and served as an excellent way to build community with a global audience, virtually. The CrowdChat will remain available online as a repository of tips, insights and suggestions from DevOps Institute Ambassadors and the DevOps Community. Stay tuned for more CrowdChats from DevOps Institute in the future!