The maturity of Definition-of-Done

Teams mature over time. They grow in experience and understanding. Just like kids. For DevOps to truly work it require a very mature team.

Consider baking

• A four year old is happy with the baking process already when the dough is in the mouth. They care litle for the end result, and the process is not of any big concern. Their definition-of-done is quickest possible pleasure.
• A nine year old has learned that the finished cake most often tastes better than the dough - and give you less stomack ache. They've leart the pride of creating something. Their definition-of-done is when they taste the finished cake.
• A twelve year old has learnt that other get happy when they present what they bake. Their definition-of-done is when they get the applause for serving the cake (Oh, and the taste of it).
• A 17 year old knows they could enjoy the same cake multiple times, so they might have learnt to put the cake left-overs in packaging in the fridge for consumtion at a later time. Their definition-of-done could be a clean table after serving the cake.
• A 20 year old (may) have learned that baking produces dishes, and feel that the baking definition-of-done is when the dishes produced are washed.
• A 25 year old knows that the cake procedure is not finished until you are ready to produce another cake. Not only should the dishes be washed, everything should be back in their cupboards and ingredients supplies checked and re-stocked.

To make any DevOps initiative work you need to gain experiences from the whole process. Going from function based silo organisations is hard since the understanding is lacking. That's where coaches can help. The coaches don't nessearily know everything the different stakeholders know, but they know how to get people talking to eachother.

The last few decades in IT has, for many, been a strive to turn development from a craft into a process industry. The base problem is that developers are working with blue prints only. The compiler is doing The actual construction, the build pipeline the assembly and the deploy pipeline the logistics.