DevOps and the Fours Sons

I usually do not mix religion and technology together but there are places where they do have something in common.

The Torah refers to four sons: One wise, one wicked, one simple and one who does not know how to ask a question.

What does the wise son say? “What are the testimonials, statutes and laws Hashem our G-d commanded you?” You should tell him about the laws of Pesach, that one may eat no dessert after eating the Pesach offering.

What does the wicked son say? “What does this drudgery mean to you?” To you and not to him. Since he excludes himself from the community, he has denied a basic principle of Judaism. You should blunt his teeth by saying to him: “It is for the sake of this that Hashem did for me when I left Egypt. For me and not for him. If he was there he would not have been redeemed.”

What does the simple son say? “What’s this?” You should say to him “With a strong hand Hashem took me out of Egypt, from the house of servitude.”

And the one who does not know how to ask, you start for him, as the Torah says: “And you should tell your son on that day, saying ‘It is for the sake of this that Hashem did for me when I left Egypt.’”

(Passover Haggadah)

Today I would like to talk about the wicked son and how this relates to DevOps.

The inspiration came from the t-shirt that was given out at the DevOpsDays Israel event last year.

devops

I don’t expect you to understand the Hebrew – luckily most of the English translation is below.

What is the problem that DevOps culture is trying to solve? The complete disconnection between the Development organizations and the Operations organizations in trying to deliver a product. In a previous post of mine The Difference between Dev + Ops I went into the differences between the two cultures, why they don’t care about the same things and what the challenges are – to help them along their way to a utopian world.

What does the Wicked Son say?

“What does this drudgery mean to you?” To you and not to him. Since he excludes himself from the community, he has denied a basic principle of DevOps.”

As long as you are in the state of mind that it is “not my problem”, but “your problem” – that is the opposite of the DevOps culture.

When we all work together to solve “our problem” – then you are on the right path.

So what might your answer be to the Wicked DevOps son?

Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.