18 Great DevOps Quotes

What You’ll Learn

• Key insights and humor from leading DevOps professionals.
• How these quotes reflect the values and principles of DevOps and Continuous Delivery.
• The role of automation, trust, and culture in DevOps success.
• How Agile practices like retrospectives can drive continuous improvement.
• The importance of embracing change and learning from industry leaders.

Quotes Galore

Here are 18 great DevOps quotes that I read in blogs, saw on Twitter or heard at conferences:

1. 1. 1. “The best TDD can do, is assure that code does what the programmer thinks it should do. That is pretty good BTW.”
         —James Grenning
      2. “Simply put, things always had to be in a production-ready state: if you wrote it, you darn well had to be there to get it running!”
         —Mike Miller
      3. “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.”
         —Red Adair
      4. “Programming is not a zero-sum game. Teaching something to a fellow programmer doesn’t take it away from you.”
         —John Carmack

         

      5. “A phased approach to continuous delivery is not only preferable, it’s infinitely more manageable.”
         —Maurice Kherlakian
      6. “So, what do you do?”
         “I’m lean”
         “What?”
         “I’m agile”
         “What?”
         “Fine. I make websites.”
         —I Am Devloper
         << Love DevOps? Take It To The Next Level With These Best Practices! >>
      7. “Programmers don’t burn out on hard work, they burn out on change-with-the-wind directives and not ‘shipping’.”
         —Mark Berry
      8. “The most powerful tool we have as developers is automation.”
         —Scott Hanselman
      9. “The key in such a transition to continuous delivery is to expect things to get worse before you’ll be able to make them better.”
         —Matthias Marschall
      10. “Currently, DevOps is more like a philosophical movement, not yet a precise collection of practices, descriptive or prescriptive.”
          —Gene Kim
      11. “Any roles involved in a project that do not directly contribute toward the goal of putting valuable software in the hands of users as quickly as possible should be carefully considered.”
          —Stein Inge Morisbak
      12. “Lack of trust in an organization is really expensive. You can’t villianize others if you know their kids.”

          —Unknown

          When implementing DevOps in your organization, focus on building trust and communication across teams. As one quote highlights, a lack of trust can be expensive and counterproductive.

          

      13. “To successfully implement continuous delivery, you need to change the culture of how an entire organization views software development efforts.”

          —Tommy Tynjä

           

          Automation is a powerful tool in DevOps, but remember that culture is just as critical. As Tommy Tynjä’s quote emphasizes, successful continuous delivery requires a shift in organizational culture, not just technology.

      14. “TDD creates consumption awareness: when you create a unit test, you are creating the first consumer of the code under development.”
          —Neal Ford
      15. “If you adopt only one agile practice, let it be retrospectives. Everything else will follow.”
          —Woody Zuill
      16. “The key to following the continuous delivery path is to continually question your own assumptions about what’s possible.”
          —Jeff Sussna
      17. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
          —Charles Darwin
      18. “Showing a strong success and visible benefits is key to getting others to agree to try your way of doing things.”
          —Frederic Rivain

What Makes a DevOps Quote Great?

There you have, 18 quotes exploring the realities of life in the world of Agile, Continuous Delivery, and DevOps. Beautiful, aren’t they?
To me, what makes them great DevOps quotes is the combination of humor, humility and really smart experiential insight. I’d be curious to learn if you agree or disagree with my recipe. What do you think makes for great DevOps quotes? Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments below.

Key Takeaways

• DevOps success requires not just tools but also a change in organizational culture and mindset.
• Automation is a key driver of productivity and efficiency, but it needs to be balanced with human factors like communication and trust.
• Agile practices, particularly retrospectives, are essential to continuous improvement in DevOps.
• Trust and transparency within teams can significantly reduce costs and increase the chances of success in DevOps initiatives.
• Continuous questioning of assumptions and openness to change are critical for staying competitive in software development.