DevOps Teams by any other name

 “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / 

By Any Other Name would smell as sweet.”

This line from Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet implies it doesn't matter what we call something. That its value and meaning are intrinsic in the thing itself. 

Words have power, they shape our perceptions. The pen is mightier than the sword. That phrase was penned in 1893 and is still very true today. How many times have you, or someone you know been taken in by an article on the internet just to find out later it was false? There was a recent survey to discover how many people fact check what they read on the internet. The result is that most of us don't fact check most of what we read and just assume it is true. 

So, how does all this relate to DevOps?

It matters what we call a collection of teams within an organization.

What we call a collection of teams is important. Are they Scrum Teams? Dev Teams? something else? The way that an organization refers to its teams affects how the organization thinks about and treats the teams. Dev teams implies that their chief responsibility is development. This express excludes all non-development activities. That might exclude QA and probably excludes operations.

What the collection of teams is called may be historical. "We have always called them Dev Teams." Organizations grow and the nomenclature in use should grow with them to reflect the current reality. Many companies are moving towards DevOps, it might make sense to call them DevOps teams in those organizations.

The correct word choice is 100% dependent on the organization. To paraphrase Thelonious Monk, none of the naming choices is wrong, but some might be more correct then others. 

I'm hoping this makes you think about what meaning the words you use convey to others.

Stay Agile.

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