June 5, 2020
December 2020 Update: Read how our Online DevOps Dojo fits into our GitHub story in this DXC case study by GitHub.
October 2020 Update: We added two new modules to the Online DevOps Dojo: Value Stream Mapping and DevOps Kaizen. The original blog post follows.
DevOps dojos have been wildly popular as on-site workshops that support an organization’s DevOps transformation. But even before COVID-19 and social distancing, in-person sessions had their limits. They could only reach a certain number of employees and customers. To bridge the gap, DXC has created Online DevOps Dojo — an open source, immersive learning experience for the DevOps community.
We designed the online dojo as an extension, not a replacement, for on-site DevOps dojos, but now that social distancing is the “new normal,” the timing for an online dojo is even more relevant.
Our primary goal, however, is not to offer training, but to contribute a set of DevOps learning experiences so the DevOps community can assemble and create more content in support of DevOps adoption and talent reskilling. We are eager to build a community around the Online DevOps Dojo — a community of module maintainers, translators, story tellers and even creators of new learning modules.
An immersive story
We designed the Online DevOps Dojo around a story, because there’s nothing better than a good story to get people immersed in something. The Online DevOps Dojo learning modules tell the story of a fictitious company, “Pet Clinic,” and its employees as they go through their DevOps journey. Throughout the modules, you learn about the characters, interact with them, and understand how each one plays a role in the DevOps transformation of Pet Clinic.
The modules, a mix of cultural and technical topics, illustrate important DevOps patterns — how to lead change, version control, continuous integration and “shift left” security — as described in various blog posts, white papers and great books such as “Accelerate” by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble and Gene Kim.
The modules provide an interactive experience in which you can follow the step-by-step instructions as well as go off script to explore and learn more, without fear of breaking anything.
Participants can use the Online DevOps Dojo to:
- Prepare for a face-to-face DevOps dojo, typically a 1- to 2-week event (that can also be held virtually), by learning techniques in advance
- Create a complete curriculum with hands-on labs
- Provide a way to get knowledge when you most need it, all within your browser
- Share what “good looks like” when answering a question around any DevOps pattern
- Leverage the story and characters, and even extend the story to create more learning experiences (not necessarily DevOps-related)
We have released the Online DevOps Dojo modules under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 so they are available to benefit the entire DevOps community.
What’s next? Experiment and contribute
As you “shelter in place,” we encourage you to spend some of your time trying out the learning modules. We sincerely hope you’ll enjoy them and that they will help support your DevOps adoption. Depending on the reception of the initial launch, we also plan to release new modules.
Let’s support DevOps adoption! Start browsing the code of the Online DevOps Dojo, review the guidelines for contribution and ask a question by opening an issue in the GitHub repository.
Watch these DXC TechTalks about the online Devlops Dojo here and here.