Abstract: I manage an infrastructure team, and we're having to learn which ops things we do, and which ops things we hand off. And it turns out not to be a clear line, but a process of working together with our designated ops. I figure 5 minutes introducing my team and the kind of problems we have, 10 minutes talking about how we're working with ops: we have primary/secondary/advisory ops members and they are on our team mailing list. They are invited to our weekly meetings, but have access to the agenda so they can decide for themselves if they want to attend. I have a 1:1 with our primary ops person every 2 weeks so I can find out how much bandwidth she's got and she can hear what things I'm worried about and might need help with soon. We work together on hardware buying, where we find the timing that make the most sense to both parties, talk about what hardware meets our needs, and make sure they have everything they need to order it. Sometimes we write chef code. Sometimes we build RPMs. Sometimes we pair with Ops people. It depends on urgency, bandwidth, available skills, and interest. I can slide in the horror story of the week spent double teaming NSLCD and losing. :)

Then 10 minutes talking about what is generalizable about these things - communicate, communicate, cooperate! I love your theme of empathy and I think this fits well with it - it's about being on the same team, understanding that we have conflicting constraints, and helping each other achieve goals. Final five minutes: quick things you can do to make your ops relationship better (probably 3 different suggestions for how to open dialogue), wild ideas about how to make the relationship even better in the future.

Speaker: Melissa Santos

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