Technical skills

As a DevOps professional, you must have a solid understanding of the tools and technologies that enable continuous integration, continuous delivery, automation, monitoring, and collaboration. Be familiar with various programming languages, frameworks, platforms, and cloud services that are used in your domain. Be able to write, test, debug, and deploy code, as well as configure, manage, and troubleshoot servers, networks, and infrastructure. Additionally, you should be comfortable with using version control, containerization, orchestration, scripting, and security tools to ensure quality and security of your software.

There is no silver bullet for everything. Technical skills varies depends on the end-goal for DevOps team. But the high level understanding is the same, how we enable continuous feedback loop from inception to post-deployment. This continuous loop requires mastery in some specific skills. Development: programming languages, version control system. Deployment: familiar of cloud technologies, OS, network, and platform. Quality Control: write, test, debug and automate redundant QA tasks. Operation: source code maintenance, troubleshoot server, network, infra (VM, bare metal, etc.), 3A (authorization, authentication and accounting), monitoring included as well.

Soft skills

Technical skills alone are not enough to succeed in DevOps. You also need strong soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and adaptability. You must communicate clearly and effectively with different stakeholders, such as developers, testers, operators, managers, and customers. Be able to collaborate and coordinate with your peers, share knowledge and feedback, and resolve conflicts constructively. Moreover, you should be able to identify and solve problems creatively, learn from failures, and embrace change and innovation.

Business skills

Another important aspect of being a successful DevOps professional is having a good grasp of the business goals and values of your organization. You should be able to align your work with the customer needs and expectations, as well as the strategic vision and direction of your company. You should also be able to measure and demonstrate the value and impact of your DevOps efforts, using metrics and indicators that reflect the quality, performance, and reliability of your software. Furthermore, you should be able to prioritize and manage your tasks and projects, as well as optimize your resources and costs.

One thing that sometimes missing is business process optimization. DevOps professional need to be adept at analyzing and improving existing business processes. They should possess skills in process mapping, identifying bottlenecks, implementing automation, and measuring performance metrics. This enables them to drive efficiency, reduce waste, and enhance the overall software delivery lifecycle.

Cultural skills

Finally, as a DevOps professional, you need to have a positive and proactive attitude towards DevOps culture and principles. You should be willing to adopt a mindset of continuous improvement, experimentation, and learning. You should also be open to feedback and criticism, as well as to new ideas and practices. Additionally, you should be respectful and supportive of your colleagues, as well as accountable and responsible for your actions. Above all, you should be passionate and enthusiastic about delivering value and quality to your customers.

DevOps is a challenging and rewarding field that requires a diverse and dynamic set of skills and competencies. By developing and enhancing these skills, you can become a more effective and valuable DevOps professional.