DevOps skills needed for transformation found in new report

DevOps Institute announced the results of the "2019 Upskilling: Enterprise DevOps Skills Report." The report outlines the most valued and in-demand skills needed to achieve DevOps transformation within enterprise IT organizations of all sizes.

The research and analysis were conducted by Eveline Oehrlich, former vice president and research director at Forrester Research.

The project was supported by founding Platinum Sponsor Electric Cloud, Gold Sponsor CloudBees and Silver Sponsor Lenovo.

Key findings for the DevOps Skills report include:

• Automation process and soft skills are the most important “must-have” skills.
• Process skills are essential for intelligent automation. Soft skills and technical skills are equally important. IT Operations is a key functional skill but security comes in second.
• Business skills are most important to leaders (but not as much to individual contributors)
• Cloud and analytical knowledge are the top technical skills. Hiring from within is the most predominant thinking.
• Recruiting for DevOps is on the rise. There are six specific job roles that will be the most recruited now and in the future.
• The report breaks down these findings into specific skills and categories.

According to Dr. Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation, “in a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong. In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work - brains and talent are just the starting point.”   

“With our first study, we want to inspire the development of the DevOps human who is passionate about embracing and thriving within DevOps,” said Eveline Oehrlich. “We found the majority of leaders within the organizations we surveyed are hiring from within and are willing to develop an individuals’ abilities and provide opportunities. Hiring managers see the DevOps human as a creative, knowledge-sharing, eager-to-learn individual with their skill sets and abilities being shapeable. Our study provides insight into what skills the DevOps human should develop, in order to help drive a mindset and a culture for organizations and individuals.”