After many years doing DevOps-y things before learning the term “DevOps,” I moved to a larger, more traditional IT organization, with a goal of helping modernize their outdated technologies and practices. The next several years brought many challenges – technical, political, and interpersonal – some of which were more easily overcome, and some of which, well, not so much.

I’ll tell the story from where we started (spoiler alert: it’s about as much juicy legacy as anyone can handle) to where we ended up, what we got right, and where I went wrong. Whether you’re just starting out on your DevOps journey, or are well on your way, I hope I can impart some of what I’ve learned, for you to take back and help maximize the quality of your own teams’ relationships.