Are you good at DevOps?

Recently I was reflecting on a conversation I had with a fellow software engineer a few months ago, I am not sure why it popped into my head, but regardless; we were talking about things we each wanted to build and the engineer began to ask me about my background (A common yet probably underwhelming conversation). Then they asked,

Are you good at DevOps?

My answer was based on specific applications I had deployed using specific tools to create a specific CI/CD Pipeline. After the conversation I felt like I had answered the question poorly and felt a bit dumb (a feeling I am familiar with lol), like I lost the conversation, which may sound odd.

Upon reflection of our conversation I realize that while my answer could have been better, the question itself is a trick question. The reason I believe it was a trick question, and feel free to reach out and tell me if you think otherwise, is because each application is different, and therefore each DevOps process will be different for each application.

When we talk about DevOps we use terms like Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) to describe the core processes our products undergo to be released. But these are always going to be different based on a number of factors: the goal of the application, where it is being deployed, etc…

This is why I believe the question of “Are you good at DevOps?” is a trick question, because the results in different applications will be different and there is no one correct way to “DevOps”, therefore I suggest an alternate question, instead we should ask:

“Do you understand how to setup a DevOps Process? and did it work?”

I believe DevOps is as much an art as it is science, and that saying you good at DevOps is highly subjective, especially with the wide variety of DevOps tools that exist. While the subject is subjective the results of a DevOps process are not (this is the science part), it either accomplishes the goals of the product or it does not.

I am sure there are a lot of people who disagree with my thoughts on this and I would be happy to have a conversation to understand why. This has been my random thought of the day :)