Breakthrough innovations are changing IT at ever faster speeds. New tools, languages, libraries, virtualisation technologies, workflows appear and get adopted in shorter times. A perfect example of this is Docker.
Keeping pace in that kind of environment affords a structured methodology. Here is what I do when preparing for a new thing, keeping in mind that no matter how cool it is, I will probably be far away from using it at my current paid projects.
- Read a lot on sites such as InfoQ, where practitioners report.
- Go to general DevOps conferences such as QCon, Velocity or watch in Youtube.
- Key people will start to emerge from what you read and hear. Follow their publications and talks.
- Pick a topic that matches your preferences and that will keep you focused over the next months and hopefully years.
- Try it out, start with a small startup scenario, prototype it. Ask for help.
- Drop it if it is shitty.
- Energy and passion will be key to your success.
- Tweet and blog about key observations.
- Use gist for your code snippets and include them on your blog.
- Create your own cheatsheet.
- Organise your thoughts by keeping a list of findings, questions, conflicts, quotes, competition, etc.
- Eat your own dog food by using the new thing for your own mini projects.
- Build yourself a lab environment. With vagrant and docker this is nowadays easier than ever.
- If its open source, understand the code, understand the process. If you have the time and energy, get involved.
- If its closed source, scan the ecosystem for open stuff.
- Make one conceptual slide per day.
- Prepare a slide deck for your colleagues at work. Start with Why, show just enough concept then do a demo. Proceed with more breadth.
- Try to earn some money by giving training on the topic.
- Speak at conferences, people like practical advice and distrust marketing.
- Connect with likeminded people. Give more than you take.
- Make the world a better place.
