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Tenets

Principles are required "permission to play" values, which we must adhere to. Ideals are values that we aspire to.

Working with Tenets

We must hold each other to account for adhering to these tenets, using them as foundations for positive and constructive feedback.

We must retrospectively evaluate our success by reflecting on our adherence to these tenets.

We must refine our ways of working such that we enhance our ability to adhere to these tenets.

  • Continuous Improvement

    We are always experimenting and learning and we aim for Continuous Discovery.

    We know we will never know less than we do right now, and learning requires effort and focus.

    We strive for greatness but understand the value of iterative and incremental improvement.

    We learn from our failures and encourage experimentation.

    We challenge ideas and never take a solution on merit.

    We ask difficult questions and respect all opinions.

    We accept honest and constructive feedback and give it to others.

  • Continuous Collaboration

    We communicate with each other continually and understand that this is central to the core principles of DevOps and our overall mission success.

    We recognise that, as a remote and distributed team, continuous collaboration and communication requires more effort than co-located teams.

    We make a noise when blocked, and do not wait to seek support or share progress.

    We don’t wait for updates to come when we have questions.

    We work together to solve problems and share knowledge as we go to prevent dependencies and silos.

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  • Continuous Deployment

    We break value down into the smallest deployable increments, and deploy these constantly.

    We ensure that we keep manual involvement in the release process as minimal as possible, and aim to achieve fully automated deployments, so that we can deploy value more often and without friction.

  • Continuous Quality

    We produce hypothesis and design solutions and evaluate outcomes and outputs.

    We understand that quality means valuable as well as functional.

    We design for security, privacy, and sustainability, reliability and scalability.

    We consider what success means and how we will measure it at the start and throughout the problem lifecycle.

  • Continuous Planning

    We plan, and re-plan our short, medium, and long-term objectives.

    We are responsible for consulting with stakeholders and informing them of the progress on the objectives.

    We are all responsible for delivering our objectives. We work autonomously and are empowered to find the most effective ways of delivering the best solutions.

  • Continuous Autonomy

    Each team member is empowered to perform their work without interference.

    We aim to provide clarity on expected standards, and we expect teams and individuals to work autonomously within these guidelines.

    We are individually accountable for:

    • Adhering to our practice principles and tenets
    • Managing their own time and workload in close collaboration with their team
    • Proactively keeping themselves engaged – there is always somewhere you can be helpful, don’t wait to be asked
    • Working within the governance controls, understanding what is required of them, and finding a way forward

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  • Locality & Simplicity

    Keep decisions and processes close to relevant teams, and ensure simplicity in workflows.

  • Focus, Flow & Joy

    Encourage deep work with minimal interruptions to enhance productivity and job satisfaction.

  • Psychological Safety

    Create an environment where everyone feels safe to take risks and express themselves without fear of negative consequences.

  • Improvement of Daily Work

    Continuously seek to refine and optimize everyday tasks and processes.

  • Value Focus

    Prioritize work that delivers the highest value to customers and the business.

  • A Bias towards Action

    Favour taking action and making decisions, even in the face of uncertainty.