Build engineering, DevOps, release management & everything in between!

For episode 0×20, we sit down with Bay Area improvisation trainer Chris Sams. Chris works with all sorts of organizations, including software development companies, teaching their teams in the art of applied improvisation. Most of us probably think of comedy troupes or shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway when we think of improv, but improv skills can increase team creativity and cohesion, and make it easier for the team to work together and react in real time to unforeseen situations. Chris also discusses how tech companies, specifically, can up their skills by learning improvisation basics, and how this all fits in with companies on their own DevOps transformation journey, plus illuminates some surprising facts about what the basics of improvisation are about! So join us as we sit down, improvise an interview, and try to find out:

Join J. Paul Reed, aka @SoberBuildEng, Youssuf El-Kalay, aka @buildscientist, EJ Ciramella, aka @eciramella, Seth Thomas, aka @cheeseplus and Sascha Bates, aka @sascha_d for the discussion, plus a the last couple of weeks in News & Views and a Tool Tip!

Or, download Episode 32, or any of our previous shows!

Show Links/Notes

• 1:28 – News & Views
  • Test Kitchen 1.0.0 goes live at kitchen.ci
  • Werner Vogals unhappy the government bought hardware for healthcare.gov…
  • … but GigaOm does the math on cloud and finds it may not be better for startups
  • Oracle the cause of problems for Oregon’s health care exchange?
  • Three Young Coders build a site entirely different from healthcare.gov
  • 4chan delivers cruel Christmas tip to new XBox One owners
• 11:45 – Main Segment: Whose Commit Is It Anyway?
  • Contact Chris for more information on organizational improv training (or via phone at 415-531-2522)
• 56:18 – Tool Tip: explainshell.com
• ChefConf 2014 in April; call for presenters open.
• Config Management Camp EU in Belgium in 2014
• Configuration Management DevRoom at 2014 FOSDEM
• Monitorama coming to Portland in May in 2014

Tool Tip

Paul introduces the team to Idan Kamara’s explainshell.com; Seth starts weeping.

Source available.

Join Us!

How would your organization react to improvisation training?

Do you think it would help developers and operations work better together?

Join the discussion!

• On Twitter, at @ShipShowPodcast
• Or via email us at crew@theshipshow.com