At the cornerstone of any successful DevOps transformation is effective communication between all members in an organization, from the business leaders, IT leaders, middle management and out to each individual member on their teams. Yet, so many times in organizational change, we see a monumental communication breakdowns occur.

So it’s no surprise that every year at the DevOps Enterprise Summit, so many presenters attempt to tackle this issue. This past June, I had a chance to dive into this a little bit deeper with one of my favorite keynote speakers, AWS executive and a man who needs no introduction to our DevOps audience, Mark Schwartz.

Over the years, Mark has been at the forefront of an ongoing conversation about the communication gap between business and IT leadership, both as an author, a speaker and during his time as an IT leader himself in organizations small and large, public, private and nonprofit.

So, needless to say, when he stopped by the Digital Anarchist video booth to share about his newest book, “War & Peace & IT: Business Leadership, Technology, and Success in the Digital Age,” I was very happy to get the chance to continue the conversation.

While Mark’s previous book, “A Seat a Table,” one of my favorite DevOps books, was primarily written for senior IT leaders, “War & Peace & IT” takes up where it left off, speaking directly to business leaders in an effort to further explain how a difficult relationship with IT can be one of the biggest impediments to the success of their DevOps transformation.

By diving into the various barriers to effective communication between the business and IT, “War & Peace & IT” illuminates ways of helping all transformations change these negative patterns or avoid in the first place.

Mark shares these insights from his book and more during our talk, which are all well worth the listen. Below the interview you can find the presentations from Mark at this year’s DOES London event as well, and if you’d like to learn more about Mark and “War & Peace & IT,” check out our DevOps Chat.

Hope you enjoyed these great videos. For more information on how you can be at the next DOES event, check out DevOps Enterprise Summit Las Vegas 2019 which is happening Oct. 28-30 at The Cosmopolitan Hotel. Be sure to register here if you haven’t already and join us for a premier event for the technology leaders of large, complex organizations implementing DevOps principles and practices. You can also preview the event by watching presentations from past DevOps Enterprise Summits.

Finally, be sure to check out the other 30 or so interviews we have from the conference on the Digital Anarchist site.

— Alan Shimel