In The Phoenix Project, Gene Kim suggests that there are three ways of DevOps. This stands in contrast to CALMS which is another popular way of describing key aspects of DevOps practices.
Personally, I think these three ways better describe the goal of DevOps while it avoids focusing on the technical aspects, which often already is hard enough for newcomers to get past. The three ways are:
Flow
Work should only flow in one direction: forward. If rework is needed, or work needs to go upstream, this is an indication of error and should be addressed.
Feedback
Shorten feedback loops by making work visible and reducing batch sizes. Things like daily standups are great ways to make sure veryone syncs at least once a day.
Experimentation
Experiment with new methods for solving issues, and more than anything, actively create an environment where experimentation is encouraged.
For instance, one interesting concept I’ve heard of but have yet to see practiced anywhere is the In case of ideas, break glass emergency kit.