Training Site Reliability Engineers

Chapter 2. Use Cases

Let’s move on to explore different SRE training use cases, along with optimum approaches and trade-offs to consider. We consider these in terms of the effort/effectiveness continuum that we discussed in Chapter 1 (refer to Figure 1-2).

Organizations Adopting the SRE Model

We first discuss the use case of an organization adopting the SRE model.¹ Here, organizational maturity is low, as demonstrated in Figure 2-1. Organizations usually want to adopt SRE principles because they value the benefits of combining high reliability with high feature velocity while achieving lower organizational friction at the same time. Service-level objectives (SLOs), error budgets, and upholding blamelessness when things go wrong make this possible.

Without a doubt, adopting an SRE practice involves an organizational culture shift. Some organizations have been tempted to change the name on the door from “Ops” to “SRE” and declare victory. However, undergoing a shift to SRE is not a branding exercise (i.e., changing the name on the door) but rather a fundamental culture shift that requires buy-in from stakeholders across the organization, all the way up to the very top, in order to be successful.

Figure 2-1. Matrix of SRE training use cases: low organizational maturity

Building a Training Program to Drive Adoption of the SRE Model

Training plays an important role in setting the ...