Throughout this chapter, we have been following the evolution of ACME systems: where they started, the growing pains that came from success, how they discovered that rapid growth brings with it negatives as well as positives, how they overcame their near extinction by adopting CD and DevOps, and how they regained their mojo and confidence to move forward. All of this can be represented by the following simple diagram:
What they also learned—somewhat late in the evolution—was that CD, and DevOps-adoption has little to do with technical tools and everything to do with how people work together. Without the changes to the culture and behaviors of everyone involved in the end-to-end delivery process, it is almost impossible to realize and maximize the benefits that a successful adoption of CD and DevOps brings. It could be said that if they knew this simple, yet mostly overlooked, fact from day one, then the adoption would have happened sooner and the business would have been far stronger far sooner. Hopefully, this will provide some food for thought for you as you move through the rest of the book.