As a consultant, I’ve helped several companies, big and small, integrate continuous delivery processes and various engineering practices, such as test-driven development and unit testing, into their organizational culture. Sometimes this has failed, but those companies that succeeded had several things in common. In any type of organization, changing people’s habits is more psychological than technical. People don’t like change, and change is usually accompanied with plenty of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to go around. It won’t be a walk in the park for most people, as you’ll see in this chapter.
If you’re going to be the agent of change in your organization, you should first accept that role. People will view you as the person responsible (and sometimes accountable) for what’s happening, whether or not you want them to, and there’s no use in hiding. In fact, hiding can cause things to go terribly wrong.