When most people think about Chattanooga, the first thing that comes to mind is the 1941 Glenn Miller song "Chattanooga Choo Choo." This city on the Tennessee River gained prominence as a critical link in America’s rail network and helped drive innovation across many industries throughout the first part of the 20th century. Today, Chattanooga has swapped steam engines for software pipelines, but the spirit of progress remains. That spirit was very much present at DevOpsDays Chattanooga 2024.

Over 100 developers, DevOps enthusiasts, agile professionals, and security practitioners together on the campus of Chattanooga State Community College for a full day of sessions, Open Spaces, and ignite talks. There was even "Ignite Karaoke," where speakers gave 2-minute improvized talks using slides they had never seen before, injecting a sense of fun and community into this technical event. That sense of fun and comradery shined throughout the day and reflected the forward-thinking mindset of the city itself. 

If there was a theme throughout, it was around the importance of connection—not just between systems, but between people. Here are some standout moments from this dynamic event.  

DevOops: A look at how not to do DevOps

Victor Frye, Senior Software Engineer at Leading EDJE, opened the event with his keynote, "The DevOops Handbook: A Satirical Guide to Slow Software Delivery." In this hilarious yet painfully familiar satire, Victor introduced us to “SloweTech Corp,” a company where every bad practice imaginable is the norm. Manual RFCs for every deployment? Check. QA as a rubber-stamping formality? Absolutely. And, of course, database migrations are scheduled exclusively for Monday nights.  

Victor described "Delivering Changes the Masochist’s Way,” where poor processes compounded to create a never-ending cycle of fear and failure. As Victor described how SloweTech’s obsession with rigid workflows and blame-shifting turned even small tasks into Herculean efforts, there were visible laughs and sighs of recognition from the audience. 

By the end of his engaging talk, Victor challenged attendees to recognize and confront dysfunction in their own workflows. By emphasizing transparency, iterative improvement, and a culture of accountability, Victor reminded us that avoiding “DevOops” starts with open communication and shared ownership.  

Support Is the Superpower Your Team Needs  

In her talk, "Leveraging Support So Your Product Doesn’t Suck," Yvette Johns, Senior Support Engineer at Maze, offered an insider’s perspective on the invaluable role of support teams in product development. She described how support teams live and breathe the product, often uncovering inefficiencies and gaps that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Yvette talked about the limitations her team faces, from limited access to source code to the time pressures of managing endless questions. She also shared the growing role of AI in support, explaining that while AI tools can handle repetitive tasks, they lack the human empathy required to navigate nuanced issues.  

Her advice was to invest in dedicated knowledge platforms to create a shared and searchable knowledge base. We should strive to foster a feedback loop between support, product, and engineering teams. “Support is where you see the product for what it really is,” Yvette said. “Don’t let that insight go to waste.”  

Navigating Uncertainty with Jodi Jones  

Jodi Jones, Digital Transformation Consultant at Lean TECHniques Inc., presented "Navigating Uncertainty in Software Development," a thoughtful exploration of how teams can make better decisions in the face of chaos. Using the Cynefin framework, Jodi categorized challenges into four domains—Clear, Complicated, Complex, and Chaotic—each requiring a different approach.  

Jodi shared a story about a migration project where unexpected roadblocks derailed the plan due to "unknown unknowns." Instead of forcing the team to stick to a rigid roadmap, she encouraged her team to really take the time to understand the problem and address the root concern, ultimately saving a lot of time in the long run. “Uncertainty isn’t something to fear,” Jodi said. “It’s something to work with.”  

Jodi also introduced a quadrant system for prioritizing features, mapping perceived value against evidence to help teams focus on what truly matters. “It’s not about guessing what users want,” she emphasized. “It’s about proving it.”  

Ignite Talks: Inspiration in Five Minutes  

To kick off the afternoon's scheduled program, the 5-minute ignite talks offered quick bursts of insight and inspiration. Here are highlights from just a couple.

In his talk "Run Your Own Email,' Mike Harrison, Co-Founder at Ring-U, took a defiant stand against the corporate walled gardens dominating email infrastructure. From managing MX records to implementing DKIM, Mike argued that while self-hosting email is no small feat, the freedom it provides is worth the effort.  

In "Determining Your Attack Susceptibility," John O’Keefe-Odom, Senior Security Consultant at Securitybricks, took a practical approach to security assessments. He introduced us to the idea of a "red meat attack test," where you expose a server with no security settings to the internet and see what IP addresses find and attack it. He also demonstrated how tools like Shodan and GreyNoise can help organizations identify vulnerabilities without requiring a massive investment, making security accessible for teams of all sizes.  

All Aboard the DevSecOps Train  

As the sun set over Chattanooga, the echoes of collaboration and creativity lingered—much like the whistle of the Chattanooga Choo Choo in its day in the sun. This DevOpsDay reinforced that DevOps isn’t just about tools or pipelines; it’s about the people who bring those systems to life.  

Your author was able to share a talk about security via Honeytokens, a very cost-effective way to build traps for any attackers who infiltrate your environments. I was also able to lead a discussion in the Open Spaces around non-human identity lifecycle management, which is one of the larger issues facing IAM and security teams, especially at larger organizations.

All in all, this event was a perfect blend of practitioners sharing updates about their favorite tools, best practices for agile and DevOps, and many examples of the fact connecting human beings is what is really behind all the systems we build. Even if you can't make it to Chattanooga for next year's event, you can very likely find a DevOpsDays event near you. You might even find GitGuardian there or at another event near you.