2015 Devops survey - please weigh in

[Eric Sorenson]

Hi all, please excuse the marketing digression, but this is pretty important – if you saw my keynote at Puppet Camp LA or Phoenix last month, we talked about the results of the DevOps Survey and how you can use it to convince your organization that your work with Puppet helps the bottom line in addition to making your life easier. Well, in partnership with IT Revolution, we launched our fourth annual DevOps Survey this week.

Over a thousand people have completed the 2015 DevOps Survey so far, and the feedback has been outstanding. If you haven't taken the survey yet, please take a few minutes to do so. We want to make sure your voice is heard: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1984283/3da98c772733

This year, we’ve added questions to better understand impacts of team structure, practices, and other aspects of DevOps culture on IT performance and the bottom line. Diversity is very important to us, so this year's survey also asks about gender and diversity in tech. We've also added questions to try to understand the pervasiveness of burnout in our field, which has gained tragic relevance lately. Please weigh in and spread the word.

Everyone who participates will get the survey results once they're all tallied. Plus you'll be entered to win prizes, including Raspberry Pi and Arduino Starter Kits, a $200 Amazon gift card, and more.

Thanks and we look forward to your feedback.


Eric Sorenson - eric.s...@puppetlabs.com - freenode #puppet: eric0
puppet platform // coffee // techno // bicycles

[Tim Skirvin]

Eric Sorenson <eric.s...@puppetlabs.com> writes:

> Diversity is very important to us, so this year's survey also asks about
> gender and diversity in tech.

I am still concerned that this is being accomplished through the
use of misogynist language. I hope that nobody is turned away from the
field simply by going through this survey!

- Tim Skirvin (tski...@fnal.gov)
--
HPC Systems Administrator / Developer http://www.linkedin.com/in/tskirvin
Fermilab - USCMS-T1 Collaboration Experiment Computing Facilities

[Eric Sorenson]

On Friday, March 13, 2015 at 10:21:26 AM UTC-7, Tim Skirvin wrote:

Eric Sorenson <eric.s...@puppetlabs.com> writes:

> Diversity is very important to us, so this year's survey also asks about
> gender and diversity in tech.

        I am still concerned that this is being accomplished through the
use of misogynist language.  I hope that nobody is turned away from the
field simply by going through this survey!

Hi Tim, I think Alanna, Nigel, and Nicole joined this conversation as well, but the goal here is not to assert this statement as something the study authors believe, or they think YOU should believe, but rather as a statement expressing one possible belief, in order to register reactions ranging from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'. Sounds like you (and me as well for what it's worth) strongly disagree.

(A bit of context for everyone else: 

https://plus.google.com/+Puppetlabs/posts/c8KovYUGsrE

https://twitter.com/nicolefv/status/575127090200104962 )

--eric0

[Tim Skirvin]

Eric Sorenson <eric.s...@puppetlabs.com> writes:

>>> Diversity is very important to us, so this year's survey also asks about
>>> gender and diversity in tech.

>> I am still concerned that this is being accomplished through the
>> use of misogynist language. I hope that nobody is turned away from the
>> field simply by going through this survey!

> Hi Tim, I think Alanna, Nigel, and Nicole joined this conversation as well,
> but the goal here is not to assert this statement as something the study
> authors believe, or they think YOU should believe, but rather as a

> statement expressing *one possible* belief, in order to register reactions

> ranging from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'.

To be clear: the context is the language in question reads:

| Even though it's not politically correct to say it, men are often more
| suited than women to do high-level work in my field.

This appears on the final page of your (long-ish) survey, well
after those surveyed have provided their contact information and well past
any mental "point of no return", and with no way to skip the question
without simply aborting out.

> Sounds like you (and me as well for what it's worth) strongly disagree.

I believe that your statement is offensive on its face. To
illustrate, I urge you to consider this: would you have been comfortable
asking about race or sexual orientation using this same rhetorical style?

Your argument on Twitter and G+ has been, if I may paraphrase, "we
believe that the science compels us to ask the question in this precise
way". Even if I shared your belief, I do not find this to be an adequate
excuse for such unprofessional and misogynist language.

If you want to pursue this, I believe that an inverted form of the
question would have been significantly less offensive, e.g.:

Women are just as suited as men to do high-level work in my field.

...but it is, perhaps, too late to change the question. Instead,
I suggest that you strike the question from the survey now, and perhaps
consider out a less-offensive way to study the question in a future
study. (Maybe by funding the authors of the original study for additional
research?)