---
title: '"Technical"ly Incorrect'
osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/conferences/seagl2019/program/proposals/674
beginning: '2019-11-15T16:45:00.000-08:00'
end: '2019-11-15T17:05:00.000-08:00'
resources:
  internet_archive_identifier: technical_202001
presenters:
- name: Jerome Comeau
  osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/users/924
  gravatar_id: 72850fdd25989ddf58268fabed9e204b
  biography: Jerome (He/Him) has been working in Operations and customer-facing roles
    for 20+ years, and has seen the good and the bad in IT. Currently Jerome manages
    a ten-person team and tries to get people to think of themselves as DevOps practitioners
    in an Agile environment even if they're not in development or operations. Jerome
    has a partner, Jean, who is MUCH better at writing than he is.
---

In the IT Professional Industry, 'technical' is a word that is often used as a shibboleth, a password of sorts to separate people into in-groups and out-groups based on theoretical divisions that are often poorly defined, poorly understood, and frequently are simply used to discriminate against anyone who isn't the stereotypical "white dude coder".

To assume any non-developer role is "non-technical" is to fundamentally misunderstand how the modern job landscape is in fact highly skilled and highly technical, often in ways that are orthogonal to traditional software development. With some examples of some highly technical jobs that aren't developmental in nature, there exists the opportunity to leverage DevOps principles outside of the silos of development and operations, and expand the reach of integrated delivery to all professional roles within an organization, including everyone from the front desk person to the facilities manager to the account management and sales teams.

The modern professional workforce is entirely technical in nature. To believe otherwise is to limit agility, velocity, and deliverability across the board.
