The DevOps Culture Canvas is a strategic tool designed to help organizations visualize, assess, and transform their DevOps culture. It provides a structured approach to identify cultural strengths, gaps, and opportunities for improvement across nine key dimensions of DevOps excellence.

Unlike technical DevOps assessments that focus on tools and processes, this canvas specifically addresses the cultural and organizational aspects that make or break DevOps transformations.

The DevOps Culture Canvas consists of 11 key sections that help teams design and implement a DevOps culture:

┌─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│   AUTOMATION & CI/CD    │     COLLABORATION       │ MONITORING & OBSERVABILITY│
│ How do we automate?    │ How do we break silos?  │ How do we gain visibility?│
├─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│  CONTINUOUS LEARNING    │       🎯 PURPOSE        │    FEEDBACK LOOPS       │
│ How do we learn?       │    Why we exist         │ How do we iterate?     │
├─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ BEHAVIORS TO ELIMINATE │ BEHAVIORS TO ENCOURAGE  │ RELIABILITY & RESILIENCE│
│ What slows us down?    │ What accelerates us?    │ How do we stay stable? │
├─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│  TOOLS & PRACTICES     │  VALUES & PRINCIPLES    │ RELIABILITY & RESILIENCE│
│ What enables us?       │ What guides us?         │ How do we maintain?     │
└─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

Access our Complete Interactive Canvas to start mapping your DevOps culture with your team.

Research shows that culture is the #1 predictor of DevOps success. Organizations with strong DevOps cultures:

• Deploy 46x more frequently
• Have 440x faster lead time from commit to deploy
• Experience 96x faster mean time to recovery
• Have 5x lower change failure rates

Source: State of DevOps Report

Choose the format that works best for your team:

• 🎨 Complete Interactive Canvas - Full featured canvas with all sections
• 📄 Printable Canvas Guide - Instructions for printing
• 🖼️ Digital Canvas Template - For remote teams
• 📊 Simple HTML Version - Basic digital collaboration
• ✏️ Assessment Template - For individual assessment

• Recommended participants: 5-12 people
• Include diverse perspectives: Developers, Operations, Product, Management
• Time needed: 2-4 hours for initial assessment

Follow our 5-Step Quick Assessment Guide or jump directly to the Workshop Facilitator Guide.

The canvas evaluates your organization across nine critical cultural dimensions:

How well do teams work together and share information?

• Cross-functional collaboration
• Knowledge sharing practices
• Communication channels and effectiveness

How does your organization approach learning and improvement?

• Learning from failures
• Experimentation culture
• Skills development programs

What and how do you measure success?

• Key performance indicators
• Data-driven decision making
• Feedback loops

Can team members take risks without fear?

• Blameless culture
• Open feedback
• Risk tolerance

How customer-centric is your approach?

• Customer feedback integration
• Value delivery focus
• User experience priority

How do teams approach automation opportunities?

• Automation-first thinking
• Tool adoption
• Process optimization

How do leaders support DevOps culture?

• Servant leadership
• Team autonomy
• Decision-making distribution

How does structure support or hinder DevOps?

• Team topology
• Reporting structures
• Cross-team dependencies

How does the organization handle change?

• Change approval processes
• Risk management
• Innovation support

• 📖 Complete User Guide - Comprehensive instructions for using the canvas
• 🎯 Implementation Roadmap - Step-by-step transformation guide
• 📊 Metrics & KPIs Guide - How to measure cultural progress
• 🏆 Success Stories - Real-world case studies

• 👥 Facilitator Guide - Running effective canvas workshops
• 📝 Workshop Templates - Ready-to-use materials
• 🎬 Workshop Slides - Presentation deck
• ⏱️ 90-Minute Workshop Format - Quick assessment session

• 🔄 Cultural Transformation Patterns
• 🚧 Common Anti-patterns
• 🌍 Scaling DevOps Culture
• 🔗 Integration with Other Frameworks

1. Print the A3 canvas or draw on a whiteboard
2. Gather 5-12 stakeholders from different teams
3. Assess each dimension using sticky notes:
   • 🔴 Red: Major gaps/challenges
   • 🟡 Yellow: Areas for improvement
   • 🟢 Green: Strengths to build on
4. Discuss and prioritize top 3 improvement areas
5. Create action items with owners and deadlines

1. Access the digital canvas template
2. Share with team members for async input
3. Review responses in a virtual meeting
4. Align on current state and desired state
5. Plan transformation initiatives

1. Download the worksheet version
2. Rate each dimension on a 1-5 scale
3. Identify top strengths and gaps
4. Share findings with your team
5. Collaborate on improvement plans

Each dimension can be assessed across five maturity levels:

Use our Maturity Assessment Tool for detailed evaluation.

Organizations using the DevOps Culture Canvas typically see:

• ✅ Clear visibility of cultural strengths and gaps
• ✅ Aligned understanding across teams
• ✅ Prioritized improvement backlog
• ✅ Increased team engagement

• ✅ Improved cross-team collaboration
• ✅ Reduced silos and handoffs
• ✅ Faster feedback cycles
• ✅ Higher psychological safety scores

• ✅ Measurable improvement in delivery metrics
• ✅ Reduced lead time and deployment frequency
• ✅ Lower change failure rates
• ✅ Sustainable cultural transformation

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details on:

• Submitting improvements
• Reporting issues
• Sharing success stories
• Translating the canvas

• 🌟 Star this repository
• 🐛 Report bugs or suggest features
• 📝 Improve documentation
• 🌍 Translate to other languages
• 📢 Share your success stories

devops-culture-canvas/
├── README.md                    # This file
├── LICENSE                      # MIT License
├── CONTRIBUTING.md             # Contribution guidelines
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md          # Community guidelines
│
├── docs/                       # Documentation
│   ├── USER_GUIDE.md          # Complete user guide
│   ├── WORKSHOP_GUIDE.md      # Facilitator guide
│   ├── QUICK_ASSESSMENT.md    # Quick start guide
│   ├── METRICS_GUIDE.md       # Metrics and KPIs
│   ├── SUCCESS_STORIES.md     # Case studies
│   └── ...                    # Additional guides
│
├── templates/                  # Ready-to-use templates
│   ├── digital-canvas-template.md
│   ├── assessment-survey.md
│   ├── action-plan-template.md
│   └── ...
│
├── resources/                  # Downloadable resources
│   ├── DevOps-Culture-Canvas-A3-Print.pdf
│   ├── workshop-slides.pptx
│   ├── posters/
│   └── worksheets/
│
├── tools/                      # Interactive tools
│   ├── maturity-assessment.html
│   ├── culture-calculator.html
│   └── progress-tracker.html
│
├── examples/                   # Real-world examples
│   ├── startup-assessment.md
│   ├── enterprise-transformation.md
│   └── government-agency.md
│
└── workshop/                   # Workshop materials
    ├── agenda-templates/
    ├── facilitation-tips/
    └── exercise-library/

• 📺 Video Tutorials (Coming Soon)
• 📚 Knowledge Base
• 💬 Community Forum

• 🎯 Custom workshops for your organization
• 📊 Cultural assessment and roadmap development
• 🤝 Ongoing transformation coaching

Contact: [email protected]

The DevOps Culture Canvas is based on:

• DORA Research: State of DevOps Reports (2014-2024)
• Westrum Organizational Culture Model
• Team Topologies principles
• Psychological Safety research (Amy Edmondson)
• Lean and Agile principles

See our Research Bibliography for detailed references.

View detailed case studies →

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

The DevOps Culture Canvas is free to use for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Special thanks to:

• The DevOps community for continuous feedback
• DORA team for groundbreaking research
• All contributors and early adopters
• Organizations sharing their transformation stories

• GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features
• Discussions: Community forum
• Email: [email protected]
• Twitter: @DevOpsCulture
• LinkedIn: DevOps Culture Canvas Group

• 📋 Check our FAQ for common questions
• 💬 Join our Slack Community
• 📧 Email us at [email protected]
• 🎯 Book a free consultation