Whenever people discuss DevOps they always speak of a “Wall of Confusion” between development and operations, and while there is certainly a barrier to understanding it’s more than just a “wall.” I see it more as a “canyon of distrust” or a “gulf of miscommunication.” These are all just creative ways of identifying that there is misalignment between development-focused and operation-focused parts of the IT department. On a very simple level development tends to focus on revenue growth while operations focuses on revenue protection. One side is resistant to change and risk and the other exists only to introduce change and risk – bridging these two worldviews is the constant promise of DevOps.Here’s how I model this disconnect: as a series of roles distributed along a spectrum of development and operations. The farther apart two job roles are on this spectrum the more difficult it is for individuals to communicate about software risk management and releases.