John 'Botchagalupe' Willis - Generative AI and DevOps: Blending Innovation with Traditional Practices
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Today we’re having an engaging conversation with John Willis, an influential author, entrepreneur, and thought leader in the realm of Generative AI and its integration with DevOps practices. Known for his profound understanding of Dr. Edwards Deming’s transformative principles and his pioneering work in the field of DevOps, John will share how these principles have revolutionized software development and operational efficiency. This episode is perfect for DevOps and Platform Engineering professionals, software engineers, and anyone interested in how Generative AI can enhance traditional software practices. We'll explore John's contributions and career, his insights into blending innovative technologies with established DevOps/Platform principles, and the impact of these advancements on the software industry. Links and Related Materials: Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge, author John Willis: https://itrevolution.com/product/demings-journey-to-profound-knowledge/ The High Velocity Edge, Dr. Steve Spear: https://www.thehighvelocityedge.com/ Dr. Jabe Bloom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jabebloom/ Mentioned as most downloaded paper from the Harvard Business Review, 'Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production Ecosystem: https://hbr.org/1999/09/decoding-the-dna-of-the-toyota-production-system 'The Attention Is All You Need': https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2017/file/3f5ee243547dee91fbd053c1c4a845aa-Paper.pdf Brian Scott, Lessons from Adobe on Gen AI Governance: https://itrevolution.com/articles/generative-ai-governance-at-scale-lessons-from-adobe/
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