Manifest Files: Empathy as Code

Quick sidestep:

Configuration files, like Kubernetes manifest files, are excellent sources of documentation. As such, they have some secondary benefits. Two of these include:

• Speeding up the onboarding process for new team members
• Bridging the gap between developers and operations

For example, if you need a new team member to understand the basic functions and requirements of an application, get them to read the application’s Kubernetes manifest files.

Also, if your operations teams complain that developers don’t give accurate application requirements and documentation, make your developers use Kubernetes. Kubernetes forces developers to describe their applications through Kubernetes manifests, which can then be used by operations staff to understand how the application works and what it requires from the environment.

These kinds of benefits were described as a form of empathy as code by Nirmal Mehta in his 2017 DockerCon talk entitled “A Strong Belief, Loosely Held: Bringing Empathy to IT”.

I understand that describing YAML files as “empathy as code” sounds a bit extreme. However, there is merit to the concept – they definitely help.

Let’s get back on track.