DevOps culture stands as a pivotal advantage for organizations seeking accelerated growth and enhanced collaboration. However, the journey toward Managed DevOps Services goes beyond mere structural adjustments within the IT infrastructure.
It does not become a DevOps organization overnight or in a vacuum. The transition to DevOps is frequently referred to as an enterprise-wide journey. It’s an evolutionary journey spanning the breadth of an enterprise. Finding the appropriate DevOps techniques to incorporate when embracing DevOps is a smart place to start.
Traits of Organizations Leveraging Managed DevOps Services
An organization with Managed DevOps Services will often exhibit the following traits:
1. The DevOps methodology is owned by independent teams that collaborate together.
2. Buy-in from the top that includes guidance, supplies, and a commitment to DevOps practices everywhere.
3. The development of trustworthy communication channels and infrastructure to promote collaboration.
4. Always use CI/CD best practices.
5. Fostering an environment where silos are broken and a strong culture of collaboration is promoted.
6. Promoting and putting into practice a mindset change that involves the concept of “fear of failing,” or the idea that teams should learn from their mistakes rather than be afraid of them.
7. Redesign the organization’s approval procedure to make it more automated and well-defined.
8. Planning that includes a rollback option if necessary as well as a response/issue plan.
9. Entire software development, testing, configuration, and deployment activities should be automated.
Organizations can come up with innovative approaches to assist the implementation of the DevOps methodology. This brings the software development pipeline closer to Value Stream Management. When Schneider realized their business needed to implement DevOps, they began the method after a period of preparation and strategy. In a recent webinar outlining Schneider’s DevOps adoption process, Release Automation and DevOps Manager Amanda Mae Heintz talked about some of the inventive methods they used to speed up the process. More than anything else, she stated, “people are the crucial aspect for success.”
Strategies to Adopt Managed DevOps Services
An organization-wide DevOps culture shift is necessary to adopt DevOps software development and transition to CI/CD. Process, culture, and philosophical changes are necessary for successful DevOps implementation. It’s crucial to concentrate on a shift in organizational culture.
Moreover, the biggest cause of the failure of DevOps projects is a lack of culture change. According to a DevOps expert quoted in The New Stack, “DevOps is a new way of embracing technology and needs a critical examination of conventional tools, procedures, and ideologies.” Such dedication to change requires a compelling vision shared by a champion possessing the authority to transform the culture.
Organize teams and roles to facilitate the use of DevOps
A successful transition to DevOps must begin at the top of an organization. The senior management level must be the first to demonstrate buy-in.
With the dedication of a single, isolated team, DevOps cannot be successful. Effective collaboration holds paramount importance across all business units or departments affected by a shift to DevOps, extending beyond IT exclusively.
Author and DevOps specialist Isaac Sacolick emphasizes that prioritizing cultural transformation is crucial for enabling collaboration among developers, engineers, and technology leaders to implement changes that yield significant business and end-user impact.
When considering DevOps in 2020 and beyond, DevOps and Agile specialist Gene Kim made a similar statement: “The organization can no longer retain a binary thought process: top-down or tech solely. Ninety percent of the effort in achieving effective collaboration involves actively engaging and aligning the right people. we start there, we can maintain the motivation moving forward.
Success often hinges on making sensible choices early in the DevOps journey, promoting productive collaboration by breaking down silos. Schneider described how, at the beginning of their DevOps shift, they assembled a team to manage and supervise CI/CD and release automation. They began by putting together a team of individuals with a range of educational backgrounds and specializations in infrastructure, middleware, testing methodology, and ITSM. They purposefully chose team members who consistently serve as change agents within the IT team and enjoy widespread popularity across the organization.
Keep a focus on exploration, learning, effective teamwork, and communication
Because the DevOps philosophy needs new processes, techniques, and tools, a successful DevOps journey necessitates a solid communications framework. When embracing DevOps practices, team members commonly take on new or modified roles, swiftly adjusting their expectations and behaviors.
Successful and effective communication requires a number of key components, including a focus on learning processes and experimental methods as well as a rejection of a failure-phobic culture. A “no blame culture” must be fostered inside the communication framework.
As mentioned by several DevOps experts when discussing culture, the provision of a secure environment for such communication facilitates process evaluation without placing blame, continual experimentation, and the exchange of lessons. A culture of openness and tolerance goes hand in hand with the teamwork and ownership necessary for the successful use of the DevOps technique.
Effective communication, though, shouldn’t be limited to isolated areas. The Agile Connection highlights the vital importance of effective communication and collaboration. This extends to all parties involved in software development, testing, delivery, and operations. Without these, automating operations might not yield the expected business benefits.
Open communication, innovation, and a readiness to explore new technology keep teams engaged and motivated. Schneider talked about some of their innovative methods for engaging audiences and communicating with them. By keeping them informed of developments and involving them, the organization’s larger tech audience stays interested. They worked out how to merge communication channels, corporate blogs, chat apps, and engagement platforms.
Since COVID-mandated remote work and a scattered workforce, communication strategies have grown in importance.
Teams will likely need to continue participating through digital channels like Slack, video, and text/SMS. This progress is expected to persist even after a “return to normal.”
Implement small wins and savor them
Teams need to embrace a mentality shift for effective DevOps implementation, recognizing and celebrating their achievements upon hitting milestones and victories. When automating job streams, tasks, or testing scenarios, celebrating these accomplishments is crucial. Celebrations should begin immediately since they will be excellent instruments for team building.
The DORA article outlining the steps to make DevOps a reality emphasizes that celebrations provide a low-stakes chance to learn vital DevOps traits, like forming small, diverse teams with aligned goals. Small triumphs will demonstrate to the rest of the company the value of DevOps.
The idea of shared responsibility and collaboration within cross-functional teams is one of the mentality adjustments away from waterfall or other standard development methodologies. The first step in a successful DevOps journey is collaboration with others to achieve shared goals.
Although process automation is essential for DevOps adoption, businesses must remember that DevOps is only successful because of its people and teams. Schneider’s DevOps Manager, Heintz, reaffirmed this, stating that “having the right people in place may improve the confidence in the new processes.”
Adopting a DevOps culture has several benefits, one of which is that it hastens the creation of an effective atmosphere for collaboration and teamwork. Each worker focuses on a small section of the process while employing traditional development methods before moving on to the next stage. But with managed DevOps automation services, cooperation “is vital to delivering value.” Shared accountability is essential to the DevOps process because it keeps team members invested in the long-term creation of solutions.