The Secrets to DevOps Success - 2

DevOps implementation strategy is key focus of most organizations as they embark on Digital Transformation journey. Though it sounds like a quite a straight forward initiative to automate the software delivery process it has many challenges as I have discussed in the past posts. 

DevOps Market size exceeded $7 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 20% from 2022 to 2028 to a value of over $30 billion. In 2021, 65% of the DevOps market’s value in the USA was made up of DevOps solutions (tools) with 37% accounted for by services. By 2028, around 55% of the market’s value is forecast to be accounted for by DevOps services and the remaining 45% by tools.

In 2001 when I implemented my 1st development process automation it was more about automating redundant manual processes to save time and avoid manual errors in the build and release process. We were a small team delivering a small project for a US client , we used to face failure during every release and it was very embarrassing for the entire team to attend the post release meeting. All we wanted to do was a smooth bug free release without spending all night at the server machines. We automated our build and release process and unknowingly we started working closely together to ensure all the issues we faced in the past did not occur again. We collobarated across teams, we stopped blaming other teams, we learned every step of the code/build/test/release/configure/deploy process ,we automated manual tasks and we monitored every step of the release process. Soon we started doing perfect code drops for every release and we started leaving office together to enjoy post release drinks. We were not doing DevOps but experienced a cultural change and we were working as one team.

Over the last few years we are recommending DevOps to our clients as the right way to do the release thing for their business transformation or the digital transformation journey. What we have observed is that in spite of a large number of new tools, dashboards and on demand infrastructure it is still a big challenge to implement a successful DevOps process in an organization. Lets take a quick look at some of things that can help implement a successful DevOps process.

                                                      To implement technology strategically, businesses need to start by creating a cultural shift toward the principles of DevOps. It starts with people and processes, and then products. You cannot simply throw a tool or even multiple tools at the problem and hope that it will be solved. To transform your business, you need to embrace velocity: making incremental changes, delivering small iterations and going faster. This often means disrupting your own business and cannibalizing your existing offerings before disrupting the market. There are a few key elements of DevOps culture that must be adopted before you begin thinking about your product toolkit.

1) Empower teams by embracing collaboration 

Encouraging collaboration is one crucial way to empower employees. By keeping all stakeholders involved in the process, employees can communicate impact in real time, keeping the execution process moving along. Collaboration enables product manager, development, QA, security and operations teams to work together directly instead of waiting for handoffs. The values of diversity, inclusion and belonging are fundamental to creating a culture of collaboration within your organization. Collaboration across teams, across levels brings in multiple perspectives, and by ensuring that each perspective has a say we invite  innovative ideas, empowered teams and smarter, more informed decision-making. The culture of collaboration has to be driven down the hierarchy by the top leadership leading by example and rewarding collaborators. If collaboration is not one of the KPI for management leaders so far it is time to embrace it now.

2) Iteration Planning

You can go faster by breaking things down into smaller pieces. The smaller we split things up, the smaller the steps we take, the faster we can go.' Smaller iteration are better because they take less time, get delivered faster and there is lower risk and have quick turnaround time encouraging people to be more creative.  I remember my mother telling me to take small bites, chew well and the food will show on you, it worked there and it works everywhere. Encouraging iterations is also a step towards moving away from the stagnant waterfall mentality to developing an agile calculated risk taking attitude.

3) Focus on results

Employees should be acknowledged for what they accomplish and complete, not how long it took them or where they worked. . Create a culture where team members feel trusted to structure their own days and do what it takes to get the results that customers require. Start by finding simple solutions to the problem instead of flashy complicated ones. 

It is impossible to transform a business without setting the mood with collaborative culture.Start by finding ways for collaboration in areas where currently you have silos, iterations where there is stagnancy and efficiency where there are lags