Be it new startups or even several large enterprises, organizations across every industry are adopting DevOps practices to gain and continue having a business advantage over the competitors.
Making the transition to DevOps culture can prove to be difficult, especially for enterprises. This is because when compared with smaller companies, enterprises tend to have more complicated legacy development software delivery processes.
These delivery processes involve distributed teams and large applications. Moreover, enterprises like stability and predictability, making it a problem to make the changes needed to execute a DevOps transformation.
Yes, smaller companies may have some advantages in implementing DevOps, but it is also not impossible for enterprises to make that transformation. Successful DevOps transformations share a lot of common characteristics, techniques and strategies.
Together, these techniques help an organization to adapt that transformation. Furthermore, taking smaller and feasible steps provides an opportunity to learn, check the improvements build a steady momentum.
Tips to Drive a Successful DevOps Transformation
- HAVE SUPPORT FROM THE TOP MANAGEMENT
DevOps requires the management to be fully involved. The administration should have a fair understanding about how critical the DevOps principles are for a business. If not, the entire thing is very dangerous.
Although, it is good to have the complete support of the management, there is no compulsion to get this support right at the start. Initially, an enterprise will need efforts from the lower level and some early success to get management support. If you think about having the full support of management in the early stages, you will never be able to start itself.
What you can do instead is to make a start and keep in mind that the management support will be needed soon without a doubt.
- ESTABLISH AN OWNERSHIP OF THE TRANSFORMATION
It is important that one group within the enterprise makes the DevOps transformation their own.
This mentioned group can be a newly assembled DevOps team. Adding to it, the company’s tool group or even an existing development team with the necessary technical attributes is needed.
To put it more accurately, this group should be innovative, capable, and not burdened by a rigid production schedule. Because this team will drive adoption through the organization by other groups, selecting a product development team for the work is not the best idea.
Such kind of a team does not need cross-team visibility and the commitment required to make changes through the whole enterprise. With time, the need for this team will cease to exist as DevOps practices become standard in the company.
- BEGIN WITH A PILOT PROJECT
It will always be tough to execute overall changes within the enterprise. Apart from different schedules and team dynamics, any changes often disregard the needs of the affected people and have a degree of complexity, with the potential to hamper the whole effort.
For these reasons, it is a great idea to take a progressive approach and implement DevOps practices than go for a quick-fire approach. Successful enterprises understand that sudden changes can be severe, and therefore choose a gradual approach to take note of what is best slowly.
The best way is, to begin with a pilot project, implementing and proving DevOps concepts. You can look for a project having low risk and high reward.
With excellent support from DevOps ownership group, this pilot team can undertake the following tasks-
- ASSESS
Have an evaluation about where the team is today, in terms of the tools, processes and the hurdles.
- ALIGN
Establish the shared objectives and goals; determine where your team goes.
- NOTE DOWN A MISSION STATEMENT
Pen down a simple sentence covering all your goals, like an increase in the release frequency, improvement in job satisfaction, increase in customer satisfaction and the likes.
- MAPPING
Make a plan with crucial key performance indicators (KPI’S), milestones and achievable goals.
- MOVE
No point to wait; start implementing without looking for everybody to get a good knowledge of the new approach.
- MEASURE
Consistently monitor the progress for the best results.
- COMMUNICATE THE SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
Throughout the entire pilot project, make an extra effort to identify and keep track of the successes and failures. Know what the team learns and communicate this new knowledge openly. By openly, not only to the team but also the organization as a whole.
You can use a shared dashboard or newsletter for spreading the word. With time, the ratio of successes to failures will increase, and excellent communication will help to build the enthusiasm and excitement needed.
Share not only the quantitative metrics like KPI’S but also more qualitative results and observations.
- SEEK QUICK WINS TO TRANSFORM CONSISTENTLY
During and after the pilot project, look out for the software delivery processes to be automated or eliminated to get a quick win. Every single incremental gain to accelerate the software delivery process gets converted to gain for the business.
A DevOps transformation cannot happen all at once. It is a series of consistent improvements, where quick wins are a huge motivating factor for the overall team effort. They also enable teams to learn the principles working best for the organization, and build up confidence.
- SCALE THROUGH VARIOUS TEAMS
By a successful pilot project and quick wins under the cap for your team, the next step is, to begin with involving the other development teams. As with the rest of the transformation, the process of scaling teams is best when done incrementally.
As individual teams get under DevOps practices, the process and culture depend on the team needs and new insights from the groups already working with DevOps.
Arriving at Your Goal
Working hard to drive an enterprise transformation can easily make you lose sight of the end goal. There are several ways of acting as indicators if your organization succeeded-
- Your teams deploy updated software at will.
- You are successfully achieving all your KPI goals.
- Customers and users, as well as the employees, are delighted.
Conclusion
Finally, it is crucial to understand that a DevOps transformation is never totally complete. There will always be steps to help you with accelerating the processes, and improve the automation- even after your company has achieved the original DevOps goals.
If you are looking for customized DevOps solutions for your business, we are at your service. Contact us and we will get back to you shortly.
