Understanding DevOps

DevOps is one of those terms whose meaning varies greatly depending on the background, job role, and lived experience of those being asked, but most people would agree that it is something that applies to the development and operation of software.

For example, AWS defines DevOps as “the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organisation’s ability to deliver applications and services”.

And Microsoft says that “DevOps combines development and operations to unite people, process, and technology in application planning, development, delivery, and operations”.

Both of these definitions focus on development and technical delivery, and it is easy to see why just by looking at the name: it is literally the combination of ‘Dev’ and ‘Ops’.

The Evolution of DevOps

But at some point, DevOps outgrew this simple coming together, and so we combined other functions to get terms like ‘DevSecOps’, ‘DataOps’, ‘MLOps’ and so on. All these terms are, however, too simplistic to capture the actual essence of DevOps and the ways of working that have developed around it.

Core Principles of DevOps

These come down to some core principles:

• Breaking down silos, increasing collaboration, and increasing visibility within processes.
• Building automation to increase efficiency and allow humans to focus on value-generating activities.
• Innovation, experimentation, and making small, incremental changes, more often, to reduce risk and realise value quickly.
• Sharing responsibility for success to increase alignment of goals.
• Creating feedback loops and using them to implement continuous improvement.

Applying DevOps Principles Beyond IT

There is no reason that these principles should only be applied to the development and operation of digital products and services. They can actually be applied across organisations as a whole to create ‘The DevOps Organisation’.

Breaking Down Silos

The most obvious place that silos exist within organisations is around the business functions we use to subdivide the organisation, like Finance, Marketing, Sales etc. We have long accepted that there is benefit to be gained from breaking down barriers between Development and Operations, and I believe the same is true here.

If departments focused more on interdisciplinary information sharing, then a business might be able to create more accurate financial forecasts, for example. Every team generates huge amounts of data, and if Sales shared more information about buying patterns and sales pipelines, and Marketing looped other teams in on upcoming campaigns that might drive sales of certain products, then finance teams could use that information to build a clearer picture of expected revenue and develop more accurate forecasts.

Such information sharing could help finance teams mitigate risk, too. For instance, if warehousing teams shared their real-time data with finance teams, issues like supply chain delays or market shifts could be identified early, allowing for more proactive mitigation strategies.

Here’s another way breaking down siloes can benefit other departments. In most organisations, Sales have direct contact with customers and potential customers. They are uniquely informed about the types of questions they ask and conversations they have before they buy.

But if Sales operates in a silo, it makes it much more difficult for these valuable insights to reach product and service development and give customers the things they desire. Eliminating this silo means that product development teams can understand what’s popular with customers and how to address their pain points, leading to better customer experiences and more revenue for the business.

Building in Automation

Automation gets a lot of attention in software development because it is a technology concept. But automation doesn’t just have benefits to technology.

Every department within an organisation has repeated processes—things they do again and again that require only a basic amount of skill.

Take expense reporting, for example. This is something that, in many large organisations, is still a very manual process. Employees must keep receipts and log them into the company’s expense reporting system at month-end, entering details like the category of the expense, the amount, the vendor, etc.

They then submit the expenses, which are reviewed by their manager, and the reports are then sent to the finance department, which inputs the details into an accounting/payroll system so that the employee can be reimbursed. Clearly, this is not a good use of anyone’s time.

Automating this process would likely save many thousands of person-hours every year, improve employee satisfaction, and allow all parties involved to focus on more valuable work.

The Sales team could also employ automation, perhaps experimenting with AI and machine learning tools to automate routine tasks like lead scoring and follow-up reminders, allowing the team to focus on more valuable activities.

Over in the Customer Service department, automation could be used to better manage ticketing systems, categorise and prioritise customer inquiries, and make sure that issues are addressed promptly and efficiently.

Implementing chatbots is another act of automation that can bring benefits to a CX team, providing instant support for common customer queries, reducing the workload for human agents, and improving response times.

And mixing the two DevOps principles of automation and continuous improvement, automated surveys and feedback forms can be set up to systematically collect customer comments, giving all departments access to valuable insights for improving products and services.

Innovating and Experimenting

In most organisations, technology teams are at the forefront of innovation. This is understandable as the rate of change is still so high. Other teams tend to stick to more tried-and-tested methods, but again, things don’t necessarily need to be this way.

• What if Finance implemented real-time dashboarding to both give wider insight into organisational performance and avoid time wasted manually creating and sending out reports?
• What if HR changed the office layout once a quarter and measured the effect on employee morale, collaboration, and attendance? Or used gamified engagement platforms to boost employee morale and productivity? What if they experimented with AI-powered tools to overhaul the recruitment process, trying out resume screening and candidate matching to streamline the hiring cycle and reduce bias?
• What if Marketing carried out A/B testing on its assets and conducted regular continuous improvement activities, such as retrospectives, where they discussed what was working, what wasn’t, and what actions could be taken to improve performance?
• What if Sales implemented predictive analytics to identify potential high-value clients and tailor sales approaches can increase win rates? What if they tried something different like using virtual sales rooms to provide an interactive and personalised sales experience to B2B customers?
• What if the Product Development team adopted DevOps’ agile practices, allowing for continuous experimentation and iteration, and leading to more innovative and customer-centric products? What if they tried out 3D printing or other rapid prototyping techniques to speed up the product development cycle, and facilitate early-stage testing?

All these actions would be innovative, would require very little effort to implement, and could potentially bring about big improvements both to individual departments and the organisation in general.

Making Small, Incremental Changes

Historically, software had very long release cycles. It wasn’t unusual for new software and features to be released only once every six months, or even a year. This made sense at the time, as in most cases, updates required physical access to a data centre, complex manual processes, and often even the provisioning of new hardware.

With the advent of the public cloud, this all changed. Hardware could be procured near-instantly, and tools that helped the automation of software deployment began to pop up.

Research showed that the speed with which an organisation gets code from commit to production is one of the key metrics that indicates software development performance. Combine this with the fact that long release cycles are wasteful and often unsuccessful, and organisations began to start releasing software more frequently.

But how could this be implemented in other areas of the business? For starters, a lot of departments tend to think and operate in quarters or even whole years. An organisation will generally set out a sales strategy and targets for at least a year, sometimes more. And then next year, they may set out a new strategy and targets.

This is a big, infrequent change that is typically worked on by executives for months before it is revealed to the organisation. Due to the long lead time for the strategy to be put in place and the delay in reaping any benefits, this is wasteful.

Long-term strategising also makes assumptions that have yet to be tested and could turn out to be incorrect. It would be better to make small changes to the organisation’s current strategy based on feedback and hypothesis testing, keeping the things that drive progress, and dropping those that aren’t contributing to business goals.

Incremental changes in practice

So how would this work in practice? Finance teams, for example, could iteratively adjust budgets based on real-time financial performance data to help maintain financial health and adapt to changing business needs. They could also continuously monitor and make small changes to expense policies to identify savings opportunities without disrupting operations.

HR teams could make iterative improvements to training programs based on feedback and performance metrics, making sure that employees receive relevant and effective training. The same principle could be applied to performance reviews too, with continuous refinements made based on employee and manager feedback to make them more effective and less time-consuming.

And Operations teams can make small, regular changes to improve operational processes, like supply chain management or production workflows, to enhance efficiency and reduce costs over time.

The same approach can be used for maintenance processes by implementing incremental amendments to schedules based on equipment performance data.

Making little-and-often improvements, rather than sticking to too-long cycles or even waiting until things break, can reduce downtime and extend the lifespan of assets.

Sharing Responsibility

In DevOps, shared responsibility means that everyone is accountable for the products they create throughout their lifecycle, rather than Developers solely being responsible for churning out code, testers for finding bugs etc. This approach brings people together and aligns them so that everyone is working towards the same goals, which should ultimately reflect the success of what they are building.

Applying the principle of shared responsibility across an organisation’s wider operations can help all departments keep the end goal in mind and make sure everyone is driving towards the same big-picture business outcomes.

When departments align their goals with the overall business objectives, it not only increases efficiency but also enhances job satisfaction as everyone understands how their work contributes to the company’s success.

This can be achieved by creating cross-functional teams or squads focused on specific projects or initiatives, blending expertise from various departments to drive holistic solutions. These squads can take ownership of their projects from start to finish, fostering a culture of collaboration and transparency.

This approach also encourages the sharing of diverse perspectives and expertise, which can lead to more innovative solutions and better overall business performance.

Implementing Feedback Loops

An essential part of DevOps is to continuously collect feedback and improve upon it, with new feedback loops created for everything that can benefit from them. This allows us to continuously improve.

Departments like Marketing, Sales, and others can also create feedback loops to help refine strategies, improve performance, and achieve better results. They can gather data on customer preferences, market trends, and competitive insights to inform decision-making and adjust campaigns or sales approaches in real time.

Knowledge sharing is a key part of a DevOps Organisation, and success will be more likely and have a bigger impact if this is done well. If one department is doing something that is particularly successful, then this information should be shared with all other departments and leadership.

In this way, other departments can adapt the successful strategy to fit their unique needs and challenges.

Additionally, feedback loops can be used to foster a culture of continuous learning and development within the organisation. This could involve regular training sessions, workshops, and knowledge-sharing initiatives that allow employees to stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and best practices.

Benefits of DevOps Across the Organisation

Implementing the principles of DevOps across the organisation as a whole can bring a number of benefits to the business and its employees. It can increase productivity and revenue, reduce time to market, improve customer satisfaction, and lead to a better, happier work environment.

Breaking down silos helps to foster a culture of collaboration and trust, leading to better ideas and improved solutions. Sharing responsibility increases the alignment of goals, reducing conflicts and improving communication between departments.

Feedback loops create a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring that the organisation is always evolving and adapting to changing market conditions.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that many, if not all, of the principles that make DevOps successful can be applied across the wider business to create a ‘DevOps Organisation’. All employees benefit, with better collaboration, less frustration, and more time to focus on value-added work.

The business benefits too, with higher employee satisfaction and retention, more creativity, and higher-quality products and services for customers.

Ready to transform your organisation into a DevOps Organisation? Contact RiverSafe today to learn more about how we can help you implement these strategies and achieve your business goals.