Top Seven Cloud DevOps Tips for IT Experts

by: Chip Zoller / November, 6 2019

Cloud DevOps is growing. It’s becoming a key cog in the pursuit of competitive advantage for many enterprises.

So, what is DevOps? There is no standard definition. However, we can loosely define it as a set of concepts that automate the processes between software development and IT teams. According to Gartner:

DevOps is a cultural shift that promotes collaboration between operations and development teams which demands a linked toolchain of technologies to facilitate change.

Pinpoint the Business Case for Cloud DevOps

The needs of the enterprise must drive the Cloud DevOps initiative. It’s easy to focus more on the tools and methods of doing DevOps and forget what the customer needs. Justify the need for DevOps by identifying the business goals it helps to achieve.

Define What Cloud DevOps Means for Your Organization

Define DevOps for your organization in a manner that your team will understand. Doing this will provide a banner for people to embrace and get behind. It will make it easier to get everyone on board. Make sure the definition is precise, short, and supports the business justification

Pick a “First-Mover” Application

You shouldn’t implement DevOps in one fell swoop. Instead, deploy it step by step. Each step must satisfy the following qualities:

The Right Political Environment: Everyone should be willing to work with the first-mover application you’ve picked. He or she should also be willing to give the DevOps initiative a try.
Acceptable Risk: The unpredictability surrounding the Cloud DevOps initiative makes it a somewhat risky venture. So, most people on the team may be afraid to give it a shot. Choose an opportunity with the least level of risk so that everyone is on board. IT, development, information security, operations, regulatory compliance, and audit must all buy into the process to reduce friction.
Acceptable Value: The first-mover application must deliver measurable value to earn a buy-in with everyone.

Build a Team

You cannot have an effective DevOps initiative without people. Choose a competent team to handle the process. As a rule, you should prioritize attitude over skills. The lack of skills is a solvable problem, but a bad attitude can derail the Cloud DevOps initiative. Recruit motivated and smart team players who understand the risks associated with the initiative.

Come Up with Objectives and Success Metrics

People are central to any Cloud DevOps initiative. You need to understand and implement motivators, set objectives, and have clear success metrics. This will allow you to identify and reward the people hitting the right milestones. Assign objectives within teams and make sure to align them to the business goals.

Zone in On Constraints

Infrastructure and operations leaders should pinpoint the key bottlenecks limiting the throughput of the Cloud DevOps initiative. This will allow them to identify the roadblocks that are keeping them from hitting targets. They can, then, work on addressing these roadblocks.

Don’t Scale Too Early

Many organizations rush to scale Cloud DevOps before they try to get approval. This often leads to a catch-22 situation where they can’t start DevOps because they don’t know how to scale. Consequently, they can’t learn how to scale because they can’t start.