Agility, and by extension DevOps, does wonders for an organisation's ability to perform efficiently and with quality. According to research (DORA, DevOps Research and Assessment LLC), DevOps gives the ability to achieve both accelerated lead times, increased frequency of customer deliveries, faster recovery from production problems and improved quality.
Moreover, the impacts of DevOps benefits go beyond operational efficiency. With accelerated lead times, businesses can seize opportunities quickly, adapt to market changes, and address emerging customer needs. This agility in response empowers organizations to stay competitive in rapidly evolving industries.
The power of DevOps in organizational efficiency
The previously mentioned increased frequency of customer deliveries fosters an environment of continuous improvement. Businesses can gather real-time feedback, iterate on their products, and maintain their relevance in the market. This not only leads to customer satisfaction but also cultivates brand loyalty and advocacy.
Additionally, the ability to recover swiftly from production problems significantly reduces the financial and reputational risks associated with service outages. By minimizing downtime and maintaining seamless operations, businesses can uphold their commitments to customers, enhancing trust and reliability in the market.
The consistent focus on improved quality leads to a reduction in operational costs. With fewer defects and customer support issues, resources are optimized, and costs are curtailed. The reputation for delivering high-quality products and services further solidifies a company's position in the industry, attracting more customers and fostering growth.
Culture is key for Success
Intuitively, it might seem that by speeding up operations, quality is bound to deteriorate, but this is far from the case.
By creating a culture of high levels of automation and collaboration throughout the delivery pipeline, feedback to the development team is provided quickly, both on technical problems and on whether the software created is something that the user genuinely likes and needs. Rapid feedback is therefore the key to achieving all these benefits. The fulfilment of benefits can also be measured, and it can be seen that things are indeed improving.
In DevOps, the acronym CALMS is often used, where C stands for Culture, A for Automation, L for Lean and Agile, M for Measurement and S for Sharing.
The latest 3.0 version of the popular DASA DevOps Fundamentals course takes this CALMS as the structure for the entire course. DASA has always brought together the different parts of DevOps, emphasizing that primarily DevOps is a cultural change that is needed to get the most out of increasing automation. Automation in the release pipeline (CI/CD) and for example in test automation will always help, but without a cultural change, the benefits of automation will be limited.
DevOps is not just about automation in the release pipeline, although that may be the impression you get from some tool companies' speeches. DevOps is about creating a culture of collaboration across the organisation, making autonomous teams that can independently produce software incrementally and even self-publish into production. Self-direction, seeking rapid feedback and quality thinking should be encouraged in the organizational culture.
Senior Management of the Organization holds a vast responsibility
Against perhaps a common belief, DevOps is not achieved by hiring a DevOps engineer to implement installation automation. It is about creating a culture, and guided by that culture implementing various organisational, behavioural and tooling changes. That culture needs to come from senior management and be visible in the way the company or organisation manages and monitors its product portfolio. DevOps is not just a way of working for technical teams.
The DASA DevOps Fundamentals 3.0 course provides the foundation for this holistic understanding. It is complemented by various information sessions and targeted courses on DevOps for different parts of the organisation. However, even though it may be tempting to take some focused information session, the learning of DevOps is best to start from the Fundamentals.
To summarize: How does DevOps improve an organization's software development processes, and what is the significance of the cultural shift required for effective DevOps adoption?
- DevOps enhances an organization's ability to create software quickly and efficiently.
- The advantages of DevOps include accelerated lead times, increased customer deliveries, faster issue resolution, and improved software quality.
- DevOps is not solely about automation; it's a cultural shift that promotes collaboration, autonomous teams, and a quality-driven mindset.
- Senior management plays a key role in fostering a DevOps culture.
- The CALMS framework in DevOps emphasizes Culture, Automation, Lean and Agile, Measurement, and Sharing. The DASA DevOps Fundamentals 3.0 course adopts CALMS as its structure, highlighting the cultural change necessary for effective DevOps.
- The DASA DevOps Fundamentals 3.0 course provides the foundation for a holistic understanding of DevOps and is complemented by tailored courses for different organizational units.
Are you interested in the DASA DevOps Fundamentals 3.0 course?
The next course date is 18-19 of December 2023.
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