DevOps can help your business accelerate project times, reduce time to market for new services, and speed up infrastructure delivery times. It does this by encouraging and enabling IT teams to work together, and by introducing practices that reduce the risk of error and eliminate manual processes.

By simplifying project processes, DevOps can help to create an environment that supports innovation.

Phased Approach

Implementing DevOps is not a quick-fix. There are three key phases that you should follow to ensure DevOps is right for your business – discovery, design and delivery. In the design phase, you look at the current maturity of your project processes.

How well do the current processes work; could they deliver faster or better results? And, look at your project organization – is it soloed, or is there strong teamwork already in place?

During the discovery phase, you should be looking at ways in which DevOps could improve the project environment quickly. What are the pain points? Can you make quick gains? By demonstrating success at an early stage, you can help to win acceptance for the longer-term changes.

Planning for Transition

In the design phase, you set out your vision for new, improved ways of working, and set goals. A transition plan is important to ensure that everyone understands the changes to their roles and their responsibilities in a DevOps environment.

As part of the plan, it’s important to identify the areas where you want to make improvements or accelerate development. You may want to deliver new infrastructure to meet business demands or support digital transformation, or migrate servers, applications and services to the cloud. You may also want to use DevOps in its traditional role of developing software for new applications or services.

You also need to set out how you will deal with the pain points that limit current performance. How will DevOps eliminate the bottlenecks and inconsistencies in performance? How can you eliminate the risk that’s inherent in manual processes? And, how can you create a commitment to innovation?

Another key element of the transition plan is the organizational change that needs to take place and the training that will ensure teams can get the greatest benefit from DevOps. That’s why it’s important to remember that people, as well as processes, are essential to the successful adoption of DevOps.

Changing Culture

Delivery is the third phase of DevOps transformation and it also involves people as well as processes. Automation of manual processes is an essential element of DevOps delivery. Automation not only speeds up project processes; it introduces higher levels of consistency and eliminates the risk of human errors.

The major change that must take place in this phase is cultural change. Project team members must forget their siloed departmental roles and responsibilities. With DevOps in place, specialists are now members of a single team with a shared view of the bigger picture. As well as having joint goals and processes, team members should share a commitment to innovation.

Find Out More

Making the transition to DevOps is a major undertaking that will deliver important benefits. VTG has long experience in using DevOps in its own operations and helping other organizations to ensure a successful adoption.