Choosing to find the next shift, how do you define something deep rooted, yet in need of growth of sometime substantially better yet disrupting the previous norms?
Let me start off with the cultural challenges faced while implementing the shift! This includes fostering collaboration, mindset changes, adapting automation, breaking silos and acceptance towards continuous change. Starting with the background use of it, let’s dive deep:
Background:
All the well established IT work places here are so designed that there is a schema/business divisions to be followed when operating; this proved as a blockage for collaborative working, introducing new idea and faster delivery.
Let us understand this with an example of Netflix:
Started out as a mail based rental business of DVDs back in 1997, Netflix used to provide a rental based DVDs for some subscription rates, gradually as internet rates became more affordable and the popularity of online streaming came to light with Youtube adding to the picture by the start of2000s; the concept of using a hardware device was scrapped and replaced with a streaming concept by the company.
In August 2008, the Netflix database was corrupted and the company was not able to ship DVDs to customers for 3 days, leading the company to move all its data to the Amazon Web Services cloud. This outage forced the platform to shift all the media to a more reliable, scalable, elastic and to minimise the risk of disruption, Netflix has built a series of tools with names like “Chaos Monkey,” which randomly takes virtual machines offline to make sure Netflix can survive failures without harming customers. Netflix’s “Simian Army” ramped up with Chaos Gorilla (which disables an entire Amazon availability zone) and Chaos Kong (which simulates an outage affecting an entire Amazon region and shifts workloads to other regions).
- To know more check:
https://about.netflix.com/en/news/completing-the-netflix-cloud-migration
Why do we need Development along side Operations:
The first shift is from IT specialist to IT generalist. When tech stacks were homogeneous, having a narrow but very deep expertise in a single system was excellent. Today however, processes and services manage data across a variety of disparate tools, platforms and systems, making it difficult for specialists to quickly build solutions. On the other hand, IT generalists have broad expertise across a range of technologies, which comes in hand when dealing with diverse, constantly evolving technologies.
Traditional development often operates in silos, with separate teams responsible for coding, testing, deployment, and operations. In DevOps, there’s a shift towards cross-functional teams where developers, testers, operations engineers, and other stakeholders work together collaboratively throughout the software delivery lifecycle.
DevOps emphasizes automation across the entire delivery pipeline, from code commit to deployment to production. This requires a cultural shift towards embracing automation as a means to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and accelerate delivery.
DevOps is founded on the principles of continuous learning and improvement. Teams should be empowered to experiment, learn from failures, and continuously iterate on processes, tools, and practices to optimise delivery and outcomes.
Organizations should align incentives and goals to promote collaboration and shared outcomes across development, operations, and other functions. Performance metrics and rewards should emphasize collective achievements rather than individual contributions.
Establishing metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of DevOps practices is essential. Celebrating successes, recognizing achievements, and sharing best practices can help reinforce cultural transformation and sustain momentum.
Leadership plays a crucial role in driving cultural transformation towards DevOps. Leaders should champion DevOps principles, provide resources and support for implementation efforts, and lead by example through their actions and behavior.
Cultural transformation is not one-size-fits-all and should be adapted to the specific context, goals, and challenges of each organization. It requires patience, perseverance, and a willingness to iterate and adapt based on feedback and lessons learned.
Do drop your feedback on the subject!!
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