We have entered a phase where it is no more a question as to why consider DevOps as the method of choice for your project management. The big question now, is what are the best practices to implementing DevOps. To begin with adopting DevOps for your organization, here are the 7 steps that help your business get into the DevOps mindset that’s all about lean and agile project management methods:
Step 1: Realize that it’s the perfect time for it
The first step to adopting DevOps is to understand how important it is for your business to implement it as soon as it can. More so, if you are a technology based start-up, in which case, it is MUST for you for staying competitive in the market, let alone getting a competitive edge. You need to identify and measure all the critical metrics such as the project release time, turn-around-time etc. to track your progress as you forge ahead.
Step 2: Put your own DevOps Team together
To initiate a major change in the way your organization operates, you must have to identify a team competent enough to drive that change and become an ambassador of that change. So, it is best not just confined to the experts but along with your key decision-makers, the management from operations and development needs to be involved from the start.
Step 3: Define your own version of DevOps
Every organization has unique business needs and their DevOps solution also needs to align with their business goals for successful implementation. So, your organization needs to tailor its DevOps Solution to match its business needs and if need be, create a unique roadmap to adopt DevOps. You can develop your road-map as you go it being an agile approach involving continuous development.
Step 4: Involve your team in achieving your DevOps goals
Encourage innovation in your DevOps team by all means and strive to do away with any unnecessary process steps and approvals that can hinder the speed for your project or that can come in way of innovation and experimentation. Support all the non-traditional ideas from your team and take the risks required to create new methods and tools.
Step 5: Start by focusing on quality, not the quantity
It is a great idea to start small while beginning with your DevOps project because when your organization undertakes this new approach to project execution, small visible changes will only inspire your team to go all the way to put in more efforts and take your project to the next level.
Step 6: Scale up your production after starting small
Once started small, your project can be further scaled as it achieves credibility with positive results in its pilot version. This makes way for removing all the obstacles coming in the way of adopting the change. For example, if there is any need to change the policies, the system and the infrastructure that does not gel well with the changed processes. This helps you ease the process of DevOps adoption.
Step 7: Fine-tune continuously and adopt the new approaches
The positive experience of the initial few changes can be leveraged for continuously fine-tuning and further building up on your project and this may involve the adoption of new approaches and defining of new project success metrics and KPIs. This is the point where you can make sure that your organizational environment is completely conducive of welcoming the change and make it a part of your organizational culture.
Following these simple steps, your small business can take its initial steps towards successful adoption of DevOps. Want to learn all about it? Contact us and our team will take you through our custom DevOps solution approach and how it can benefit your business.
