CIO Ken Piddington recently participated in a DevOps blog post with CA Technologies.
In the post, Ken comments that “While it (DevOps) may be an “IT methodology,” DevOps is driven by human behavior, and improving the relationship between developer and operations groups is the first priority.”
Wholeheartedly agreeing with Ken on this statement, I believe DevOps Isn’t A Role or An Organization, It Is A Culture!”
Across our customers at 3Pillar Global, we are seeing that DevOps is about the balance of people, process and technology.
First and foremost, DevOps is about breaking down the silos between Dev and Ops.
Secondarily, you just can’t smash silos and expect a snap of the fingers entree into mature DevOps. Organizations must have the people in place that are capable of and willing to lead the change needed to support successful DevOps. Far too often, and the bigger the organization the worse it gets, there are people capable of, but unwilling to lead the positive change necessary. Change for not just DevOps, but for any change that is aligned to the competitive future success of a business. I call this Passive-Compliance — ‘I Will’ in word, but ‘I Won’t” in action. You may recognize it as bureaucracy, politics or fiefdom defense. If you can’t quickly retool people’s skills, you may unfortunately have to replace them with players experienced at shifting culture, process and sense of ownership across technology organizations.
Third, and this is where Ken and I may disagree a bit. The larger your organization, the more important it is to have an objective third party working side by side with you. A third party will not just assist in bridging the Dev and Ops silos, but will also help you drive the people, process and technology change needed. Now to be successful, your 3rd party partner must be sponsored at the highest executive levels in the organization and thus be empowered to objectively influence the change necessary to shift a culture and operation. Because frankly, most companies lose their objectivity along the way. Emotions, loyalties, domains and politics get in the way. A strong partner won’t be of the pure consulting nature, as you won’t need the help knowing what to do – you know what you need to do. You will want a practitioner. Someone that has been there and done it, repeatedly for companies your size and with your organization structure. Not telling you what to do and how to do it, but doing it with you. Helping you drive the cultural shift needed to put your company on the path to achieving mature DevOps.
You can find CIO Ken Piddington‘s recently shared DevOps blog post with CA Technologies here.