How DevOps is Automating the Workplace

In the DevOps and Agile world, CIOs express four primary concerns concerning governance, risk management, build-versus-buy decisions, and enterprise architecture. Contrary to waterfall development, which is limited to IT control of product delivery, DevOps involves collaboration across the entire business organization. In order to achieve business goals, cross-functional teams need to adopt both business and technology skills simultaneously.

The DevOps Perspective

Cross-functional teams can take ownership of the strategic goals, working together to accomplish them while maintaining accountability for the outcomes. This is opposed to passing requirements and product back and forth between IT and the rest of the business. Now, it’s possible to explore diverse approaches, test hypotheses, and invent new ways of doing tasks.

With DevOps, teams can experiment on ideas and receive feedback quickly, as well as put together their plans from the results they get. Instead of being given a set of requirements and a deadline, the team can be charged with an outcome.

These are the most common concerns a CIO faces when dealing with DevOps:

1. Enterprise Architecture:

Traditionally, enterprise architecture plays the role of standardizing and constraining. However, that is not the case in an agile world. Because architectures evolve through teamwork, enterprise architecture should play a hands-on role, simplifying and guiding the enterprise to a flexible and agile architecture.

2. Build Versus Buy:

Conventionally, buying off the shelf seems to be preferred when possible. However, the building allows for a more user-centric, incremental delivery process, which ensures quick feedback as well.

3. Risk:

Acknowledge and get accustomed to risky processes before eliminating or moderating them, as risk-based returns are often underestimated. When it comes to IT leadership, the consequences of agile and DevOps thinking are far-reaching. It is time for IT leaders to take personal responsibility for business outcomes, rather than being passive recipients of business requirements.

4. Governance:

Usually, companies make governance decisions at the granularity of projects or programs. Decision-making becomes tedious and time-consuming when it is made at a singular level,  aiming to fulfill one requirement at a time.

Governance has gone beyond the formal process of approving project proposals. Rather, by generating available resources, true business objectives are more readily visible. In a digital world, IT plays the role of providing requirements rather than accepting requirements from the business.

DevOps involves an approach where cross-functional teams engage in a process utilizing fast-feedback loops and constant adjustments to keep concurrent with business objectives. The IT team is a part of the business teams, working closely together, discovering better ways to meet enterprise needs.