Generate Peak Performance with DevOps Cross-Functional Teams

Nowadays, DevOps is one of the hottest buzzwords in the IT industry. It's the new standard of how IT companies can produce excellent outcomes in a faster, more natural way. By combining the benefits of DevOps and cross-functional teams, you can get to peak performance. In this article, we offer you some tips on how to do it.

Previously, IT organizations operated as independent silos. The specialists worked within their departments and communicated with other divisions as needed. Developers and QA engineers washed their hands of new applications or feature codes right after testing. In addition, operations stepped up to push them through production and maintain performance.

However, software and technology no longer support businesses. In fact, they're integral to their current and future success. Gartner asserts that market demand for mobile application development services is growing five times faster than it can be delivered by IT companies.

Enterprise development teams face mounting pressure to develop more applications faster. This accordingly is exposing the inefficiency of the old IT model. Organizations of all sizes are racing to embrace IT DevOps.

By doing so, they'll increase productivity and speed time for new applications. DevOps gives companies the chance to minimize costs and build better software. In the end, it's all about scaling quickly and delivering positive user experiences.

It's about making IT more successful. It consists of giving it the tools to develop, deliver, and manage software faster. It’s also about the agility to respond to business needs, customer issues, and regulatory changes.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a combination of software development (Dev) and info-tech operations (Ops). This practice aims to reduce the life cycle of system development and deliver high-quality software. This IT philosophy tears down the walls between development, operations, and QA. It does so by combining their competencies into a continuous delivery system.

Therefore, IT DevOps is all about creating a culture where product development, testing, and implementation/support work together. So, cross-functional teams can work throughout the entire software development lifecycle, instead of in silos. It makes it easier to spot and address human errors, bugs, and design flaws earlier in the process.

This continuous feedback loop/delivery system shortens response times and enables developers to release software. Besides, DevOps IT service management gives a clear insight into the challenges that arise at every stage. And trust us, there will always be challenges! DevOps IT service management is cloud-centric, thus empowering developers to respond to business needs in near real-time.

DevOps Cross-Functional Teams: 7 successful tips

Statistics show that by 2025, the global DevOps market will reach $12.85 billion. That's a significant number, right?

Therefore, you should invest in the practices that are going to prepare your company for the future. So, let's take a look at the best practices companies can use to generate peak performance from DevOps. By adopting these 7 points, cross-functional teams can integrate better and provide better results.

1.  Start Small

The existing processes and culture of an entire IT organization can't transform overnight. Instead, focus on a project or team that could benefit from DevOps practices. Be sure to select a meaningful plan, so it isn't discounted but has a high chance of success. An early win builds confidence and lays the groundwork for future DevOps efforts.

2.  Foster Collaboration

There's no room for the blame game here. The ultimate goal of DevOps is to unite development, operations, and QA into a cross-functional team. Also, DevOps focuses on delivering common objectives.

A digital transformation, won't work if team members don't build trust and view each other as essential stakeholders. Encouraging these departments to regularly communicate, share ideas, and solve issues as a team is critical to breaking down the established silos.

3.  Embrace the DevOps Culture

Above everything else, DevOps is a cultural change.

And changing the organization culture is one of the most challenging projects for  business leaders. New policies and procedures will fail without a constant commitment from the stakeholders. Investing in automation and buying the right tools is essential. But they should support DevOps, not create it.

The DevOps culture should start with top-level management. Grooming likable grassroots leaders from each team can help achieve employee buy-in. It would be best if you educated developers and operations staff about the value each brings to the organization. This will shift your incentive model to reward DevOps initiatives.

Fully embracing DevOps also means changing attitudes about failure. Empowering teams to radically transform their work is bound to cause some missteps. An essential part of DevOps culture is embracing a "climate for learning" and turning failures into opportunities.

4.  Carefully Select the Right Tools

Picking out the right tools is essential for DevOps success. Tools that provide real-time insight into the progress of projects are the key to effective collaboration. Source code repositories, build servers, configuration management tools, and more can help optimize DevOps processes.

They will also manage complex environments at scale, and keep engineers in control of high development velocities. Failing to make sure the components of the delivery toolchain can integrate can threaten DevOps success.

5.  Consider Cloud Computing

Cloud computing offers DevOps automation a standard and centralized platform. It can be used for testing, deployment, and production. It's why they are so compatible. Using a cloud platform also solves many complex issues.

Most public and private cloud computing providers support DevOps systemically on their platform. This is done by including continuous integration and continuous development tools. This not only lowers the cost associated with DevOps automation technology, but it also enables centralized governance and control.

Many developers find that management helps them sidestep trouble like flawed releases. In those cases, the cloud makes it easier to manage the process centrally instead of scrambling to control other departments.

6. Establish End-to-end Responsibility

Separating development and operations can lead to all sorts of difficulties. Starting from performance problems to unpredictable environments. In DevOps, both groups work as a team that's entirely accountable for an application from beginning to end.

This collaboration reduces misunderstandings and mistakes between departments that aren't aligned. It also makes it easier to adapt to changing circumstances, from the emergence of new technology to customer needs.

7. Invest in Automation Technology

Automation tools can improve the efficiency of IT, reduce errors, and help deploy applications faster. That includes simplifying the process of configuring, monitoring, and maintaining the network infrastructure.

As a result we can eliminate the tediousness of manually testing code and structure. Data gathered from automated means can also track performance targets and help ensure applications are consistently meeting the ever-changing customer demands. Important metrics include:

• The error rate when deploying new software to production, or 
• The time between an initial software commit and its production run.

Final Thoughts

Adopting DevOps is an exciting journey! Therefore, achieving peak performance means experimenting with new tools and processes. The final result would be excellent communication, collaboration, and integration.

An exceptional IT consulting service provider can help brands get the benefits of DevOps. This way, they'll not only improve their IT performance but boost customer satisfaction and market share for the business.