Let’s face it, if you’re in IT, then you know that DevOps is one the hottest buzzwords in the IT space – and it’s quickly emerging as the new standard for how IT organizations can produce excellent outcomes in a faster, easier way. But like any emerging concept, confusion surrounds how to run DevOps for peak performance – and many business leaders are unclear about what DevOps even entails. So let’s get to it.

By now, most organizations understand the benefits, and more importantly, the need to shift to an agile, DevOps model to survive in today's rapidly changing and hyper-competitive digital world. In our four-part series, we have discussed how DevOps can transform your organization, and how to prepare for the transformation through the critical first two steps of the DevOps journey:

In our ongoing series, we started by highlighting the challenges businesses face in today's rapidly changing world of technology and services and the benefits that an agile, DevOps approach can bring to your organization. In short, you need to either be first to deliver new digital capabilities to your customers or be prepared to catch up with more innovative competitors faster than ever before. While the case for DevOps sounds great in theory, implementing it effectively is another story, and it's not a one-off activity, but rather an ongoing journey, beginning with governance which we discussed in the last blog. Moving along, the next step involves implementing workforce management.

So, you have determined that implementing an agile DevOps framework and related business processes is the best strategy for your organization. The benefits are clear after all  ̶  faster time-to-market for new applications and services, better cross-team collaboration, increased organizational efficiency and higher quality code. As we noted in a previous blog, however, making the move to agile is not as easy as it may seem, and the transformation requires more than just deploying technology and finding the right talent. Rather, you need to approach DevOps as an ongoing journey and build these new capabilities into your organization systematically to align IT initiatives with your overall business strategy. 

Today, companies in all industries rely on software to meet customer and user demands. Besides, peoples' expectations have changed dramatically in the last few years, as they demand instant, convenient and reliable access to services that are continuously improved - and those requirements are changing at a rapid pace. To meet these demands, you need to innovate faster than ever before. Rapid innovation, in turn, requires you to transform your business into an agiler software development organization if you want to remain competitive.

Enter DevOps.