After your team has a few successful apps under its belt, and executives have taken notice. Now they want you to implement a DevOps transformation across the enterprise. How do you build upon the techniques and philosophies you’ve honed so the whole organization benefits?
Here are some tips from DevOps practitioners that can help ensure a successful kick-start.
1. Be ready for aversion
Attempting to replicate the successes of one or two teams on a large scale will face some challenges. Executives may be encouraged by the pioneers, but they should be aware of the resistance that will be shown by the more conservative teams.
The corollary is that you are almost guaranteed to encounter cultural conflicts and competing priorities. Being diplomatic rather than dictatorial in your approach here will better set you up for success. Sometimes you need to make decisions, but you should try to keep those to a minimum. Instead, push those decisions back to the people doing the work.
2. Create a pool
When faced with this type of outsider situation try to find champions in the areas he needs to change who can help sell the benefits to their respective teams. These people need to start getting involved in the work. They need to get training. Many will go out and actively learn with just a little guidance. These folks need to be people that others will listen to and whom they respect.
3. Show the benefits
Simply telling colleagues you’re going to initiate some changes that will make them more efficient and productive won’t be convincing. People will be resistant until they can clearly see the benefits of following the new approach. Showing them what has been achieved in your own projects and why you would never want to return to the old way of doing things will persuade them. Talk about how they can save time, ship iterations faster and find bugs quickly.
4. Don’t expect definite outcomes
A common stumbling block when scaling DevOps success is treating the outcomes of the initial pilot projects as the outcomes for other projects as well. No two apps are alike, and there needs to be some modification in the processes.
5. Ask for help
It’s better to seek help rather than wasting time stuck in the middle of something. Bringing in DevOps consultants, trainers, and tooling experts can all be helpful too but it’s important to create a balance to ensure employees don’t become overwhelmed or discouraged.