By Gabriela Dias, expert and contributor to the Cloud / Devops community
If I needed to answer that question with just one word, it would undoubtedly be: integration. When we try to join the development area with the operations area - a movement we call DevOps - we still find many divergences and the lack of integration is what most compromises the initiative.
When a company is committed to adopting DevOps and looks inward to analyze why these divergences occur and what are the ways to resolve them, it is common for the diagnosis to be the outdated model of its infrastructure. This is because it is not possible to implement a DevOps culture without touching this part. The first step for this change is to move the operations area to the agile model, in the same way that was done by the development area.
Despite being fundamental to each other, the two areas still fall out on a crucial point: innovation vs. stability. With the same intensity that development seeks for the new - since it is totally focused on delivering new products quickly - the operations area wants to keep everything as it is, as this ensures the complete functioning of its environment. Classic example: the Facebook developers want to deliver new features at all times, the operation professionals want to keep the 100% website from time to time, as the new features are useless if they cannot be used, right?
Wrong! Innovation is necessary and, for its sake, barriers need to be broken. But this is not a simple move, because, many times, these barriers are even within the same area, as for example when the security team does not talk to the systems team or the network team. Some professionals still have difficulty seeing that the impact of their operations goes beyond the limits of their area and, in my opinion, repeating what I have already highlighted, this lack of integration is one of the main obstacles to the adoption of a new work model.
The formation of multidisciplinary teams, with professionals accustomed to non-traditional and result-oriented models, who communicate and integrate themselves through processes and tools in all their stages, is a good way to stimulate this new approach within organizations. In addition, another 4 steps are important for the adoption of a DevOps culture: automation of operations, implementation of delivery flows marked by pipelines, creation of metrics for each of the areas and finally, and one of the most important: people. Only people will be able to change the paradigm and get out of an already addicted work cycle. It is not easy, but if the management body does not believe in the project and encourages the integration of the teams, the initiative becomes unfeasible.
However, more than a necessary change to follow one of the most disruptive movements in the technology market today, the adoption of a new model of work and management oriented to agile methodology is essential for companies to meet customer requirements and, consequently , remain active in a profitable and efficient manner. Customers want agility, quick responses and positive experiences and consistent investments in projects that make operations increasingly digital are essential for this delivery.
Facing startups is another latent need for companies. Admittedly more agile and adapted to doing business in an increasingly digital environment, startups are always born ready to solve problems that big companies cannot always solve with the same agility: like the fintechs that allow the opening of accounts through applications, for example, and that accelerated this change in large financial institutions.
And those who think that large companies are unable to make this transition due to the size and weight of their structure are mistaken. Many are even investing in a new digital area - as if it were a true startup - to lead this change in approach and performance. The hiring of experienced professionals and the development of a complete project, which operates from the analysis of the entire legacy of a company to define what and how it will be migrated to digital, will be integrated or simply replaced, are important starting points. It is in this way that more mature markets - such as the American one - acted and that has been successfully mirrored in Brazil.
The adoption of a new way of working is no longer an option. When we take as a model the corporations that were born in the new economy - the so-called hipster companies, such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, among other giants - we realize that the culture is already different, the approach is already agile and, not coincidentally, they are that are dominating the market. It is essential to be attentive.
When a company is committed to adopting DevOps and looks inward to analyze why these divergences occur and what are the ways to resolve them, it is common for the diagnosis to be the outdated model of its infrastructure. This is because it is not possible to implement a DevOps culture without touching this part. The first step for this change is to move the operations area to the agile model, in the same way that was done by the development area.
Despite being fundamental to each other, the two areas still fall out on a crucial point: innovation vs. stability. With the same intensity that development seeks for the new - since it is totally focused on delivering new products quickly - the operations area wants to keep everything as it is, as this ensures the complete functioning of its environment. Classic example: the Facebook developers want to deliver new features at all times, the operation professionals want to keep the 100% website from time to time, as the new features are useless if they cannot be used, right?
Wrong! Innovation is necessary and, for its sake, barriers need to be broken. But this is not a simple move, because, many times, these barriers are even within the same area, as for example when the security team does not talk to the systems team or the network team. Some professionals still have difficulty seeing that the impact of their operations goes beyond the limits of their area and, in my opinion, repeating what I have already highlighted, this lack of integration is one of the main obstacles to the adoption of a new work model.
The formation of multidisciplinary teams, with professionals accustomed to non-traditional and result-oriented models, who communicate and integrate themselves through processes and tools in all their stages, is a good way to stimulate this new approach within organizations. In addition, another 4 steps are important for the adoption of a DevOps culture: automation of operations, implementation of delivery flows marked by pipelines, creation of metrics for each of the areas and finally, and one of the most important: people. Only people will be able to change the paradigm and get out of an already addicted work cycle. It is not easy, but if the management body does not believe in the project and encourages the integration of the teams, the initiative becomes unfeasible.
However, more than a necessary change to follow one of the most disruptive movements in the technology market today, the adoption of a new model of work and management oriented to agile methodology is essential for companies to meet customer requirements and, consequently , remain active in a profitable and efficient manner. Customers want agility, quick responses and positive experiences and consistent investments in projects that make operations increasingly digital are essential for this delivery.
Facing startups is another latent need for companies. Admittedly more agile and adapted to doing business in an increasingly digital environment, startups are always born ready to solve problems that big companies cannot always solve with the same agility: like the fintechs that allow the opening of accounts through applications, for example, and that accelerated this change in large financial institutions.
And those who think that large companies are unable to make this transition due to the size and weight of their structure are mistaken. Many are even investing in a new digital area - as if it were a true startup - to lead this change in approach and performance. The hiring of experienced professionals and the development of a complete project, which operates from the analysis of the entire legacy of a company to define what and how it will be migrated to digital, will be integrated or simply replaced, are important starting points. It is in this way that more mature markets - such as the American one - acted and that has been successfully mirrored in Brazil.
The adoption of a new way of working is no longer an option. When we take as a model the corporations that were born in the new economy - the so-called hipster companies, such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, among other giants - we realize that the culture is already different, the approach is already agile and, not coincidentally, they are that are dominating the market. It is essential to be attentive.
Disclaimer: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies.
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