DevOps is about culture as much as technology

Technology and innovation has always had a habit of forcing the IT industry to reinvent its approach to organisational thinking. The recent rise of cloud computing as one example, has spurred the transition from product-based solutions to software as a service (SaaS) solutions.

This in turn has changed the velocity available for businesses to compete. IT businesses no longer have to wait weeks or months to realise new gains in performance from software and applications. With the ability to realise improvement in hours or days, companies now have the ability to constantly increase the value they’re providing to customers.

But accessing these gains in development performance aren’t just like turning on a new tech tap. It requires an organisational change in behaviours, which also require supporting systems and processes in order to promote these new behaviours.

The transformation to DevOps

Many IT articles and tech magazines focus on talking about DevOps towards developers and operational support teams, and talking about new tools and technologies. There are also articles that focus on DevOps as an extension to agile methodologies which is also written for developers and operational support teams. There is less discussion about the organisational  and cultural impacts that come about due to DevOps - ownership, accountability and empowerment. (Note our ability to own the problem and own the delivery of that is also an issue in related to outsourcing and building core digital capabilities).

DevOps means developers and operations teams can perform their roles more effectively because they have a better idea of where their role fits within strategic objectives. To create this culture, IT leadership plays an important role as they’re ultimately responsible for the end results. Tellingly, Gartner has predicted that by 2020, half of the CIOs who fail to transform their teams' capabilities for DevOps will be displaced from digital leadership.

Leading the transformation

We all know that an effective technology leader influences a team’s ability to develop good code. But in today’s digital economy, a CIO’s ability to transform team culture has perhaps the greatest effect on the productivity and profitability of development.

DevOps leadership require leaders to truly inspire their teams to better performance by appealing to a common sense of purpose in driving strategic wins. They encourage their DevOps teams to work towards common goals through communication, behaviour modelling, and by paying attention to each team member’s needs.

Using transformational leadership techniques is particularly effective for fostering a DevOps culture, as it establishes the high-trust cultural norms required for these environments. For teams devoted to processes that drive developer productivity and reduce deployment lead times, these norms are essential.

To effectively lead a DevOps transformation, CIOs need a clear idea of where their organisation is heading long-term, in order to articulate this direction to team members. Their communication style is crucial, because it’s the methods that leaders use to communicate to team members that truly inspires them. To remain relevant in a fast-changing digital marketplace, CIOs need to build great teams, who create great technology, and implement the continuous improvement culture and lean management practices of DevOps.

About the author

As a leader of Oracle’s Complete Cloud, I help our customers, partners and the broader community to realise their innovation potential by connecting them with Oracle’s next generation solutions and technologies, or by connecting them with other innovators in the Oracle community. If you’d like to have a discussion about how you can better connect your ideas and your business to the right experts and the ideal solutions, please feel free to get in touch with me at jason.lowe@oracle.com.