The DevOps Organization ...

These days you will hear the term "DevOps" thrown around everywhere.. DevOps is supposed to be the new cure all magic pill that will bring nirvana.. Even Dilbert's mission statement generator has added  words like DevOps, Agile, Digital to its list of acceptable jargon (replacing customer satisfaction, proactive and a few others..)..

Yet i'm making the rather crazy statement .. DevOps has nothing to do with technology... 

DevOps has nothing to do with development, operations or testing of the software/technology.. It is a cultural change.. 

Cultural shifts are subtle changes that span over decades and are usually visible only in hindsight..  The Industrial revolution bought the cultural change of efficiency .. bringing with it management philosophies like Just In Time, Six Sigma and likes....  Each of these spawned industries around "certifying" people in these methodologies .. Six Sigma Blackbelt and likes ... Yet companies that tried to "adopt" Six Sigma without adopting the cultural underpinnings that made Six Sigma relevant .. failed miserably.. For many organizations Six Sigma just became a beast of burden .. imposed by top management who had just read how Jack Welch transformed GE in a business book ...

Fast forward new millennium ..  success of Amazon, Google etc... and other silicon valley upstarts is resulting in a blind race to adopt the practices prevalent in these companies.. However little thought is given to organizational structure and culture.. As a result organizations that adopt these methodologies blindly without understanding how it fits within their requirements are just buying a XXL tshirt on sale and later finding out.. it does not fit !!!

DevOps is a cultural change. Not everyone needs to adopt it.. Adopting it blindly and doing things like "daily stand-ups" (a ridiculous practice promoted by SCRUM..) will result in IT architectures that are not mapped to organizational culture..

What is then "The DevOps Organization..".. A DevOps organization is generally one which is mapped to the preferences and thinking pattern of the millennial generation.. lack of respect for hierarchy, lack of patience, liberalism, more virtual than real, seeks instant gratification, money/profits are less important.. and so on..  To map to the generational culture we need corresponding methodologies ....

Lets see how this translates to technology terms..

Lack of Respect for Hierarchy -- Translates to "flat" organizations.. 2 pizza teams.. cubicle less offices.. in technology terms it translates to "bring your own code".. 

Lack of Patience -- well that translates to Continuous Development (who has the patience to see what happens during the testing phase), preference for experience over efficiency, choose your own (device, technology etc..)...

Instant Gratification -- This translates to stuff like Agile methodologies, rapid iterative innovation, try out ideas fast... 

A DevOps organization is structured around outcomes and not roles, it seeks achievements and not efficiencies, it promotes individual choice.. conversely an organization that is departmental (distinct functions such as sales, marketing etc..), hierarchical (decisions are taken at the top and pushed to the bottom..), structure oriented (has "its done this way and everyone should follow it" manuals..) is not a DevOps organization.. 

There is nothing good or bad about one Vs the other.. Its different. Organizations which are not structured appropriately will find that blindly adopting the methodologies/processes that are more appropriate in DevOps culture will do more harm than good... 

So next time someone asks you to adopt Agile, Scrum or some DevOps methodology because "Google or Facebook does so..".. think again.. ask if this is the right cultural fit .. does the organization culture need to change before it can succeed.. 

DevOps has nothing to do with technology .. its an organizational culture.. the methodologies and the jargon around DevOps are all but tools that fit within the culture.. attempting to adopt the tools without understanding the cultural changes is a recipe for disaster..