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This post discusses the ways not to do DevOps and provides methods for savvy CIOs to avoid common anti-patterns, overcome common DevOps challenges, operationalize DevOps effectively, march forward following the devops process aiming to achieve set digital outcomes. Here, we discuss various pitfalls to avoid during a typical devops adoption and implementation phase. 

Common DevOps Challenges – Pitfalls to Avoid
DevOps practices can greatly benefit organizations, but they can also be hindered by common pitfalls. These include a lack of cultural alignment, insufficient automation, siloed teams, neglecting continuous monitoring and feedback, overlooking security and compliance, lack of proper planning and documentation, failure to measure and track key metrics, resistance to change, and lack of continuous learning.  

Cultural alignment is crucial for fostering a collaborative and inclusive culture, while insufficient automation can result in slower deployments, increased errors, and reduced efficiency. Siloed teams and lack of collaboration can hinder the flow of information, slow down processes, and create inefficiencies. Continuous monitoring and feedback are vital for identifying issues, collecting insights, and driving improvement. Overlooking security and compliance can expose systems to vulnerabilities and potential breaches, while neglecting compliance can result in regulatory issues and legal consequences. 

Insufficient planning and documentation can lead to confusion, rework, and inefficiencies in DevOps. Measuring and tracking key metrics, such as deployment frequency, lead time, mean time to recovery (MTTR), and customer satisfaction, is essential for assessing the impact of DevOps efforts and identifying areas for improvement. Finally, resistance to change and lack of continuous learning can impede DevOps success. Embracing change and fostering a culture of experimentation, innovation, and continuous improvement are essential for adapting to evolving technologies and market demands. 

Remember, DevOps cannot be owned by a specific team, as it requires a full-team effort to optimize, IT leaders who claim to have one team covering DevOps may be thinking of DevOps from a pre-digital lens, where asset management was the prevailing concern. Using DevOps technology does not make the team capable of performing the broad transformation needed to optimize DevOps. 

The pre-digital, asset-focused mindset often leads to leaders assuming that simply securing all assets in the DevOps toolchain means they’ve operationalized DevOps. However, this procurement only ensures a significant investment in technology access. When IT leaders truly operationalize DevOps, they recognize it’s a mindset, not just a tool set. 

The enterprise cannot optimize DevOps by hiring engineers. The technology management operating model is too broad for one person or team, and finding the right people is challenging. Even if an engineer has a DevOps title, their experience may not be applicable to the entire organization, as their experience may come from a company misunderstanding DevOps. 

DevOps is not just about software development processes, but involves everyone on the team, not just developers. Non-developers often assume it doesn’t apply to them due to branding and naming issues.  

Leaders can train their teams on DevOps to optimize it within the organization, but a change program involving leadership is crucial for true optimization which results in high quality software or digital product delivery. 

Adopting AI in Devops brings efficiencies- AI and DevOps are interconnected, enhancing an organization’s performance and efficiency. AI and ML-powered solutions enable DevOps teams to efficiently onboard, map, and integrate large volumes of data, improving business efficiency and customer experience. This saves time for innovation-driven tasks. 

Companies often adopt “full-scale change” as a last-ditch effort to improve their digital transformation, but this approach is often a costly and ineffective endeavor. It’s crucial to strategically place DevOps in areas where they will yield the most benefits in terms of goal realization, rather than blindly adding DevOps everywhere. Instead, companies should focus on implementing DevOps in areas where they will see the most benefit. 

ThoughtFocus offers a strategic roadmap to avoid anti-patterns in DevOps, Cloud, and Agile operations, ensuring the successful implementation of digital revenue generating channels. If you are freshly embarking on your cloud journey or even if you are in the middle of your cloud journey, looking for some solid assistance and support, reach us at betterfuturefaster@thoughtfocus.com and one of our devops or cloud engineer experts will get in touch with you at the earliest. 

Related content: 

Embracing the Digital Trinity: Unlocking Success with DevOps, Agile, and Cloud – ThoughtFocus 

DevOps Playbook Framework – Powering Enablement Teams – ThoughtFocus 

Preparing for AI Success: The Cloud Computing Essentials! – ThoughtFocus