Re-invent talent management with DevOps

DevOps is a cultural change that enables organizations to reach the market faster with higher quality solutions. The DevOps movement started with the objective to automate all the checkpoints in the value streams and achieve the 1-click deployment capability in the SDLC, where every check-in can be pushed into production.

It has enabled businesses to quickly meet evolving customer needs and gain market advantage. About 77% of organizations surveyed as part of a study by Google say they currently rely on DevOps to deploy software or plan to in the near future.

Globally, the IT industry is faced with a talent shortage, coupled with high attrition rates. Almost 91 percent of HR leaders are increasingly concerned about employee turnover in the coming months, suggests a Gartner survey. In FY2022, contract staffing attrition is expected to grow up to 49%, up from 40% in FY2021, according to a report by the HR firm, Teamlease. This attrition is expected to impact the IT industry. Optimizing DevOps adoption can help overcome the problem and retain existing talent. This however requires organizations to look within and make cultural changes for an easier switch to DevOps.

Pave the way for cultural change
For optimized DevOps deployment, businesses will need to keep three key pillars in mind — people, processes, and tools. DevOps solutions help break silos among various teams, ensuring they come together and collaborate effectively.

In traditional software development processes, the Development, Quality Assurance (QA), and Operations (ops) teams, work in silos. The development team develops software based on requirements and gives it to the QA for testing. If the product has bugs, the QA team flags this, and the development team fixes it. This continues until the QA team clears the software of any bugs. The ops team then deploys the final product.

With the adoption of DevOps, these silos are broken down. The Dev team, the QA team, and the ops team all work together. The processes become integrated and agile. The product cycle time also improves as the epics or features are broken into smaller requirements and development happens in two-or three-week cycles aided by technology tools where testing happens simultaneously.

The teams work faster and better, aided by these technology tools. There is continuous development, testing, and deployment to help these teams validate the software as it is being built. As they work together, it helps build trust, improve communication within teams, and reduce feedback cycles and criticism. Adopting DevOps solutions has thus paved the way for cultural change.

Collaboration helps foster trust between the teams involved at the various stages of software development. This is often the deciding factor in the success or failure of DevOps adoption. A successful DevOps adoption requires a people-centric change in the organization’s mindset.

Create a people-centric mindset
Digital transformation of enterprises is currently being built on the DevOps mindset and the Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI / CD) principles. We took feedback from teams implementing end-to-end DevOps solutions for enterprises we serve and noticed an increase in their team motivation and happiness index. Employees are now eager to move into projects that are challenging, and technology-driven.

This means opportunities must be created for employees to build their domain expertise and learn new skills to help advance their careers. Technology professionals enjoy problem-solving, troubleshooting, and making new things happen.

DevOps solutions offer a platform that inculcates continuous learning and paves the way for software professionals to learn new-age technologies, start managing applications and infrastructure, or validate software. It empowers technologists to learn and leverage their skills.

Power and ability to drive change
Leaders play a huge role in driving needed organizational changes. DevOps is one of those change initiatives that can influence the core operations of a business and foster an environment of innovation.

Despite the obvious benefits, DevOps entails that your team doesn't need to buy into it immediately. Business leaders should find ways to get everyone on board and explain how they'll also be benefited. They should manage employees’ fears and expectations and assure them of upskilling opportunities.

For the recruits, the value of implementing DevOps must be communicated effectively and give them the autonomy to choose the project that will best suit them.

The success of DevOps adoption, however, will highly depend on how the leaders communicate. The change flows from top to down and managers should ensure that staff is happy with the learning and growing processes. C-Level executives must spearhead initiatives to communicate through town hall meetings and onboard employees onto this journey. The best approach is to start small and then spread the gospel of the newest initiative.

-- Ms. Rashi Srivastava, Chief Digital Officer, Qentelli.