Global
As I prepare to embark on the next career phase focused on recognizing new trends and accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies, I turn back to 2013.
I had recently landed in Tel Aviv with my family for a 2-year stint.
I discussed the cultural differences between the US and Israel with an Israeli colleague. He was expressing his frustration from living in the US with the word “however.”
He explained that there is no equivalent in Hebrew for the word “however” when encountered—which happened quite frequently, as follows— “I’d love to help you with your driver’s license application, however….” He quickly realized that no matter how he tried to negotiate, persuade, or plead in the US, “however” meant “no way.”
And this got me thinking about the challenges organizations face going through Digital Transformation—leveraging new processes, technology, and data to improve productivity, increase financial performance, and remain competitive.
In discussions with clients, I often hear, “We’d love to embrace a DevOps culture and mindset—however, we are not adequately organized or staffed to implement a DevOps Strategy; we don’t know where to start; our management wants to see quick results; DevOps sounds extensive and costly; we can’t just throw everything into the cloud; we have to be mindful of compliance.”
I’d argue there is a bigger HOWEVER at play—Digital Transformation is complex, and many initial attempts tend to fail—HOWEVER, not transforming is not an option.
According to IDC’s April 2018 report, Designing Tomorrow, 73% of companies will either be out of business or marginalized if they don’t transform”.
So, how do we resolve these conflicting “however”? The concerns expressed by organizations are valid and should not be brushed aside.
However, digital transformation can still occur while recognizing and acknowledging the challenges above.
And that is where Ness can help you!
Ness & DevOps
Bringing a unique blend of a PLAYER/COACH model and our years of experience in risk mitigation, Ness singularly focuses on assisting organizations to deal with these challenges.
Our engagements begin with a listening workshop, gathering information on the client’s unique organizational challenges—structural, cultural, resources, regulatory/compliance, and technology.
We then align a “quick win” project that allows our players/coaches to work directly with the organization on a specific delivery, implemented using new processes and technologies, including Infrastructure as Code, comprehensive CI/CD pipeline, Container solutions, and Cloud transformation .
These quick-win projects usually run 4-6 weeks and are intended to deliver the following objectives:
- Facilitate organizational alignment around Dev/Ops culture and mindset
- Initiate “on-the-job” hands-on training
- Implement and adopt new technologies
- Identify a backlog of follow-on projects and deliverables
- Demonstrate a low-cost quick win as Proof of Possible
Before we conclude, here is a quick overview of DevOps.
What is DevOps
It’s a software development methodology. DevOps gives a lot of importance to collaboration, communication, and integration between software developers and IT operations. A DevOps SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) incorporates DevOps principles into SDLC. By incorporating the principles, teams can be empowered to deliver better software faster.
What is DevOps Culture
DevOps culture is a bunch of values and practices. The intent is to enhance shared responsibility, collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement throughout the SDLC DevOps process. By adopting this culture, teams can work together to resolve issues very early in the SDLC. The goal of DevOps as a culture is to remove silos among teams and establish an agile, collaborative environment to deliver high-quality software. The culture values automation, tools, and processes to ensure CI/CD of software. Repetitive tasks are automated so that teams can focus on more important aspects of software development and delivery.
Author
Cary Dym
BU Head, Global Alliance Cloud and Data Sales
Ness Digital Engineering
