Debunking the Top Myths About DevOps

Debunking the Top Myths About DevOps

by Darryl K. Taft

Myth 1: DevOps Is Only for Hipsters

To hear some tell it, DevOps can only be understood by a new breed of blended IT professional: a “silo-busting” individual using the latest tools.

Reality: The Problem Isn’t the People—It’s the Organizational Structure

A rigid culture and a “one skill in one box” organizational structure restrict people’s rounded set of skills from being fully utilized.

Untapped Skills

Review the untapped skills of your current employees. Before scouring for DevOps talent, look for ops professionals who think like coders, and coders who understand the need for resilience.

Myth 2: One Movement to Rule Them All

Often, those championing DevOps claim that ITIL, COBIT and a balanced scorecard no longer have a place and should be discarded.

Reality: Processes to Ensure Resilience and Stability Are Critical

Any set of best practices or methodologies will accelerate and improve your IT services. Don’t obsess about where the methodologies compete, but think instead how they can complement each other.

Myth 3: DevOps Is a Technology Movement

There’s a lot of really good technical material written on DevOps, with many new terms to consider—like infrastructure-as-code and anti-fragile—all supported by a new range of products and techniques.

Reality: Business Outcomes Drive DevOps, Not the Technology

Meeting customer expectations is the No. 1 priority. Use customer feedback to test assumptions. Be prepared to change methods for project planning, product management, funding and implementation.

Use Technology as a Driver to Accelerate DevOps Goals

Remove physical constraints and bottlenecks that interrupt the flow of value to customers. Automate frequent release cycles. More releases mean more business, not more technical headaches.

Myth 4: My Business Is Immune

Many organizations argue that the principles of DevOps don’t apply because they’ve outsourced operations or don’t have an app dev function. After all, what value could continuous change bring to an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” world?

Reality: ALL Companies Are in the Software Business

Many sneaker companies, for example, are expanding beyond simply selling sneakers—they now sell a fitness experience (wearable devices) that depends on software.

When Thinking About DevOps, Look at Your Business First and IT Second

It’s really about being a business practitioner and embracing techniques such as experimentation, iterative and incremental design, and above all else—learning from failure.

Myth 5: DevOps Will Change the World

With so much hype, it’s easy to start drinking the DevOps Kool-Aid.

Reality: Little Improvement in Success Rate of Development Projects

The reality is that the success rate for development projects hasn’t improved much in 20 years. If your operations team gets rewarded for stopping application releases, then no amount of agile development will help. Likewise, it won’t help if your developers won’t leave the office to meet customers. DevOps is about five things: people, people, people, people and people.

Get the Facts

If you are ready to move from myth to reality with DevOps, download the ebooklet Dysfunction Junction – A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Started with DevOps at www.ca.com/devops-ebook.