When it comes to DevOps, collaboration is key, and for good reason. In most cases, successful DevOps teams drive collaboration between developers and IT operations staff. Yet collaboration breakdowns continue to plague many DevOps teams around the world.
DevOps collaboration breakdowns may occur for many reasons, including:
- Lack of Alignment Within a DevOps Team: DevOps team members are not working toward a common goal.
- Poor Communication: Ineffective communication prevents DevOps team members from keeping one another up to date.
- Information Silos: DevOps team members are reluctant to share critical information with their peers.
Ultimately, DevOps team collaboration can make or break a business. Without a collaborative culture in place, DevOps team members are unlikely to work together to find the best ways to maximize productivity and limit risk.
For example, if a big-box retailer suffers an IT outage, the time and costs required for a DevOps team to resolve this incident management issue could escalate quickly. The outage could put a major dent in the retailer’s brand reputation and revenues, along with place additional pressure on a DevOps team that already has its hands full. Perhaps worst of all, the outage may cause the retailer’s operations to come to a screeching halt until the incident management problem is resolved.
There is no need for a DevOps team to let an IT outage or other incident management problems get out of hand. Instead, a DevOps team can use the following tips to foster a culture of collaboration:
- Take a top-down approach to culture. A collaborative culture starts at the top and trickles down to all employees in all departments. If a DevOps team leader collaborates with all team members, he or she can set the tone for a collaborative workplace.
- Promote active discussions. Do you encourage your DevOps team to discuss its concerns and questions? If not, you may be missing out on a golden opportunity to build a collaborative work environment, one where DevOps team members are unafraid to brainstorm ideas and speak up about potential issues.
- Get rid of hierarchies. Let’s face it – no one likes a boss breathing down their neck. Fortunately, a collaborative DevOps team will eliminate hierarchies and build a distinct culture where equality and teamwork reign supreme.
- Empower your DevOps team. Don’t let silos get the best of your DevOps team – give your DevOps team the opportunity to make its own decisions. And over time, you’re sure to reap the benefits of a confident, collaborative DevOps team.
- Implement user-friendly processes and systems. DevOps is complex, and why should a business further complicate DevOps with processes and systems that are difficult to use and limit progress? Collaborate with DevOps team members, find out what they’re looking for in the ideal processes and systems and invest your time and resources accordingly.
Lastly, it is important to remember that a collaborative workplace won’t happen overnight. Much in the same way that Rome wasn’t built in a day, it takes time, hard work and patience to get your entire DevOps team on the same page.
If you need extra help as you search for ways to drive DevOps team collaboration, please don’t hesitate to contact AlertOps for assistance.
At AlertOps, we’re all about helping DevOps teams foster collaboration in any way possible. Our built-in chat integrations with Slack, HipChat and other group chat platforms make it easy for DevOps team members to keep one another up to date about incident management problems. Plus, our multi-modal communication capabilities guarantee incident management notifications can be sent via email, phone and SMS to ensure the right DevOps team member can get the right message, at the right time, every time.
To find out more about how we can help you transform an ordinary DevOps team into a collaborative unit, please contact us today at (844) 292-8255 or via email at sales@alertops.com.
Sources:
https://devops.com/secrets-collaboration-devops/
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2012/09/nick-stein-work-post-2.html
https://www.agosto.com/blog/3-collaboration-problems-every-company-faces
