Many organizations across the world are taking a long, hard look at DevOps and wondering how they can start to take advantage of its benefits.

The 2014 State of DevOps report has some pretty compelling facts:

• Companies using DevOps are twice as likely to exceed profitability, market share, and productivity goals
• They will have 50 percent higher market capitalization and growth than rival businesses

DevOps might just be the key to organizational survival in the modern business environment.

Sounds good!

So, where do we start?

Organizations  that want to start getting the benefits of DevOps need to recognize their implementation for what it is – organizational change. No, not hard-core bureaucratic change management with millions of forms to fill in, but an initiative that needs to win hearts and minds across the organizational.

Remember – DevOps isn’t just an IT thing, and it isn’t just a business thing. It’s about collaboration, communication and integration right across our organizational.

To be successful with any organizational change, there are a few simple things we need. We need a goal, we need a plan, and we need some enthusiasm. If we can’t get our people enthused and bring them with us, our goal and our plan will not have the momentum they need.

One way to build enthusiasm and a common starting point is through education. It’s really important that every stakeholder understands the goal, the plan, and feels they have the tools, skills and level of empowerment to contribute.

Getting staff the training they need can help build their capabilities and create a common understanding across the organization – a collective consciousness. DevOps is a simple concept, but some of the terminology that comes with it won’t be familiar to everyone. When you start to talk about continuous delivery and continuous deployment, you want to be sure that everyone is on the same page!

DevOps implementations can learn from the way organizations have adopted other frameworks in the past. Common mistakes include a statement of management intent with no plan behind it – saying you’re doing DevOps doesn’t mean you are. Making sure your staff are all speaking a common language can really help to deliver success.

The DevOps Foundation course from the DevOps Institute is a great way to start building that collective consciousness and get your staff involved in your DevOps initiative.

The syllabus has been developed by leaders in the DevOps community and looks at where DevOps has come from, and covers topics including:

• DevOps Culture
• Organizational Considerations
• DevOps Practices (the three ways)
• DevOps and IT Service Management Processes
• Automation Practices and Tool Categories

Once your staff are trained, you can start to have a collective conversation about where you can make improvements in your organization, building on a common foundation.

To get the most from your training, make sure staff know why they are attending the classroom course or taking the e-learning, and then have a plan to build on what they’ve learnt when they are finished.

Read more about DevOps courses and find training providers here: http://devopsinstitute.com/doi-reps/

About the Author/Claire Agutter

Claire Agutter is the lead trainer for ITSM Zone, global e-learning providers for IT management professionals. Claire has more than 15 years of IT management experience and loves anything that helps the business and IT work together to create value.
ITSM Zone are the DevOps Institute’s exclusive e-learning partner.