According to DevOps statistics, 77% of enterprises are using DevOps for software implementation or planning to jump on the DevOps bandwagon in the future. Despite this, only 10% of organziations succeed in deploying software quickly using DevOps.

Some of the biggest challenges organziations face that prevent them from bringing products faster to the market and deliver more value to their customers using DevOps are:

• organziations silos (50%) 

• use of legacy hardware (49%)

• resistance to change (46%)

Apart from this, most organziations tend to look at the technical side of things while ignoring people and processes, which is why they fail to bring products faster to the market. Even worse, they are usually unaware of the core fundamentals of DevOps. If you are one of those who do not know about the basic principles of DevOps then you are at the right place.

In this article, HOSTNOC will share seven principles of DevOps that you wished you knew earlier.

7 Key DevOps Principles You Wished You Knew Earlier

Here are seven key DevOps principles you can not afford to ignore.

1. Develop an Automated and Streamlined System

The first thing you need to do when adopting DevOps is to develop a self organized system. Start with one task at a time and create a plan according to resource availability. Ensure transparency in communication by using online boards and organize everything from minutes of the meeting to tasks, projects to links at one place.

This will make things easier to manage and also gives you a unified view of everything. Instead of trying to hit a home run in the first attempt, run multiple iterations to improve the system continuously.

2. Create a Task Force, Not a Team

What really makes DevOps stand out is its ability to break silos. You can think of it as an extension of agile. Instead of creating different teams, it is highly recommended that you create a task force that includes members from both development and operations teams.

If you already have a team, it might not be easy to convert it into a task force. It is not as simple as changing the name from development team to development task force. A task force must have members that specialize in performing specific operations and have in depth knowledge about their domain. To make the transition from a team to a task force, you will have to adopt DevOps best practices and follow the DevOps principles religiously.

3. Multi-Competence Centers

Instead of looking at tasks from a traditional perspective, you will have to treat it as a multi competence center. The primary objective of this exercise is to allow your development and operations team to accelerate their delivery process. For this to work, you will have to first identify your slow processes. Next, look for ways to automate these slow processes.

Train the team if they lack the right training and provide them with enough human resource to speed up the delivery process. Test the knowledge of employees who have participated in training programs and look for ways to improve your training programs. This will help you achieve better results in the long run.

4. Take Advantage of Agile Coaches

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is they don’t have an agile coach onboard when implementing DevOps. Since DevOps is an extension of agile, these agile coaches can do wonders to your chances of implementing DevOps successfully.

Agile coaches not only assist your businesses in increasing the value of your products and services but can also help you apply DevOps instantly and in the right areas. They also have years of experience and a wealth of knowledge and your organziation can benefit from it if you hire them.

Best of all, these agile coaches can play multiple roles at once. They can act as a mentor, collaborator and a bridge between different departments. Not only that, they can also help you take the right course of action after analyzing the situation.

5. Empower Your Task Force

Instead of micro managing your task force, you are better off empowering them. Focus on building trust and give them more autonomy. Tell them about your vision and how you want them to achieve goals and leave the rest to them. Provide them with the freedom to experiment and let them work on their creative ideas instead of restricting their potential. The more empowerment you give your team members, the better they will showcase their skills and this would help them realize their full potential. Once your team members trust you as a leader, they will not only buy into your vision but do everything they can to translate it into reality.

6. Make Uncertainty Your Friend

Most businesses fear failure instead of embracing it. You should think of failure and uncertainty as your friend as it can not only teach you critical lessons but also give you an opportunity to improve your processes. Instead of fearing failure, you should learn to deal with it and manage it more efficiently. Set key performance indicators for developers and evaluate their performance from time to time.

Even if you fail, think of it as an experience and learn from the mistakes you made. Avoid making the same mistakes again and again. Once you train your team in such a way that they don’t make the same mistakes again, you will eventually achieve your desired results. Learn from the experiences of others who have failed so you don’t have to learn these lessons the hard way.

7. Stay Updated

Create an inventory of all the resources and see which ones need updating. If your existing technology infrastructure is falling short, you need to upgrade to more dedicated server hosting. If your existing infrastructure is underutilized, you need to work on optimizations to extract the most out of your current IT infrastructure such as  dedicated WordPress hosting. Look for ways to enhance the productivity of your system and install the latest updates to minimize the risk of bugs and errors.

Which of these DevOps principles do you follow and why? Share it with us in the comments section below.