Why Leaders Are Crucial to the $uccess of a DevOps Transformation

Pink News Editor | September 23, 2021

Imagine a scenario where your IT organization is doing 46 times more frequent deployments, where your lead time from commit to deploy is 2,555 times faster, where the time to recover from incidents is 2,604 times faster, and your change failure rate is seven times lower. Just think how much more productive your organization would be, how much more quickly your organization would be able to deliver business value to your clients/customers, and how much more profit you’d be able to create…

These are actual results shared by Gene Kim a renowned multiple award-winning CTO, researcher, and author of six books – who is also a world-wide DevOps expert – and a featured speaker at the upcoming Pink22 conference and exhibition.

In Keys to DevOps Success, Gene shared significant findings from the 2018 State of DevOps report that focused on how to achieve DevOps success more quickly. He has been involved with the DevOps movement ever since its inception and has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999. He offers leaders, as well as IT professionals, many meaningful and deep insights into how higher software delivery performance equals more powerful business outcomes.

However, let’s face it – high-performing DevOps teams don’t spontaneously develop on their own. As he states in Gene Kim on the Critical Role CIOs Play in the Success or Failure of DevOps, “Leaders have a very critical role in DevOps transformations that they cannot delegate away. They’re responsible for the architecture, the technical practices being used in the organization, and for setting the cultural norms. Only leaders can do this.”

So, how do leaders go about this? An organization’s leadership must first be firmly committed to a DevOps’ initiative for a transformation to succeed. They must adopt the DevOps mindset that converges existing IT best practices from select frameworks that support automation, continuous learning, and a culture of collaboration and learning.

Two Key Actions Leaders Can Take to Enable Successful DevOps in Their Organizations

Here are two of Gene’s secrets from Gene Kim’s Seven Secrets of DevOps Success that leaders can use to help their organizations transition to DevOps. (For specific guidance on how to take advantage of this advice, check out the DevOps courses outlined in the Want to Learn More section, below.)

  1. A DevOps expansion requires leaders to evolve. The introduction of DevOps at the business-unit level opens the possibility to expand DevOps practices across the enterprise. Gene says that can sometimes be difficult for DevOps leaders who are used to being hands-on in the change. When solving problems at the business-unit level, these tech professionals have a high degree of control over the transformation. As they get promoted, they have less overt control and must learn how to lead through influence. "That's much more challenging," Kim says.
  2. CIOs are key enablers of DevOps. While not all IT executives will be directly involved in the introduction of DevOps in their organizations, CIOs play an essential role in removing obstacles and setting up DevOps teams for success. This requires organizational change management.

Organizational change management begins with leadership. Gene says the major cause of constraints in an organization is a lack of senior-level business buy-in. “In 2021, it is clearer than ever before that every business is a technology business, and every leader is a technology leader.”

In his Wall Street Journal best-selling book, The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data, Gene frames what he learned studying technology leaders who adopt DevOps principles and patterns in large, complex organizations and often have to fight deeply entrenched orthodoxies. He details the five ideals – a spectrum of cultural, experiential, and value decisions leaders make that will either enable greatness or create chronic suffering and underperformance. Gene also conveys why he believes, more than ever, that DevOps will be one of the most potent economic forces for decades to come.

Join Gene for his highly anticipated keynote – The Unicorn Project, and the Structure and Dynamics of Great Organizations – that addresses these five ideals and much more at Pink22 – the 25th Annual International IT Service Management Conference and Exhibition, February 15-18, 2022 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Want to Learn More?

  • Listen to The Idealcast: A Podcast with Gene Kim. It consists of conversations with experts about the important ideas that change how organizations compete and win. Listeners will hear insights and gain solutions to help their enterprises thrive in an evolving business world.
  • Watch DevOps 2021 Featuring Gene Kim: A Look Back at the Year in DevOps and Predictions for What’s Next. Learn how organizations coped when they had no choice but to ramp up digital transformations in 2020 – and what is predicted for 2021.
  • Read The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win – Written in a fast-paced and entertaining style about a fictional company, you will not only learn how to improve your own IT organizations, but you’ll also never view IT the same way, again.
  • Read the updated version of The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations being released on November 30, 2021. Learn how leaders replicate incredible outcomes by integrating product management, development, QA, IT operations, and information security to elevate your company and win in the marketplace.
  • Attend Pink22 where Gene will deliver his highly anticipated keynote address, The Unicorn Project, and the Structure and Dynamics of Great Organizations. He will give a detailed explanation of the five ideals, review case studies, and explain why he believes DevOps will be one of the most potent economic forces for decades to come.
  • Read the 2021 State of DevOps Report, which provides a retrospective of the first decade of DevOps.
  • Register for Pink’s DevOps Essentials certification course, which identifies the barriers to successfully implementing DevOps, as well as the Full Stack approach of changing culture, improving practices and processes, and leveraging automation technologies.   
  • Register for Pink’s DevOps Leadership certification course, which provides a business-focused approach to implementing DevOps, including details on how to lead through influence. The course explains how to apply Pink’s proprietary and innovative 20/20 Integrated Change Management Model, supplies an opportunity to assess the maturity of your organization’s current DevOps journey, and gives guidance on designing and implementing a customized road map to drive business value.

Pink22 Early Bird Offer
Don’t miss the world’s #1 ITSM event! The countdown is on! You can reserve your place at Pink22 at no cost – until October 29th.  Save up to $800 by getting three or four FREE hotel room nights (depending on your pass), and a money-back guarantee. To find out more details, click here or watch this video.

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