Expect to see plenty more from this expanding, simulation-driven business transformation firm
IT business transformation firm G2G3 won the 2017 Computing DevOps Excellence Awards gong for Best DevOps Training provider this year.
We caught up with MD Elaine Van Der Berg to reflect on G2G3's victory and learn more about the company's journey into helping other firms build their own DevOps strategies.
Computing: How has winning a DevOps Excellence Award affected your business?
Elaine Van Der Berg: It's hugely exciting! We're all incredibly proud of our DevOps Simulation learning experience and the positive impact it has on our clients' DevOps programmes.
It's also wonderful for our dedicated and very talented team to be publicly recognised! The G2G3 DevOps Simulation creates breakthrough understanding to drive DevOps transformation; it is an immersive and high energy, face-to-face team event that allows people to directly experience the benefits and business value of a DevOps approach in a realistic business scenario.
In our experience, it's people that are the biggest barrier to successful DevOps adoption; and our simulation overcomes this by creating shared vision and momentum around DevOps goals. Clients also use our communication and wider engagement solutions to support their DevOps simulation roll out to keep the excitement and momentum going and to ensure that the individuals' experience is clearly linked back to the organisations own transformation program and business goals.
CTG: What is G2G3 planning next in the area of DevOps training and business transformation?
EVDB: We've got big plans to be pioneering around DevOps and business transformation! The next big thing for us is creating a DevOps Digital Simulation, which will effectively be a ‘single-player' immersive game-like experience for DevOps training and enablement. The DevOps digital simulation will be the first of its kind in the market, and will offer a compelling alternative to traditional DevOps e-learning and other on-line traditional training solutions.
The powerful graphics, inbuilt game mechanics and interactive nature of this approach creates stronger learning outcomes and retention; perfect for educating and enabling both small and large and distributed teams globally around the value of DevOps. We're planning on launching our DevOps Digital Simulation at the DevOps Enterprise Summit in London in early June 2017.
CTG: Where is the DevOps industry up to? Are you seeing any interesting new trends or changes?
EVDB: Well, we're certainly experiencing changes in the demand for our simulations and wider engagement solutions, in that 2017 for us has been predominantly been all about DevOps! We're also experiencing a growing realisation amongst our clients (and the wider industry) that DevOps isn't a technology or process problem.
DevOps is a culture and transformation issue, or should I say opportunity, and is fundamentally all about changing behavior and peoples' perceptions. The need for this critical shift in mindset is becoming more prevalent and when made, drives phenomenal positive outcomes for an organisation, its people and importantly its customers.
CTG: What is G2G3's number one DevOps culture, skills or training tip for the industry?
EVDB: People come first. You can have the best toolset in the world but if your people aren't engaged and [don't] understand ‘Why DevOps?', then your efforts will fail.
Not only do you need to have executive buy-in, your people need to be engaged, bought-in and fully understand what DevOps is and why it's important to the organisation and its customers. That's where the G2G3 simulation comes in; it's an unforgettable experiential learning experience that drives alignment and buy-in and creates that ‘A-Ha!' moment which takes people on the journey to your DevOps future state. Once they've felt what that looks like, trust me, they will be more than eager to join you on the journey!
