Introducing DevOps into an enterprise

It's not just culture that must change when introducing DevOps workflows

Clinton Elston is the general manager of DevOps and cloud at TUI UK&I, and is in charge of implementing DevOps into the company. TUI is a very large organisation with many moving parts, which makes this a real challenge.

Before implementing DevOps, TUI suffered from a long release process; there was ‘questionable' confidence in each deployment; and a lot of late night bug fixing. Software, like a high performance car, was very customised and complex, and the company knew that it was being published with bugs - turning the dev team into "world class fire fighters." Now there is a lot more automation, which is key to DevOps.

What is DevOps?

No-one really knows what defines DevOps; TUI calls it ‘a cultural change, leveraging technology to support how IT chooses to focus effort to deliver business quality faster'. Enterprises must de-couple complex services; release small changes more often (‘traditional' DevOps); and, a natural outcome, have a low recovery time from outages and problems.

However, there are competing forces: business (which demands more); development (which must deliver more); and operations (which needs to protect more).

Bringing it all together

To ensure that DevOps can be integrated into an existing work culture, there are three - really four - parts to get right.

Most important are the people. An enterprise needs to make sure that its culture supports DevOps, while also having the expertise and support from stakeholders.

Next are the processes: DevOps means adopting new ways of working, which includes breaking down silos that have formed.

The final part is the technology: technical stacks, skillsets and toolsets.

Accountability ties all of these moving parts together.

Many companies are still in the early stages of DevOps, which means that they see it as risky; even dangerous. They can be reluctant to move away from an infrequent cycle of large releases in favour of a cycle of smaller, more common releases - but pushing out more versions means that it is faster to fix problems, as well, which is a factor that business often overlooks.

Building a DevOps culture

Culture is "the hardest nut to crack," said Elston. It can be difficult to change a working culture, but encouraging a ‘fail fast, learn quick' mindset is crucial to doing so; by thinking this way, DevOps employees are encouraged to find their errors and fix them fast. It is also important to promote information sharing and build trust between teams. After all of this, though, you must accept that it will be a work in progress!

Finally, it is important not to forget the burden of day jobs. By implementing DevOps, you are asking people to do new work in addition to their current role. A lot of people won't be afraid of DevOps, but will be wary of what the future means for them.