Summary
Your organization supports a critical business web application deployed across the globe. Deployment of new functionalities are happening multiple times per day and you feel accomplished. But there's always room for improvement. Continuously and candidly observing your DevOps process allows teams to identify possible improvement points and continuous collaboration plays a big part in that.
Continuous Collaboration is a practice that supports the cultural shifts that are key to any DevOps journey. Continuous Collaboration enables teams to innovate outside of the boundaries of planned meetings, and fosters innovation within the team by creating an integrated experience. It's also the driving energy that improves the knowledge and results of multiple teams.
Often, communication challenges affect the ability to resolve incidents. Teams can shorten MTTR (mean time to resolution) for incidents by attacking MTTK (mean time to know). Reducing MTTK requires a great deal of collaboration across different organizations and teams.
Don't forget that siloed functional teams create specialized, siloed solutions. Cross-functional teams create solutions that provide capabilities. Therefore, designing teams and architecture around microservices is an effective way to focus teams on capabilities.
Continuous Improvement involves and requires measurement. It will help you not only identify improvement, but also improve your customer experience.
However, it's essential to know what to measure. DevOps leadership should measure things like operational health metrics, usage, velocity, and live site health. In other words, measure impact, not activity.
Once metrics and KPIs have been defined, align the KPIs with habits to achieve positive business outcomes.
Another important aspect of Continuous Improvement is continuous feedback. Create a continuous feedback culture by:
- Releasing early and often
- Starting with a minimum viable product
- Using hypothesis-driven development
- Continuous improvement through customer feedback
Value stream mapping and value stream analysis also support Continuous Improvement. Value stream mapping helps see and resolve disconnects, redundancies, and gaps in how work gets done. Measurements performed in value stream analysis help teams plan, spot variations in efficiency, and identify potential process issues.
Finally, consider establishing a holistic approach to measuring the DevOps effectiveness and deliver transparency on DevOps transformation initiatives. Create a culture that promotes the learning and experimentation that DevOps requires by focusing on metrics that highlight success.