Often used in conjunction with Agile development practices, DevOps is a set of principles and practices that promotes collaboration while getting both the development (dev) and IT operations (ops) working closer together.

Its core goal is to shorten the software development lifecycle and provide continuous delivery, achieved by automating the building, testing, deployment and monitoring processes.

While DevOps was initially applied to software engineering in the early 1990s, company leaders began recognising its broader potential to improve other business areas and functions. Realising DevOps principles could be adapted for different teams to improve processes sparked a cultural shift.

In a digital era, not only do we need to understand DevOps better, we should embrace and apply the practice across the company to reap the following benefits.

Automation reduces human error

Just like software development and IT operations, other teams and functions of a business are bound to have processes that are repetitive and well suited for automation.

Automating redundant activities allows organisations to improve efficiency, free up time for more strategic work, and reduce the potential for human error. While the development sector optimises and automates tasks such as testing, deployment and monitoring, other business areas that could benefit from automation include billing and invoicing, document templating and research.

Baked-in improvement using Kaizen

A Japanese term meaning continuous improvement, “kaizen” is a philosophy that is focused on making small, incremental changes to improve products, processes, and services over time.

A key principle of DevOps, kaizen identifies and implements iterative changes to improve the quality and efficiency of software processes, but it can be applied to other business areas such as customer service.

For instance, DevOps teams in software use kaizen to identify and fix bugs, improve usability, and add new features. Kaizen in customer service can be used to identify and resolve customer issues, improve response times, and provide better employee training.

Transparency drives accountability

With clear tasks and responsibilities, DevOps teams work interdependently to efficiently action critical work. Compared to siloed structures, transparency enables proactive issue identification and quicker resolution.

In today’s dynamic environment, business leaders who embrace DevOps will be best equipped to optimise operations, maximise customer value, and sustain competitive advantage in their industries.

Better decision making based on data

Data underpins the DevOps cycle. Collecting and analysing metrics provides insight into performance over time. Data reveals what works and where opportunities exist to refine approaches. By measuring key indicators and tracking progress, teams gain valuable insights into what is working well and where opportunities for finetuning may exist.

With access to meaningful data, decisions can be made to prioritise initiatives, and steer resources toward the projects that will drive the most benefit.

Customer-focused innovation elevates performance

DevOps emphasises deep understanding of customer needs to ensure software and operations maximise customer experience. Prioritising feedback drives development of solutions that fulfil customer expectations.

Similarly this customer-first approach can be applied company-wide to build employee satisfaction, strengthen brands and boost business performance over the long term.

In conclusion, business leaders should embrace DevOps to foster a customer-first culture that drives internal efficiency and customer loyalty. Not only does DevOps utilise cross-team collaboration and focus on data-informed decisions, it pushes the entire business to adopt a kaizen attitude toward positive change over the long haul.