4 Key Ways to Build a Strong DevOps Team

Bringing Development and Operations teams together can be the crucial missing ingredient for businesses that need to deploy innovative products and solutions quickly, autonomously and efficiently. 

Building a collaborative and effective DevOps team is vital for any forward-thinking technology organisation. If executed correctly, a business’s DevOps process will result in happier customers, swifter release cycles, increased reliability, and better financial results. According to a study conducted by Atlassian, 99% of companies said DevOps had a positive impact on their organisations. 

These statistics exemplify why many business owners want to integrate DevOps into their firms, and it’s with good reason as research by CompareTheCloud suggests that the global market could exceed $10.31 billion by the end of this year.

However, while DevOps practices continue to revolutionise the tech industry and break down silos between development and operations teams, building a successful DevOps team is hard work and filled with hurdles.

Challenges of Enhancing DevOps in an Organisation

Understanding how to build a strong DevOps department and culture is more easily said than done. Business leaders need to approach this task proactively and methodically, as they will be responsible for attracting the right talent, ensuring they are equipped to perform DevOps responsibilities and nurturing those practices over a long period through effective management and leadership. As is expected, a DevOps team won’t magically materialise overnight. 

A strong and collaborative DevOps team can inspire creativity, innovation and productivity across your organisation, but on the flip side, dysfunctional and uncooperative teams can seriously hinder your ability to retain your competitive edge, disrupt your product releases, and alienate your customers, not to mention waste valuable budget. 

This is why it’s crucial to focus on building the right DevOps culture for your business and not rely on tried-and-tested methods from businesses that have tried and/or failed at establishing such a team. You know your business, processes, and unique selling points better than anyone, which is why it’s important to consider your team structure, methods, and positive employee attributes when establishing a DevOps team. While there is no universal best practice for creating a winning DevOps team and culture, you can gain insights on how to get started by exploring our top recommendations below.

How to Foster a Culture of DevOps and Collaboration

Understanding your long-term business goals is key to discerning what makes a good DevOps team. Some teams may be small, compact and collaborative, while in larger organisations there may be a more defined reporting line and sub-departments for DevOps. 

However, in most setups, each team member should understand the product(s) and positioning of the business they’re working for. DevOps teams, regardless of size and scale, should be able to work collaboratively, effectively and transparently, avoiding silos and miscommunications. Ultimately, you want your DevOps department to optimise business processes, drive innovation and help your organisation set itself apart from the competition, and if executed correctly from the outset, this is entirely possible.

The four fundamental building blocks to help you build the right DevOps team from the ground up are outlined below. 

1.  Establish Your DevOps Vision
The most important starting point is to sell your prospective team members on your desired vision, outcomes, and goals. 

• Your team must be aligned and on the same page to create a unified, collaborative team that’s working to achieve the same objectives.
• Understand each team member’s needs, restrictions, strengths and weaknesses and be flexible in helping them get the most out of joining your team.
• If you are moving existing staff members to DevOps, be upfront and transparent about your expectations and ensure there is minimal friction or uncertainty before initiating the move.
• Nurture the strengths that exist with each individual and how they work well within the team itself. Address any skills or knowledge gaps through training or external resources. 

2.  Identify Top Talent
Recruiting individuals with the right technical knowledge, experience and soft skills is crucial for building your successful DevOps team. Some of the most crucial attributes to look for include:

• The ability to understand how technology can impact a business, its customers, suppliers and stakeholders, along with any real-world examples of solutions they have successfully implemented, and the results they achieved.
• A collaborative mindset and the ability to work autonomously when needed, but also communicate effectively on group projects.
• A passion for continuous professional development, improvement, and learning.
• The ability to adapt their methods of working and balance workloads effectively.
• Hands-on technical experience using DevOps tools. 

The above list only details some of the attributes you can look out for, and you should carefully consider each candidate’s personal attributes and interpersonal skills, as well as their hard skills. Once you identify the right talent, you can begin developing retention strategies, whether that’s through mentoring, education and upskilling, or by offering competitive pay and benefits. 

As far as recruitment strategies go, you can either bring this in-house and handle it yourself, or consult a third-party DevOps recruitment and staffing provider to help take care of the time-consuming legwork of initial interviews, shortlisting and candidate selection. Both strategies have clear benefits and considerations, so consider the time, resources and budget you can feasibly dedicate to effective recruitment.

3.  Set Your Team Hierarchy and Structure
While you’re identifying talent, make sure you define clear roles and responsibilities for each current and prospective team member. Whether you’re aligning existing teams or building a team from scratch, the role of each employee will have to be explicitly defined. 

Some common DevOps roles include:

• DevOps engineers
• Platform engineers
• Developers
• Site reliability engineers
• IT managers
• Database administrators
• Project managers
• Security engineers
• Product owners
• Consultants
• Team leaders and managers

There is no one-size-fits-all organisational structure for DevOps teams, which is why it’s vital to choose a hierarchy that makes the most sense for your business. By taking the time to consider what your DevOps team needs, you can create a cross-functional and collaborative department that adds value to your company. 

4.  Encourage Collaboration
Identifying and hiring the right people to fulfil your business’s objectives and long-term vision is one thing, but it’s up to you to nurture those individuals and actively encourage collaboration amongst each other and other departments in your business. 

Consider the following tips to improve business collaboration:

• Encourage knowledge and idea sharing in team meetings, training sessions, one-on-one meetings, and documentation. This makes employees feel heard and avoids any silos from materialising.
• Use real-time project management, collaboration and messaging tools to make instant communication and task management easier.
• Invite other teams or departments to participate in daily standups, huddles, planning meetings, and feedback sessions. This will help your team understand projects and tasks from different perspectives, and encourage active teamwork.
• Give your team autonomy and opportunities for self-improvement, whether that’s encouraging them to participate in networking meetings, attending conferences or allocating self-learning time to test new tools or learn new skills.
• Reorganise your office space to ensure that DevOps team members are sitting close to one another, which helps to encourage real-time collaboration and idea sharing. 
• Invest in automation and AI tools – where applicable – to liberate staff from doing mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks.

Building a strong and collaborative DevOps team takes work, but by recruiting the right talent and promoting a culture of transparency, you can establish a team poised for success.