For all technology organizations, the topmost objective is to be able to deliver high performing code that is reliable and available at all times.

The Software Development process entails a lot of steps and different processes and policies along with the right set of infrastructure that enables any software company to function efficiently. But one key aspect of software development that ensures that the software development pipeline is as sturdy as can be, is ensuring that a robust DevOps implementation strategy is incorporated in the software development lifecycle.

What this means is a company specific DevOps implementation plan aligns all stakeholders ranging from the development team to operations team along with the end users and creates a collaborative environment that supports the fail-fast way of software development and leads to faster shipping times and lower number of issues in the development  lifecycle.

Key Considerations Before Starting DevOps Implementation

Before initiating a DevOps strategy implementation, the first and foremost step is to help the organization gauge the need for DevOps implementation strategy and how the changes in processes,policies,technology and infrastructure that could seem to be a technical overhead, actually are meant to make software development automated and seamless.

This constitutes the culture shift. Thereafter, the following steps ensure that the transition to the DevOps strategy of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment is deliberate and seamless at the same time:

Evaluate the current state of your development and operations teams

The pain points of the development team help customize the DevOps plan as per the team needs. There are plenty of tools and devops strategies in the market supplied by Google Cloud, Azure DevOps, AWS etc. but identifying which tools ,frameworks and platforms best serve the high priority requirements is the key to success. These decisions can be informed by diving into historical deployment data like frequency of deployment delays, number of failed deployment, number of issues/stage of the development cycle etc. 

Similarly, the pain points of the operations teams which usually are supplemented by customer feedback also help shape the priorities when it comes to crafting a devops implementation plan. This would entail diving into on-call data, incident management data etc.

The gaps in the software development lifecycle highlighted by these metrics will help prioritize the requirements of the devops plan and hence help devise the first draft of a new devops implementation strategy. Apart from the discovery process of requirement, this exercise also brings to the fore, gaps in how the different collaborators work in individual silos which could result in bottlenecks. For example there could be a difference in the software development methodologies followed by the development team vs the operations team or there could be a stark difference in the feedback mechanisms leveraged by each group which don’t feed into either one of their workflows.

Assess technology gaps and organizational readiness.

The above exercise also helps identify which technical frameworks, platforms and tools may be optimal for the current state of the organization. It would be a good idea to evaluate if the organization is, in some form, implementing continuous integration or continuous deployment along with any form of shift-left or automated testing strategies in their existing infrastructure pipeline. This helps gauge the organizational and engineering infrastructure maturity and gives a starting point for conversations and tools. These include:

1. CI/CD tools - Ansible,CircleCI, Bamboo,Spinnaker, AWS, Azure DevOps Server etc.
2. Automation - Azure Resource Manager,Google cloud Deployment, Puppet, Datadog etc.
3. Containerization - Amazon Elastic compute, Google Kubernetes Engine, Docker Swarm etc.

At this point, it’s prudent to gauge if the organization is ready for this change in mindset,uplevelling of skills and technical adeptness.This entails creating tailored learning programs,brown bag sessions, town-halls etc. to both educate and learn from all the stakeholders in the development lifecycle.

Identify leadership roles and ensure buy-in from stakeholders.

Leadership Buy-in at all levels is important for a successful DevOps onboarding. Divisional and organizational commitments help string all the pieces of the puzzle together.

DevOps leads or champs can be identified in all teams who can be the advocates and change agents as well as Subject matter experts to help facilitate communication both within and across the larger organization.

Leverage all forms of communication, as per a clearly defined communication strategy, that helps drive action for different stakeholders, to stress the benefits relevant to those parties and formulate a list of preliminary metrics and Key performance indicators that they could keep a watch on and evaluate the success based off of.

These KPIs (Key performance Indicators) can be tied to the previously identified objectives. Some examples of KPIs are:

1. Defect escape rate - The number of defects found in production before being caught.
2. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance - the number of SLA violations that affect stakeholder engagement

Building Your DevOps Implementation Plan

A well-executed DevOps implementation plan minimizes disruption while maximizing value. It’s not just about deploying tools; it’s about aligning technology, people, and processes to drive measurable business outcomes. Here’s how to build an effective plan:

Align Objectives with Business Goals

Every DevOps initiative should have a clear purpose tied directly to organizational outcomes. The first step is for the technical lead or project manager to map DevOps objectives to broader business goals. This ensures that every action contributes to measurable success. For example:

• Objective: Reduce deployment errors by 70% within three months.
• Outcome: Improved system reliability, resulting in better customer satisfaction and reduced operational costs.

Define these objectives in collaboration with stakeholders across engineering, operations, and leadership to ensure buy-in and alignment.

Plan for Cultural Changes and Upskilling

DevOps is as much about people as it is about technology. Building a culture of collaboration and continuous learning is critical for success. To achieve this:

• Training and Resources: Offer access to platforms like Udemy, Pluralsight, or in-house portals tailored to role-specific expertise. For example:
  • Developers can focus on CI/CD practices or container orchestration.
  • Operations teams might dive into Kubernetes management or infrastructure-as-code tools.
• Promote Collaboration: Encourage shared responsibility for outcomes between development and operations teams. Use retrospectives and cross-functional workshops to foster a unified culture.

Remember, DevOps practices must be embedded in the team’s mindset before they can be integrated into the pipeline.

Create an Integration Plan for Tools and Platforms

A successful DevOps implementation requires the right tools for each phase of the workflow. Break down your implementation into phases and select the tools best suited for each. For example:

• Continuous Integration and Testing: Tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, JUnit, and Selenium.
• Continuous Delivery: Use Spinnaker or ArgoCD for automated deployments.
• Container Orchestration: Kubernetes or Docker Swarm for managing containerized applications.

Document how these tools will integrate with existing systems and ensure interoperability. Provide sandbox environments where teams can experiment with new tools before full adoption.

Establish Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement

Feedback loops are the backbone of any DevOps strategy. They allow teams to refine workflows, identify bottlenecks, and improve processes iteratively. Key strategies include:

• Pipeline Metrics: Regularly review metrics like build time, deployment success rates, and MTTR (mean time to recovery).
• Postmortem Reviews: Analyze incident reports to identify root causes and improve system resilience.
• Team Feedback: Create forums for teams to discuss challenges and propose enhancements to workflows.

For example, integrating real-time feedback from incident management tools like PagerDuty or Splunk into sprint planning can lead to more informed prioritization of technical debt or infrastructure improvements.

Step-by-Step Guide to Executing Your DevOps Plan

Successful DevOps execution requires deliberate planning, the right mix of expertise, and incremental implementation. Follow these steps to turn your DevOps plan into a measurable success:

1. Assemble the Right Cross-Functional Team

A strong DevOps team combines diverse skill sets that enable collaboration across development, operations, and security. Key roles include:

• DevOps Evangelist: Drives adoption and fosters a culture of collaboration.
• Automation Architect: Designs workflows and selects tools for automation.
• Software Developers and Testers: Build and test applications for quality and efficiency.
• Technical Project Manager/Product Manager: Coordinates priorities and ensures alignment with business goals.
• Release Manager: Oversees deployment processes and ensures smooth rollouts.
• Security Engineer: Integrates security into DevOps workflows (DevSecOps).
• Reliability Engineer (SRE): Ensures system stability and scalability.

Each role contributes to streamlining workflows, reducing silos, and ensuring the success of the DevOps strategy. For additional guidance on assembling technical leadership, see our guide on hiring technical project managers.

2. Select and Integrate Foundational DevOps Tools

The right tools are the backbone of DevOps implementation. Start with foundational tools that enable core DevOps activities:

• Version Control: Git for collaboration and change management.
• CI/CD: Tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, or GitHub Actions to automate integration and delivery pipelines.
• Containerization: Docker for creating lightweight, consistent development environments.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Terraform for managing infrastructure declaratively.
• Container Orchestration: Kubernetes for scaling and managing containerized applications.

The goal here is to establish a robust foundation for prototyping, automating builds and deployments, and managing infrastructure. Start with tools that integrate well with your existing ecosystem and provide flexibility for future growth.

3. Start Small with Pilot Projects and Measure Results

Begin with a low-stakes pilot project to test your DevOps processes and tools. This controlled approach minimizes risk while identifying challenges in workflows and tooling. Example pilot projects might include:

• Automating deployments for an internal tool like an employee rewards portal.
• Establishing a CI/CD pipeline for a standalone microservice.

Define clear metrics to evaluate the success of your pilot, such as deployment time reduction, error rates, and system reliability improvements. Use these results to iterate and refine your approach.

4. Scale the Approach Across Departments Using Data-Driven Insights

Once your pilot is successful, expand your DevOps practices to larger teams and higher-impact projects. Leverage the lessons learned and data from pilot projects to:

• Adapt workflows for varying levels of complexity across departments.
• Address gaps identified during the pilot phase, such as tooling limitations or process inefficiencies.
• Align scaling efforts with organizational goals, ensuring measurable improvements in speed, quality, and reliability.

By scaling incrementally and iteratively, you reduce the risk of disruptions and build a culture of continuous improvement.

Executing your DevOps plan isn’t about implementing every practice at once—it’s about creating momentum through small wins, measuring progress, and scaling intelligently. By following these steps, your organization can build a scalable, reliable, and adaptable DevOps environment that delivers consistent value.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

• Over-reliance on Tools vs cultural alignment - If the organization and stakeholders are not on board with the strategy and it is not the life and blood of the technology culture of the org, then onboarding a bunch of tools would only result in technical debt and adoption overhead.
• Failing to secure stakeholder buy-in at all levels - The key is to get leaders involved early on in the process as DevOps champions and let them have a stake in devising the strategy.
• Overcomplicating initial implementations; emphasize simplicity - Start small with a proof of concept and then scale the strategy to cater to the niche or organization specific requirements. Building on top of an existing successful strategy could only set the right tone for incorporating more complicated frameworks that would cater to the shift left engineering mindset.
• Ignoring continuous monitoring and feedback mechanisms - Continuous integration and deployment may be the key words here but there is no point in having a robust framework for such tasks unless the framework is monitored,calibrated and learnt from and then the feedback is fed back into the workflow to make the system better.

Real-World Success Stories of DevOps Implementation

Going over a few case studies of how DevOps Implementation did a complete 180 to the failing software development process in certain organizations gives an insight into how important yet prudent this choice is:

JAMF DevOps Journey ‍

the case study done by Atlassian into JAMF a unique corporation that catered to the niche world of Apple device management, delved into how devops strategies improved the software development process for JAMF. Being a niche market organization, the need to always be performant while bringing high quality software updates as quickly as possible to the market had cornered JAMF and stressed out its already sparse resources(human,capital and time).

The result was that JAMF onboarded to the Atlassian DevOPs tech stack consisting of Jira, Bitbucket,Bamboo to establish CI/CD (Continuous Integration and continuous Deployment) pipelines.

This adoption helped JAMF improve their release to production speed,increased automation thereby reducing  manual errors and improved the overall security of the code by integrating DevSecOps in their pipeline

US Federal Agency DevOps implementation‍

This is another interesting case study to learn from especially since federal agency software environments tend to be very regulated,restricted with little room for experimentation due to security and privacy concerns. That makes this success story even more relevant and its astounding results even more relatable and a resounding yay to why devops just makes development better. This agency was struggling with slow and inefficient development processes which led to security and compliance violations and inability to meet user requirements on time.

Deloitte helped the agency develop a comprehensive DevOps strategy focused on Infrastructure as code (IaC), including compliance as part of the software development lifecycle and making DevSecOps the primary path of deployments

Along with increased collaboration and efficiency of software produced, high levels of compliance were maintained without creating any bottlenecks for software delivery.

The key takeaway from these case-studies is learn-adapt-execute. Become a subject matter expert of DevOps strategies, adapt it to your organizational needs and execute and iterate on it as needed. Read more case studies at -  best data engineering consulting companies.

MSH Is Here To Help When You Need It

Onboarding a successful DeVOps implementation strategy is a challenging process but it leads to transformations that make the CI/CD pipeline the backbone of customer centric product development. The key is to make DevOps a part of the culture,technology stack and leverage the learnings to make the pipeline more robust.

To learn more about DevOps, explore devops best practices or get in touch. We'd love to hear from you!

Sources:

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-aboutdeloitte-devops-federal-case-study.pdf

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/ebook-JAMF_DevOps-2.pdf

https://www.onpage.com/on-call-software-engineer-roles-and-responsibilites/

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/fail-fast#:~:text=A%20fail%20fast%20mentality%20is,on%20to%20a%20better%20approach.

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