DevOps has been contributing to some major advancements across enterprises. With innumerable benefits to offer, DevOps has become an IT industry’s choice for firms of all sizes.
Despite this popularity, DevOps does not make for a good fit in every company. DevOps adoption or utilization of the cluster of its practices vary with business objectives, changing work practices, industry’s growing needs or the company’s business culture and compliance practices.
Therefore, it is important that DevOps advocates assess the factors that make a full DevOps transformation unfavorable for an organization.
According to a consulting and training organization, DevOps principles were meant to create a set of values that companies can adopt based on their requirement. But some companies have become particular about doing it in a specific way.
The consultant explains that it’s manageable only a few of DevOps tools or processes and think critically about where each component fits. Going by the above insights, here are some scenarios that indicate that DevOps is not applicable to every organization.
Let’s take a look:
#Scenario 1 – Businesses That Won’t Do Regular Releases
If an organization operates in a business model that doesn’t require frequent releases to serve customer requirements, then it’s a clear indication that DevOps may not be an option to consider. This is applicable to organizations who don’t have regular releases, generate minimal levels of release or those with no release prospects for the future.
Since DevOps is a process that aims to cut down costs drastically, adding it to the aforementioned business models would only add to the organization’s financial burden.
#Scenario 2 – Businesses Satisfied with Their Current Software State
It is important to consider the business value that DevOps delivers. While the continuous delivery mechanism is driving faster production cycles, it can’t be ignored that traditional software delivery methods are still meeting the needs of many organizations. In such case, DevOps transformations seems void if it’s adding to the business burden and not generating the desired results.
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#Scenario 3 – Businesses That Operate in a Highly-Regulated Industry
DevOps can be risky to implement in highly-regulated environments such as healthcare device manufacturing. Regulations can call for some serious alterations to the DevOps process.
According to research, highly-regulated industries put safety over speed, which is not a part of the DevOps philosophy. They believe that the cost of removing a bug is minimal because high-performing DevOps teams can roll back the changes quickly before any customer notices the changes.
#Scenario 4 – Businesses Awaiting Heavy M&A Activity
Even the organizations with frequent releases often pose a challenge to DevOps implementation, especially those preparing for heavy M&A activity. With such a major transformation in progress, it is highly unlikely for an organization to make a major IT shift or make any big IT investments.
According to Nebulaworks CEO Ciborowski, businesses that are undergoing Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity have end goals that do not align with the attempt to change the business culture.
He recommends a complete focus on automation and measurement initiatives, which can help business objectives on the immediate horizon.
#Scenario 5 – Business That Still Rely on Legacy Processes or Architecture
There are chances that one or more legacy systems, processes and architectures still hold relevance even in the current context.
While DevOps can significantly improve the business, the responsibility of underlying process issues lies with the organization. This can often delay the transformation process.
Moreover, its highly recommended to use the waterfall delivery model if an organization’s CTO requires direct intervention or the QA staff has limited automation.
Overall, it’s on the top executives to identify and communicate a clear vision, the real deciding factor for DevOps benefits to an organization.
Conclusion
All the above scenarios are an indication that not all companies can fit the DevOps approach into their organizational structure and there are times when even DevOps can be a disadvantage to businesses.
Therefore, it is important for companies to assess business needs and existing practices before taking the DevOps dive.
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