Understanding DevOps Teams Structure and Its Types

Types of DevOps Team Structures

DevOps team structures can vary widely depending on an organisation’s size, culture, and goals. However, several common models have emerged, each with its own set of advantages. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of DevOps team structures and understand their unique functioning. 

• Development and Operations Collaboration

This model retains the differentiation between the Dev and Ops teams but emphasises close team interaction to promote collaboration. DevOps team members often divide tasks between themselves based on the specific requirements of each stage in a development lifecycle. This approach ensures that each side of the development is taken into consideration during the decision-making process.

• Development and Operations Together

There are organisations that function with a fully integrated DevOps team, where people from development and operations share responsibilities and work together on projects from start to finish. This collaborative approach breaks traditional siloes and promotes a cross-functional environment where participants take collective ownership of the end-to-end software development process. 

• DevOps/SRE

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) can be perceived as a unique implementation of DevOps that emphasises smart automation of tasks to enhance efficiency in IT operations. SRE principles encourage organisations to offload software from operations or the development team, who usually manage it manually, to a team of engineers who leverage the power of automation to empower work processes. 

• Ops as a Platform

This team structure is best suited for organisations that are slowly incorporating DevOps principles into their existing team. Under this team structure, a separate DevOps team is set up in the development wing, working as one reliable source of expertise. This team is responsible for supervising the Ops team to handle operational aspects while guiding the Dev team to align its development and deployment processes with DevOps practices.

• DevOps as an External Party

In addition to the mentioned team structures, some companies choose to outsource their DevOps services to third parties. This may be useful for businesses that lack internal expertise or the means to adopt DevOps aptly.

Roles and Responsibilities of DevOps Teams

Navigating DevOps value flow

DevOps principles demand compliance with both development and IT operations, which requires a high-functioning, unified team skilled in trending technologies and innovations. Given the team’s diverse mission, DevOps team roles and responsibilities can be rich and varied. 

Besides common interpersonal skills and technical competence, let us offer you a glance into diverse DevOps responsibilities that align with equally diverse roles in a DevOps team. 

Understanding the DevOps Engineer roles and responsibilities is crucial for assembling a team that can navigate the complexities of modern software development and operations efficiently.

Software to Support Your Team

A DevOps team signifies the collaboration of two different organs within any company. In order to accomplish all DevOps team responsibilities effectively, employees will be required to participate in regular meetings, share knowledge, navigate escalations, and, overall, collaborate at all levels to get the ball rolling. 

While an informative DevOps tutorial might help you with the right practices, a set of tools will be required to bring the team together. Here are some of the leading software revolutionising the DevOps landscape today.

• Jira
• Trello
• Azure DevOps
• Slack
• Wrike
• Microsoft Teams

Leadership in the DevOps Team

One of the most significant DevOps skills required to accomplish any software development project is proficient leadership. Here are some of the most coveted skills that you must possess if you’re hoping to lead your DevOps team.

• Technical competencies: A strong technical base with skills related to software development, operations, management and delivery is imperative to excel in the role of a DevOps leader. You will not only participate in the strategising process but also help others with solutions to their problems.
• Analytical skills: Analytical skills can help evaluate complex situations and evade any potential delays in the delivery pipeline.
• Effective communication: In order to establish smooth collaboration, ensure you possess effective communication skills. This includes active listening, communicating issues, offering feedback and resolving emerging issues.
• Automation skills: To accelerate software development processes, any capable DevOps leader should be able to automate all stages of a pipeline.
• Monitoring: Monitoring is an essential part of the DevOps leadership skillset, which can help estimate and avoid any potential disruptions.

Increasing Efficiency of DevOps Teams

The success of a DevOps team is not always dependent on the tools and processes. It’s the people who contribute to the DevOps culture. So, if you’re hoping to enhance your DevOps team’s overall efficiency, here are some aspects you should consider analysing.

Assessing DevOps Metrics

As the name implies, DevOps metrics include data points that can be used to measure the impact and efficiency of any DevOps team. By assessing metrics like deployment frequency, change failure rate, change lead time and mean time to restore, you can have a clear picture of your DevOps team’s performance. 

Cross-Functional Collaboration

While DevOps, in itself, is a cross-functional collaboration approach to development, boundaries are sustained in terms of roles and responsibilities. Allow cross-functional teams in your squad. Let the operations team get an understanding of technical aspects while the development team can sync up with timelines and project stability. This can enhance visibility across all stages of a project pipeline for all teams involved.

Best Practices to Succeed as a DevOps Team

To thrive as a DevOps team, it’s crucial to embrace best practices for success. Let’s take a look at the most recommended ones!

• Instil a continuous integration and continuous development pipeline to successful automation across processes. 
• Implement and maintain monitoring systems
• Seek/provide continuous feedback
• Collaborate with QA to establish automated testing for projects.

• Consider a DevOps engineer course to further refine DevOps skills and knowledge.

Conclusion

Nurturing a competent DevOps team is more than just embracing collaboration. It emphasises the significance of technical capabilities, which can draw impactful results when harnessed collectively. 

To keep pace with rapidly evolving innovations, organisations are encouraged to carefully prepare structures based on their development and operations and then seek skilled individuals who perform best with them. You can help your organisation put together an exceptional team with the right people. 

Check out DevOps courses at the leading online training platform Edureka to gain a better understanding of DevOps teams.

After all, an effective DevOps team is the key to achieving exceptional business outcomes! 

DevOps Team FAQs

1. What team in an organisation does the DevOps team belong to?

The DevOps team is a cross-functional team, providing a common ground for development and operations teams to work together.

2. How does the DevOps team collaborate with all the stakeholders?

DevOps team successfully collaborates with all the stakeholders by offering visibility across all stages of the development pipeline through collaborative communication channels. This helps keep track of the changes and receive feedback from involved stakeholders. 

3. How to recruit the best DevOps engineers in my team?

Try to find people with a great technical background, enthusiasm for automation, and a collaborative mindset. Cloud technology skills, scripting, and system administration are some of the skills you can look for in a potential candidate. 

4. How to adopt scrum and agile practices in a DevOps team?

The integration of DevOps with Agile practices comprises embracing continuous feedback, iterating on improvements, and working in short sprints to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

5. How to improve the operations of your DevOps team?

In order to enhance the operations of your DevOps team, reduce dependence on tedious, repetitive tasks, utilise continuous monitoring processes, and be proactive in solving problems. 

6. Whom should the DevOps team report to?

The chain of command may change depending on the organisation. However, DevOps teams must ideally report to an executive who understands both the technical and business consequences of the DevOps initiatives.