DevOps: What does it have to do with culture and how do people work together?

Companies around the world that want to remain competitive are constantly looking to adopt new methods to enhance the performance of digital product creation teams. This pursuit is resulting in the replacement of traditional software development and infrastructure management processes with the famous DevOps model.

It is a combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that enhance the company's ability to deliver applications and services at high speed. With this implementation, development and other operation teams are no longer separated; sometimes they even become one.

Continuous integration and delivery, microservices, infrastructure as code, monitoring, and logging are common elements of this configuration that prioritizes product optimization and improvement at a faster pace, including high levels of communication and collaboration.

One of the initiatives that attest to the benefits of this structure is the annual publication of the State of DevOps Report, currently published by Google, which, since 2013, has launched new perspectives on the subject, guiding organizations with powerful insights about opportunities and ways to overcome obstacles.

The power of the 4 Key Metrics on the evolution of operations is detailed in it and with each publication the document details trends and movements in this constantly evolving market, in addition to providing new insights. In 2022, it would be no different.

This year, the survey went beyond the analysis of elements predicted by the organizational structure of the sociologist Ron Westrum and expanded the understanding of corporate culture. The news reveals that more than the "simple" proposal of process optimization guided by demands, DevOps also discuss culture and how people work together.

DevOps and people

Westrum's organizational structure is a typology that predicts three types of organization based on cultural characteristics, namely: pathological (power-oriented), bureaucratic (rule-oriented), and generative (performance-oriented).

Research guided by this classification reveals that professionals in companies with cultures that have the best business results are more likely to:

• Be part of stable teams.
• Produce higher-quality documentation.
• Dedicate most of their time to their own tasks, engaging in activities they consider significant.

Consecutively, companies with generative, performance-oriented cultures stand out for:

• High cooperation
• Communication training
• Sharing of responsibilities
• Encouraging conciliation
• Failure investigation
• Implementation of new ideas

Given this perspective, the State of DevOps Report 2022 delved into some issues directly linked to team performance. In this case, these are impacted by:

• Turnover
• Working model
• Burnout
• Perception of leadership support
• Representativeness

Understanding the experiences of a company's professionals is a fundamental part of the culture improvement process and, therefore, of generating results with DevOps. We take a closer look at each of the agents that impact team performance. Check it out below.

Team churn (or turnover)

Teams that have to deal with constant changes due to the frequent entry and departure of colleagues have difficulties maintaining practices essential to the generation of quality documentation, according to the search giant's report. This is because new members need time to align with processes, which negatively affects overall team productivity and engagement. There are also losses associated with the performance of those who remain to adapt to changes in workflows and new collective dynamics.

In the State of DevOps Report 2022, it is pointed out that stable teams, whose compositions have not changed much in 12 months, are more likely to exist in high-performing organizations. It is worth mentioning that the document is based on interviews with dozens of operations.

Work model

Companies with stricter work models are less competitive than those that offer more flexibility to professionals, reveals the Google report. High performances are associated with the guarantee of freedom of choice between in-person, remote, or hybrid regimes, which results in direct and tangible benefits for organizations.

In fact, flexibility is one of the principles of Work Ready, CI&T's point of view on the world of work and transformations. We unravel this perspective in an e-book that condenses research, market voices, and opinions of CI&T leaders on the subject (you can access this material for free by clicking here).

Burnout

Generative cultures are associated with lower burnout rates, a feeling of dread, apathy, and cynicism in the work spectrum linked to serious physical and psychological conditions, therefore something to be fought in organizations considering the connection with lower satisfaction and higher turnover.

The stability of teams and offering flexibility are directly linked to reducing burnout and making professionals more likely to recommend the companies they work for to others, according to the State of DevOps Report 2022.

In other words, in addition to positively impacting the quality of life of teams, such measures represent differentials for maintaining teams and attracting talent. The perception of support from leaders is also part of this equation.

Perception of leadership support

The perception of leadership support concerns the expectation of support for professionals promoted by leaders. High-performing companies have significant ratings on this issue, and teams have a positive view of the companies.
 
For example, teams at these companies predict a lower likelihood of security breach occurrences or complete disruption of operations within the 12-month period (which is the assessment time for Google's report).

In addition, these teams are less likely to feel the need for change to optimize business outcomes.

Representativeness

Finally, directing efforts towards representativeness, as well as the creation of inclusive and healthy environments is of major importance in all operations.

That's because results from the State of DevOps Report 2022 assessments showed that professionals from underrepresented groups reported higher levels of burnout compared to those outside these categories.

These people were the ones who most reported spending time on unplanned work, regardless of whether they were high or low performers. Therefore, it is up to the leaders of organizations to fairly distribute tasks among team members, balancing attribution loads.

Sharing ideas

It is of paramount importance to remember that the most effective actions to achieve digital efficiency directly depend on the context in which they are applied, which varies from one company to another.

Nevertheless, the planned corporate culture and flexibility result in improved organizational performance; however, obstacles such as high turnover and high rates of burnout hamper the business evolution.

Improvements related to organizational structures are DevOps premises, but we must never forget that it is humans who make them possible — of course, supported by more suitable infrastructures.

Therefore, we must look closely at each individual. Again, DevOps is also about how people work together. So, it is necessary to reinforce and share this idea.

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