How do you measure your DevOps maturity and performance?

Evaluating DevOps maturity and performance transcends mere metrics. Embrace DevOps maturity models like the CALMS framework (Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement, Sharing) to assess holistic growth. Gauge cultural shifts and collaboration, not just tool adoption. Integrate key performance indicators (KPIs) like deployment frequency and mean time to recover (MTTR) for quantifiable insights. Above all, view maturity as a journey, not a destination. Regular retrospectives and continuous improvement foster true DevOps excellence, where agility, innovation, and resilience coexist harmoniously.

As a DevOps Engineer, we wear many hats. There are a hundred ways to measure a DevOps Engineer's progress and maturity level in terms of performance. For example, fast deployment and frequency could measure a DevOps ability to reduce technical debt occuring in the workflow. The lack of Modernization, Optimization, updates, and cross-team collaboration could symbolize my inability to appreciate the significance and value of performance outcomes. Not recognizing the overhead cost of tooling, upgrading, testing, or the impact of my changes, could be deemed irresponsible and immature. I deliver value to an organization when I measure the input of my changes & adjustments, skill-sets, & when I'm observant, responsive, and cost effective.

A maturity model is always an indicator which relies on many underlying signals. The stronger the signals, the better the maturity. I find both DORA & CALMS are great model to follow. There are some custom models also built on top of it. I personally look at cultural transformation of my organisation as the final maturity level else DevOps will remain as congregation of tools. The change failure rate, deployment frequency, MTTR are great indicators to look for. One of the other indicator I like to look for is how much shift left being achieved. Is our model so robust that whenever a developer makes a code changes, they can immediately get to see the impact of their code on production? Please remember maturity is journey not the destination.

DevOps maturity models help you assess where you stand in your DevOps journey. These models typically have stages like: - Initial: Ad-hoc and chaotic processes. Managed: Basic processes are documented and repeatable. - Defined: Standardized and consistent processes across the organization. - Measured: Metrics and KPIs are used to track performance. - Optimized: Continuous improvement practices are embedded in the culture. ?? Tip: Regularly evaluate your maturity level and create a roadmap for progressing to the next stage.

Picture DevOps maturity models as roadmaps for improvement. Take the ???????? ???????????? Capability Assessment or DevOps Maturity Matrix, like GPS guiding your journey. Check culture, process, tech, and measurement milestones. Find gaps, set goals, and get personalized tips to level up your DevOps game, making progress understandable and achievable.

Actually, we have implemented these measurables in our teams currently: - Mean Time To Response — we measure how quick we acknowledge the alert coming to our channels. It’s done through Grafana oncall and our target is 15 minutes. - Uptime — it is very critical for us to track uptime of our systems, so we track each core component. We use kuma uptime, target is 99.95% and we are trying to increase it each quarter - Latency — another important metric to measure. Here our target is 250 ms of 99th percentile. We use nginx metrics to gather the data. Moreover, other numbers that can be measured — mean time to resolve, delivery rate and DORA metrics.

I look at metrics in a hierarchy: - Cust Sat - always the objective and context setting - DORA Metrics - Objective measures of team delivery. These help to create good questions around improvement opportunities. - Detailed Process and Technology metrics - Continuous enhancements to instrumentation to better understand process, tech stack, and operations

Think of ???????????? ?????????????? like a health check for your team's performance. How often you release updates (deployment frequency), the time it takes from coding to deploying (lead time), and how well your team bounces back from hiccups (change failure rate) are vital indicators. The speed of recovery (mean time to restore) and the happiness of both customers and your team (customer and team satisfaction) complete the picture, guiding you toward a ???????????????????? ???????????? ??????????????.

Best way to measure DevOps is DORA 1) Deployment frequency: How often a software team pushes changes to production 2) Change lead time: The time it takes to get committed code to run in production 3) Change failure rate: The share of incidents, rollbacks, and failures out of all deployments 4) Time to restore service: The time it takes to restore service in production after an incident Also with that , other metrics which makes it more proper for measuring success 1) No Deployment issues and deployment can be done any time of day 2) Better Sleep for engineers and work life balance 3) Auto healing Environments 4) Ability to handle Chaos 5) Team Happiness and Satisfaction 6) Learning Opportunities

Utilizing DevOps tools is like assembling a toolbox for a ?????? ??????????????. Just as you'd select the right tools for specific tasks, like a hammer for nails or a saw for cutting, in DevOps, you choose tools like Jenkins for continuous integration or Terraform for infrastructure as code. Each tool serves a purpose, helping you automate and streamline different aspects of your development process, ultimately leading to smoother workflows and better outcomes.

For version control, think ?????? ???? ??????. Streamline continuous processes with ?????????????? ???? ???????????? ????. Tame configurations using ?????????????? ???? ????????????. Build your infrastructure with ??????????????????. Keep an eye on things with ???????????????????? ???? ??????????????. Ensure quality with ???????????????? ???? ??????????????????. This toolkit automates tasks, boosting efficiency, minimizing risks, and enhancing your DevOps game.

With the plethora of available tools, creating a data model you use across all your tools is essential. That way, data becomes more useful than dealing with the idiosyncratic data models of your tools.

With lot many tools available in the market for Automation and Deployment, the DevOps Engineer capability to understand which amongst them will be best suited is very crucial in terms of Availability, Learning Curve , Integration and Long Term Sustainability....

In my experience to collect metrics you generally don't need any tool except (& and assuming) the tool sets are present which are recording data around Dev (like JIRA) and Ops (like ServiceNow). For analyses you may choose to go for expensive tool-sets however building an in-house app which can present with the view that you or your stakeholders want out of the existing tool-set could be sufficient enough as a starter. In any tool set or metrics important is to consider whether that shows you the whole value stream view and data or not. If not then whatever you invest in the half-baked picture may not lead you up ahead in the maturity curve.

Imagine DevOps as a ???????? ??????????, not just about tools. Picture a workplace where everyone shares the same goals and vision, talks openly, trusts each other and feels empowered. It's like ???????????????? ?? ???????????????????? ?????????????? where achievements are celebrated, and everyone contributes to the success of the game – that's the real essence of DevOps!

Example: "In our DevOps team, we prioritize open communication and collaboration. We have regular stand-up meetings where everyone shares updates and challenges. We also use tools like Slack and Jira to stay connected and organized. This culture of collaboration helps us work efficiently towards our common goals."

In my past experiences across various Organizations I often see tooling and automation are the stars of the show and the singular focus on achieving "DevOps". Typically wrapped around some version of "lipstck-agile" with partial buy-in. I call this the "Lets buy some DevOps model". The real bedrock and probably the most overlooked for any given DevOps journey is the alignment of unified objectives and goals and agreeing on what success looks like. Then leveraging not just a "tooling" change, but a culture change within the ORG. To put it succinctly, the success of DevOps extends far beyond tools and technology; it's deeply rooted in a culture that values collaboration, transparency, autonomy, and recognition."

DevOps is about removing silos between Developers and Operation teams. That is all about people bringing together for better product delivery. So culture and collaboration is very important aspects of DevOps. Culture develops when people understand importance of sharing and collaboration to help one another. If there is a dedicated DevOps team it is NOT a DevOps culture.

Absolutely, you've nailed it. DevOps is not just about implementing tools and automation, but also about fostering a culture of collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement. It's about breaking down silos between teams, enabling faster delivery of high-quality software, and ultimately driving business value. This cultural aspect is often the most challenging but crucial component of DevOps adoption.

DevOps Continuous Improvement drives ongoing enhancements in processes, tools, and practices by fostering a culture of iterative development and feedback. It focuses on refining every aspect of the software delivery lifecycle, from code quality to deployment pipelines. By regularly evaluating performance through metrics and feedback loops, teams can identify bottlenecks, reduce inefficiencies, and implement targeted improvements. This leads to faster, more reliable releases, reduced downtime, and better alignment with business goals

DevOps is an infinite loop of develop - deploy - monitor and measure. It is iterative learning and improvement of process, tooling and automation to optimize cost, resource utilization and time. It is continuous learning to thrive for excellence but never stop at any stage.

Think of DevOps improvement like ?????????????????? – it's not a one-time planting, but a continuous process. Regularly check how your DevOps is doing, and identify what's working and what needs attention. Then, try new things, see how they impact, and adjust as needed. It's like tending to a garden – constant care ensures a thriving DevOps journey that keeps delivering value.

In DevOps, continuous improvement means regularly assessing your performance, identifying areas to enhance, and implementing changes to drive progress. For instance, you might review feedback, plan actions to improve, monitor outcomes, and adjust strategies accordingly. This ongoing process ensures your DevOps practices evolve and deliver value consistently.

Keep measuring and improving your DevOps practices. Regularly assess results, identify areas for growth, and implement changes. Monitor impact and adjust strategies for ongoing progress and value delivery.

DevOps is a cultural shift towards Development (Dev) and Operations (Ops) teams working together starting early, with collective ownership DevOps Maturity & performance can be measured as follows: Soft Measurements (values, practices): - Dev to involve Ops during Development to understand Functional / Operational Requirements - Ops to involve Dev during Operations to support Operational / Functional Implementations - Values agreed & followed - focus, transparency, learning etc. - Feedback loops followed Firm Measurements (tools, metrics): - CI/CD - preferably using Tools - Handling of Infra, Non-Functional, Security & Monitoring requirements - Metrics on automation, time/cost saved on repetitive tasks - Metrics on improvement actions

To gauge DevOps maturity, assess factors like automation level, deployment frequency, and mean time to recovery. Utilize frameworks like DORA's four key metrics: lead time, deployment frequency, change failure rate, and time to restore service. Regular evaluations help track progress and identify areas for improvement.

DevOps maturity can be measured as how easy it is to onboard new apps and new teams into your current process, and never forget, also how easy it is to adapt and envolve the process.

In crux, DevOps is a journey where you continually review your results and feedback, identify areas for improvement, and take proactive steps.

The first line of this article starts with, "DevOps is a culture...". Assuming it to be true and generally all agree to it, are you measuring Culture directly / indirectly? Are you even concerned about it? Do you think it could be measured? Is it about saying or there is some ground of Culture aspect to DevOps? Secondly, what sort of metrics have you built? Is it internal facing more or external too? E.g. all metrics for your Tech leadership only or business folks as well? How do you measure the impact that DevOps is making on your org? My objective here is not to answer these questions but to ignite thoughts in the run-up to the metrics which is just a means to an end rather end by itself.