2016 State of DevOps Reaction

The 2016 State of DevOps Report is out and, as usual, includes pretty compelling information about the impact DevOps can have on organizations. I look forward to seeing these reports every year because they validate what we’re seeing in the field with the organizations we work with to adopt DevOps patterns and practices: more work being done faster, improved stability, happier people, and better business outcomes.

Here are three of my top insights from this year’s report.

1. DevOps Improves Employee Engagement

Many organizations (including Excella) say their employees are their most valuable asset. And yet, Gallup reports 70% of American workers aren’t engaged at work. What would happen if an organization increased its employee engagement? Here are a couple of notable quotes from the report.

Employees in high-performing organizations were 2.2 times more likely to recommend their organization to a friend as a great place to work, and 1.8 times more likely to recommend their team to a friend as a great working environment.

And…

This is a significant finding, as research has shown “companies with highly engaged workers grew revenues two and a half times as much as those with low engagement levels. And [publicly traded] stocks of companies with a high-trust work environment outperformed market indexes by a factor of three from 1997 through 2011.” 

Bottom line: You attract more top talent and grow your business faster.

2. High Performers Continue to Accelerate Away From the Pack

High-performing organizations are getting better while low-performing organizations are not. “Better” means increasing throughput (more work faster) and reducing lead time (how long it takes to get work done and deployed).

Here is a telling quote from the report.

Compared to last year, high performers significantly improved throughput, going from 200 deploys per year to 1,460 deploys per year. They have also improved their lead time for changes, going from days to minutes. Low performers, on the other hand, have maintained the same level of throughput for the past three years.

Bottom line: If you’re not a high-performing organization, you’ll eventually lose to someone who is.

3. DevOps Has an ROI

Whether you are oriented to value and growth or cost and efficiency, DevOps has a business case for you. This year’s report takes a stab at quantifying the ROI of DevOps in terms of cost savings and value creation. Cost savings come from reducing excess rework and downtime. Value creation comes from the availability of more engineering time to build value-creating features.

Bottom line: DevOps positively impacts the bottom line.

As the report states, DevOps has moved beyond a fad or a buzzword. We are beginning to understand the significant positive impact a DevOps transformation can have on an organization, its people, and its ability to achieve better business outcomes.

So given the mounting evidence for the benefits of DevOps, what’s holding you back from starting your journey toward transformation?