1Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

Leveraging DevOps – a Manager’s Perspective

B U S I N E S S C A S E

2Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

Introduction

The ‘time value’ of money

Let’s talk ‘hands-on’

Quantify (unnecessary) reworking

Business value created by DevOps

Contact info

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Contents

3Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

The chances are that you’ve already heard about DevOps - a

‘magical’ approach for releasing software a million times faster

(well, maybe not an entire million) in a consistent, secure and

high-quality manner. As promising and exciting as this might

sound, you still need to make a solid business case for DevOps.

When it comes to management, business value is the only thing

that really matters.

At a technical (and software development) level, the value of DevOps is clear

and undisputed. Faster release cycles and bug fixing, continuous integration and

deployment, more secure and reliable code… everything is just perfect. However,

when it comes to pitching the idea of DevOps to the management team, ‘faster’

is good but it is not equal to ‘money’. ‘Secure’ is good but it doesn’t translate to

business value – at least not without you describing how.

So, as in almost every pitch to your management team, you need to build a business

case for DevOps, translating all the undisputable benefits into business value.

Luckily for you, this is extremely easy!

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4Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

The ‘time value’ of money

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One thing that your business leaders understand perfectly is the concept of ‘Time Value of Money’ (TVM). Simply put, a Euro today is better than a Euro tomorrow, since money has an ‘integrated’ potential earning capacity. In other words, it’s far more important to receive money today compared to some months or even a year later.

With software release cycles every three months or even more frequently, you’re losing the opportunity of getting your revenue today. That means that your Return on Investment (ROI) is taking even longer and company money is spent on production rather than on generating new revenue.

This very simple, yet very powerful, benefit (getting things done a lot faster), should be reason enough for every sceptic - whether a manager or not - to embrace DevOps.

Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

5Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

Let’s talk ‘hands-on’

Describing and identifying business value is not just about money, of course. In

most cases, a nice, business-specific, hands-on example is probably the best way

to showcase the benefits of DevOps.

Let’s use the concept of e-Commerce, which probably applies to all companies

nowadays.

Let’s say your organization wants to add an e-Commerce capability to its website.

This is a straightforward task and a well-known software development process.

However, it more often than not comes with several business-specific problems

and setbacks, often due to product range and limitations, business processes for

manufacturing, logistics, returns, etc., as well as support for multilingual, global-

delivery e-Shops.

6Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

By establishing a DevOps approach, you will be able to achieve the following:

1. Create a fully working purchasing experience in a matter of weeks.

2. Test the e-Shop process without compromising the rest of your web presence.

3. Quickly resolve any issues related to billing, returns, etc.

4. Fortify security and online transactions.

5. Rollout a working release for one country or language and replicate this in a matter of days for the rest of

the world.

6. Quickly adjust to competitors’ new services.

7. Scale up during peak periods (e.g. Black Friday, Christmas, etc.) without a hitch.

8. Minimize down time.

9. Streamline your front-desk with your back-end systems.

10. Automate all tasks, from price updating to email marketing.

Getting an e-Shop online faster is a tremendous advantage for any business, and you don’t even have to

explain that this actually ‘equals money’.

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Quantify (unnecessary) reworkingMaking the whole buying process secure is of paramount importance for your company’s reputation – no one will buy from you unless they trust you. This too ‘equals money’.

Dodging the downtime bullet is, of course, also crucial. Not just because you’re losing money while your site is down, but also because users translate downtime quite differently: While one might think “Oh, the connection is not working, let’s try later”, another might (and probably will) say “Let’s stay away from this one. God knows why the site is down, maybe it’s been hacked or something.”

You might be familiar with the now famous quote by Marc Andreessen (the creator of Netscape) in the Wall Street Journal, that “software is eating the world”. He was right, of course, and today the idea that “every company needs to become a software company” is almost considered a cliché.

However, if software is indeed eating the world, you can also assume that software -more often than not - is choking on reworking!

By using DevOps, reworking is part of the software development process, not a constant struggle, meaning that a lot of unnecessary man-hours can be avoided. And of course, saving man-hours, directly translates to - you guessed it - money.

Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

8Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

For example, let’s assume that your technical team, which

comprises 30 people, spends 10% of its time on unnecessary

work and that each employee’s annual salary (along with

benefits) is around EUR 80,000 Euros. This means that

eliminating unnecessary reworking via DevOps, can save your

company EUR 240,000 per year! (30x80,000x15%).

Quantifying these lost hours is not that hard and represents an invaluable argument for using DevOps across the entire organization.

According to DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) the following is a great calculation to determine the value created by just saving time on reworking: First, calculate the time spent on unnecessary work as a percentage of employees’ time. Then, multiply this by the number of people involved and their average salary plus benefits.

9Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

The benefits of DevOps are so overwhelming that building a business case is quite

easy. All you have to do is map the benefits to your company’s business values.

Start by quantifying things wherever possible and never forget that you need to

present DevOps as the transformational model that it is. Failing to do so won’t

achieve the buy-in from business stakeholders.

Quantify unnecessary reworking by calculating the

hours wasted and then multiplying these by the

number of people involved and their average salary.

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Business value created by DevOps

10Use Case: Enabling DevOps – a User’s Perspective

About InfopulseInfopulse, part of Nordic IT group EVRY A/S, is an international vendor of services in the areas of Software R&D, Application Management, Cloud & IT Operations, and Cybersecurity to SMEs and Fortune 100 companies across the globe. Founded in 1991, the company has a team of over 2,000 professionals and is represented in 11 countries across Europe and North America. Infopulse is trusted by many established brands, such as BICS, Bosch, British American Tobacco, Citrix, Credit Agricole, ING Bank, Gorenje, METRO Cash & Carry, Microsoft, Mondelēz, OTP Bank, Raiffeisen Bank Aval, SAP, UkrSibbank BNP Paribas Group, VEON, Vodafone, and others. For more information, please visit www.infopulse.com

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