DevOps is a hot topic these days. Everyone seems to be harping about how DevOps increases efficiency & other myriad advantages. Atlassian’s tools are considered to be the most DevOps friendly in the market. Be it project management tool JIRA, documentation wiki Confluence, team communication tool HipChat or the developer focused BitBucket, Crucible & Bamboo.

DevOps is a culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the collaboration & communication of both software developers and other IT professionals while automating the process of software delivery & infrastructure changes. (Source – wikipedia)

While the world is busy making their software delivery efficient we thought it is high time companies also paid attention to their people operations. PeopleOps, as compared to DevOps is actually an elderly discipline. Although DevOps is fairly new to the world it has hogged more limelight.

PeopleOps is a shift in paradigm when it comes to managing human resources. Rather than making HR decisions based on perceptions & gut feelings, it advocates data driven policy executions.

Why PeopleOps?

Google’s employee friendly work culture, perks and benefits such as vacation policies and a few other factors such as huge salaries have helped them to be consistently one of the most desirable companies to work for. Their PeopleOps initiatives is one of the main reasons for their continued success at attracting and retaining top talent.

People Operations helps the company understand that to retain your top talent, you need to manage them objectively after careful data driven analysis as opposed to taking decisions based on perception. When you have this information at hand, strategic decisions are merely a word away. If you fail to cultivate top talent based on hard data, they will sooner than later shift to other opportunities where their talent is better appreciated.

With the advances of technology it is now easier than ever to monitor & collect data for people operations. It is no more a shot in the dark, with second guessing what is correct and what isn’t.

Benefits of bringing PeopleOps in the world of DevOps:

Collaboration of departments

Traditionally we have seen that only when one department finishes working on a product does it move forward to the next stage of the process. This takes a long time leaving little time for the next department to perform thorough QA leading to inefficient testing at times.

In an organisation practicing Devops, troubleshooting information is not kept isolated. On the contrary it is shared across all the departments involved in the process. For instance, this information is useful for development teams as well as production and QA.

Various departments can work together thus avoiding competition and the blame game, which takes place when the product is mediocre. By measuring which processes result in higher collaboration across departments, companies can exploit those to build a robust organisation.

Use of advanced tools and processes

PeopleOps encourages employees perform more efficiently through use of advanced tools and processes. While the tools help to reduce time required to perform tasks, the processes help them perform more efficiently thus ensuring they deliver better quality in shorter time.

These tools are available across all departments which helps everyone be at par when it comes to achieving their goals.

DevOps teams are also primary reliant on the tools & processes that are introduced as best practices.

Culture of continuous learning

Employees understand they need to be in a continuous learning mode and develop their skills due to the fierce competition in the market. Their desire coupled with a work culture that provides ample opportunities to grow keeps them motivated to give better results.

Some companies encourage their employees to take courses and training programmes that are essential to develop them as a whole and not just for the company’s sake.

DevOps, being a nascent discipline is rapidly evolving. Individuals cannot afford to miss out on the learning opportunities lest their knowledge becomes irrelevant.

What other benefits have you seen that DevOps & PeopleOps brought together for your team? Let us know in the comments.