# Organizational adoption The organizational adoption saga provides a prescriptive approach to creating a more customer-focused culture that can quickly respond to changing business needs. It emphasizes that DevOps is first-and-foremost about people and culture, highlighting the significance of optimizing people-driven processes as the foundation for successful DevOps adoption. Once the people-driven processes are addressed, organizations can effectively use tools to automate, refine, and optimize those processes to achieve their business objectives. While some of the capabilities contribute to building a healthy culture in general, such as supportive team dynamics, personal and professional development, and adaptive work environment, their significance in the context of DevOps cannot be overstated. These capabilities directly impact the successful adoption of other DevOps Sagas by fostering the culture necessary to support the rapid adaptation of new technologies, rules, and ways of working. By investing in these capabilities, organizations can achieve long-term success with DevOps adoption and maintain a sustainable DevOps environment over time. **Topics** + [Leader sponsorship](leader-sponsorship.md) + [Supportive team dynamics](supportive-team-dynamics.md) + [Team interfaces](team-interfaces.md) + [Balanced cognitive load](balanced-cognitive-load.md) + [Adaptive work environment](adaptive-work-environment.md) + [Personal and professional development](personal-and-professional-development.md) # Leader sponsorship Obtaining leader sponsorship of DevOps adoption initiatives helps verify that the organization's leadership is committed to and actively supports the adoption of DevOps practices. Effective leader sponsorship involves setting a clear vision and strategy for DevOps adoption, communicating expectations and goals to the entire organization, and allocating resources and budget for the necessary changes. Leaders who support DevOps adoption should model the desired behaviors and lead by example. By actively participating in and driving the DevOps adoption process, leaders can help remove barriers, facilitate change, and motivate team members to embrace new ways of working, ultimately accelerating the organization's transition to a successful DevOps environment. **Topics** + [Indicators for leadership sponsorship](indicators-for-leadership-sponsorship.md) + [Anti-patterns for leader sponsorship](anti-patterns-for-leader-sponsorship.md) + [Metrics for leader sponsorship](metrics-for-leader-sponsorship.md) # Indicators for leadership sponsorship Promote organizational commitment to DevOps adoption with clear strategy, communication, and resources. **Topics** + [[OA.LS.1] Appoint a decision-making leader to own DevOps adoption](oa.ls.1-appoint-a-decision-making-leader-to-own-devops-adoption.md) + [[OA.LS.2] Align DevOps adoption with business objectives](oa.ls.2-align-devops-adoption-with-business-objectives.md) + [[OA.LS.3] Drive continued improvement through business reviews](oa.ls.3-drive-continued-improvement-through-business-reviews.md) + [[OA.LS.4] Open dialogue between leadership and teams](oa.ls.4-open-dialogue-between-leadership-and-teams.md) + [[OA.LS.5] Assemble a cross-functional enabling team that focuses on organizational transformation](oa.ls.5-assemble-a-cross-functional-enabling-team-that-focuses-on-organizational-transformation.md) # [OA.LS.1] Appoint a decision-making leader to own DevOps adoption **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL DevOps adoption requires a dedicated leader to help facilitate continued progress, make resource decisions, and gain alignment with leaders throughout the organization. This leadership role, inspired by Amazon's single-threaded leadership concept, becomes the person within the company fully dedicated and accountable for DevOps adoption. They have no competing priorities, focusing solely on DevOps adoption and driving the initiative forward. A single-threaded leader becomes the focal point for centralizing decision-making. They have the leeway within the organization to assess areas of improvement, and the ability to organize teams to solve problems. Appoint a leader with decision-making authority. Because DevOps adoption has a broad impact that requires change to occur throughout the entire organization, the leader must have support from executives, such as the CEO, CTO, CIO, or CISO. The ideal single-threaded leader for DevOps adoption is usually a role reporting directly to senior executives. This connection helps them drive organizational decisions, structure teams, and allocate responsibilities with the proper level of authority and direct escalation channels. The leader should work closely with enthusiastic early adopters to build momentum and support for the initiative. Open communication channels must remain open throughout the organization to foster collaboration and receive support. As progress is made, the leader regularly updates other teams and leaders of DevOps adoption initiatives and the impact DevOps is having on the business. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Cost Optimization Pillar: COST01-BP02 Establish a partnership between finance and technology](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/cost-optimization-pillar/cost_cloud_financial_management_partnership.html) + [AWS Cloud Adoption Framework: People Perspective - Transformational leadership](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/aws-caf-people-perspective/transformational-leadership.html) + [A Conversation with Werner Vogels: Learning from the Amazon technology platform](https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1142065) + [Two-Pizza Teams Are Just the Start, Part 2: Accountability and Empowerment Are Key to High-Performing Agile Organizations](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/two-pizza-teams-are-just-the-start-accountability-and-empowerment-are-key-to-high-performing-agile-organizations-part-2/) # [OA.LS.2] Align DevOps adoption with business objectives **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL DevOps adoption should not be an isolated project within the organization. It should be aligned to broader business goals, fully supported by leadership, with other teams also adopting capabilities to streamline their individual value streams. Synchronizing DevOps adoption and the overall business strategy means that the resources and effort put into adopting DevOps are also directly improving business outcomes. Gain an understanding of your existing DevOps capabilities by conducting a comprehensive assessment of your current software development practices. You can use the AWS DevOps Sagas indicators provided in this guidance to assess your existing DevOps capabilities against best practices. This activity should result in a prioritized list of DevOps capabilities that are missing or could use improvement within your organization. These findings should be shared with leadership and individual teams across the organization. Individual teams across the organization can progress towards adopting DevOps best practices as part of the regular planning processes. Planning processes vary from organization to organization, so we will provide an example using Amazon's annual planning process. To kick start the yearly planning process, members of every team in the organization dedicate weeks of effort to focus on planning. The Senior Leadership team (S-Team) kicks off the process by defining business objectives. These high-level objectives are generally based on current business needs and future aspirations. Teams build their operating plans based on the leadership-defined expectations and objectives. The first iteration of the operating plan (OP1) is a bottom-up proposal to gain alignment with other teams and approval from leadership. Operating plans should include progress towards the implementation of the DevOps capabilities from the prioritized list. Which capabilities to implement should be chosen based on alignment to S-Team goals in addition to their own individual goals. The team's operating plan should be shared with leadership and other relevant teams within the organization to promote shared knowledge and collaboration. Gaining approval from leadership helps align DevOps initiatives with the broader organizational goals. Additionally, this helps facilitate gaining the full support of leadership, including the requirements for funding, time, and resources. Priorities, learnings, and customer needs often change over time. The second iteration of operating plan review (OP2) provides an opportunity to adapt the plan accordingly before finishing the plan. Consistently revisit the prioritized DevOps capability list at least once a year to continue progressing towards adopting DevOps best practices. **Related information:** + [What We Can Learn From Amazon's Planning Process](https://academy.nobl.io/10x-thinking-and-cross-functional-goals-what-we-can-learn-from-amazons-planning-process/) + [This is How Amazon Measures Itself](https://www.holistics.io/blog/how-amazon-measures/) + [How can we make our planning process more agile and customer-centric?](https://www.kearney.com/industry/consumer-retail/article/-/insights/how-can-we-make-our-planning-process-more-agile-and-customer-centric) + [Predicts 2023: Collaborate, Automate and Orchestrate to Optimize Costs and Value During the Economic Crisis](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/4020625) # [OA.LS.3] Drive continued improvement through business reviews **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL While adopting DevOps, many small teams begin to form which own and operate their own value stream of the business. Teams must verify that their operations remain agile, efficient, and aligned with overarching business objectives. Leaders must be able to report on DevOps progress and outcomes. However, having many distributed teams and systems makes it more difficult for leaders to maintain full visibility across all of the value streams. It's possible to retain this visibility across a decentralized operating model by creating structured, data-driven mechanisms, such as conducting regular business review meetings and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). The mechanisms help leaders pinpoint areas of inefficiencies, uncover opportunities to innovate, and create a culture of continual feedback, measurement, and refinement. Begin by developing a set of KPIs that align with desired business outcomes and simultaneously demonstrates the impact of DevOps adoption on achieving them. KPIs are quantifiable metrics that are used to measure the performance of an organization or project as it progresses towards a goal. Tracking KPIs verifies that the goal is moving in the right direction and achieving desired outcomes. KPIs should be continually improved and refined over time to keep them aligned with business objectives as the organization adopts DevOps and business needs change. Schedule frequent business review meetings to review KPIs, bringing together both technical and business stakeholders on a regular cadence. Each team should continually capture both technical and business related KPIs and make them presentable for regular business reviews. Regularly reviewing the KPIs informs leaders of the health and direction of the team's value stream. Fluctuations in the KPIs reflect the outcome of team efforts and can be a predictor of future outcomes. Within Amazon, teams and leaders meet regularly during weekly business reviews (WBRs) to assess the validity and quality of KPIs against organizational goals. For a data-driven, systematic approach to this process, we follow the [DMAIC](https://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/dmaic/)—Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control—improvement cycle. We recommend you adopt a similar approach to sustainable business reviews. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Performance Pillar: PERF07-BP03 Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure workload performance](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/performance-efficiency-pillar/perf_monitor_instances_post_launch_establish_kpi.html) + [AWS Well-Architected Cost Optimization Pillar: COST02-BP02 Implement goals and targets](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/cost-optimization-pillar/cost_govern_usage_goal_target.html) + [What is the difference between SLA and KPI?](https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/service-level-agreement/#seo-faq-pairs#sla-kpi) + [The Business Value of Migration to Amazon Web Services](https://pages.awscloud.com/rs/112-TZM-766/images/hackett-group-the-business-value-of-migration-to-aws-012022.pdf) + [Business Value of Cloud](https://pages.awscloud.com/rs/112-TZM-766/images/known-business-value-of-cloud-%20modernization-012022.pdf) + [Blog: Business Value is IT's Primary Measure of Progress](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/business-value-is-its-primary-measure-of-progress/) + [Blog: The Importance of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Large-Scale Cloud Migrations](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/mt/the-importance-of-key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-large-scale-cloud-migrations/) # [OA.LS.4] Open dialogue between leadership and teams **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Communication in a DevOps environment is more than an exchange of information. It's about building trust, collaboration, and gaining alignment across the organization. Clear communication channels can bridge the gap between strategy and implementation. Establish open communication channels between leaders and team members. Implement a system that gathers anonymous feedback directly from team members. Verify that this method is equally inclusive and accessible to everyone. Leaders should regularly share updates, insights, and learning back to teams to create a culture of collaboration and trust. An Amazon example is [Amazon Connections](https://amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/hrresearch), a mechanism that captures real-time feedback and data from employees about their experiences. This provides a model for organizations to understand team perspectives. The gathered feedback should drive decision-making at all levels of leadership to identify areas for improvement, address employee concerns, and promote a culture of open communication. Leaders must actively engage with this feedback, sharing updates and insights with teams. This action not only builds trust, but also aligns everyone with the organization's DevOps adoption progress. **Related information:** + [Business Value is IT's Primary Measure of Progress](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/business-value-is-its-primary-measure-of-progress/) # [OA.LS.5] Assemble a cross-functional enabling team that focuses on organizational transformation **Category:** RECOMMENDED To spread knowledge across the organizations and help individual teams adopt DevOps capabilities, create an enabling team with expertise in DevOps culture, practices, and tools. The single-threaded DevOps owner is responsible for creating this team and providing it with the autonomy, resources, training, and tools that help them effectively support and guide other teams.This centralized team should collaborate closely with other teams to identify and address barriers to adoption, share best practices, and promote a culture of nearly continuous learning and improvement.  In many organizations, this team takes the form of the *Center of Enablement*. While this centralized team is not strictly required for every organization to adopt DevOps, we recommend it due to its potential to streamline and expedite transformation. If leadership chooses not to create a Center of Enablement, they can supplement it by fostering a strong culture of collaboration, sharing, automation, and continuous improvement. With the right support and resources being provided from leadership, teams can work together to establish their own DevOps processes. Use existing tools and resources to support these efforts. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Operational Excellence Pillar: Separated AEO and IEO with centralized governance and an internal service provider consulting partner](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/operational-excellence-pillar/separated-aeo-ieo-with-cent-gov-and-partner.html) + [What is a cloud center of excellence and why should your organization create one?](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/what-is-cloud-center-excellence-why-should-your-organization-create-one/) # Anti-patterns for leader sponsorship + **Diluted leadership focus:** When the single-threaded leader accountable for DevOps attention has other priorities and does not dedicate their full attention, the initiative might suffer. A leader handling multiple initiatives can lead to overlooked opportunities, less time for critical decision making, and overall reduced engagement. Designate a decision-making leader whose primary responsibility is the adoption of DevOps to help provide dedicated leadership to this transition. + **Forcing DevOps adoption:** Single-threaded leadership should act as a supportive sponsor, rather than strict enforcers of DevOps adoption. Taking a hierarchical approach to DevOps adoption might cause teams to view it as imposed change and external demands. This can lead to resistance, de-motivation, and frustration among team members. Instead, start by engaging with enthusiastic early adopters and support them in adopting DevOps. These adopters can be an advocate for DevOps adoption within their team and show progress that inspires other teams. It's also important to gather feedback from teams and provide value and improvements to the areas that frustrate them most. This promotes a bottom-up, collaborative approach to DevOps adoption that fosters nearly continuous improvement and inclusivity. + **Short-term priority shifting**: Changing business priorities too frequently can undermine the long-term commitment required for DevOps adoption. DevOps transformation, as illustrated by the DevOps Sagas, is a marathon, not a sprint. It demands consistent focus, alignment, and support from not only single-threaded leadership, but also the whole organization. When this focus is interrupted due to short-term objectives or immediate business pressures, it might disrupt DevOps adoption. Disruptions can then lead to unjustified reduced confidence in DevOps ways of working, low team morale, and fragmented workflows. The executive team and single-threaded leadership must have a strategy that recognizes the long-term value of DevOps. They must be able to inspire other leaders in the organization to share an unwavering commitment to DevOps adoption. # Metrics for leader sponsorship + **DevOps adoption percentage:** The percentage of DevOps capabilities that have been implemented compared to the number of desired capabilities. This metric does not indicate overall DevOps effectiveness or the performance of a specific DevOps capability. It measures the organization's total progress towards adopting DevOps capabilities that can be continuously assessed using a DevOps framework, such as the AWS DevOps Sagas. Comparing this metric to historical data or other DevOps metrics can reveal trends that indicate leadership's prioritization of DevOps initiatives and the average pace of organizational DevOps adoption. Divide the number of implemented DevOps capabilities by the number of desired DevOps capabilities. Multiple the result by 100 to get a percentage value.  + **Employee net promoter score (eNPS):** Measure employees' engagement and satisfaction within the organization, gauging their likelihood to recommend the organization as an ideal workplace. This can provide insight into the health of the organizational culture, indicating the effectiveness of leadership in creating an inclusive, positive work environment. A higher eNPS can correlate with better productivity, lower turnover, and improved team dynamics. Track using periodic, anonymized [net promoter score](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_promoter_score) surveys that require no more that 5–7 minutes to complete. Subtract the percentage of detractors (those who score 0–6) from promoters (those who score 9–10) to get the eNPS value. Neutral scores (7–8) can be ignored. + **Time to fill vacancy:** The average duration from when a DevOps-related job vacancy is opened until it is filled, including the full sourcing process. This metric evaluates the organization's ability to attract and secure talent required for DevOps initiatives, providing insights into the organization's reputation and effectiveness of leadership. Extended vacancy times can affect project timelines and team morale. Creating regular feedback loops with hiring teams, improving employee net promoter score, and enhancing job descriptions can help improve this metric. Monitor the time of job posting to the acceptance of an offer by a candidate. Average these durations over a set period, such as monthly or quarterly, to determine trends. # Supportive team dynamics Supportive team dynamics are essential to DevOps adoption as it promotes a sense of ownership, autonomy, shared accountability, and collaboration among team members. DevOps adoption requires teams to take on new responsibilities, such as cost optimization, operations, security, and availability. Historically, these new responsibilities might have been handled by teams outside of their own. Healthy, effective teams are able to incorporate new responsibilities, respond quickly to changing business needs, and maintain focus on delivering high-quality products to their customers. **Topics** + [Indicators for supportive team dynamics](indicators-for-supportive-team-dynamics.md) + [Anti-patterns for supportive team dynamics](anti-patterns-for-supportive-team-dynamics.md) + [Metrics for supportive team dynamics](metrics-for-supportive-team-dynamics.md) # Indicators for supportive team dynamics Create a collaborative atmosphere that emphasizes ownership and shared accountability and organizes teams to serve their internal and external customers. **Topics** + [[OA.STD.1] Organize teams into distinct topology types to optimize the value stream](oa.std.1-organize-teams-into-distinct-topology-types-to-optimize-the-value-stream.md) + [[OA.STD.2] Tailor operating models to business needs and team preferences](oa.std.2-tailor-operating-models-to-business-needs-and-team-preferences.md) + [[OA.STD.3] Prioritize shared accountability over individual achievements](oa.std.3-prioritize-shared-accountability-over-individual-achievements.md) + [[OA.STD.4] Structure teams around desired business outcomes](oa.std.4-structure-teams-around-desired-business-outcomes.md) + [[OA.STD.5] Establish team norms that enhance work performance](oa.std.5-establish-team-norms-that-enhance-work-performance.md) + [[OA.STD.6] Provide teams ownership of the entire value stream for their product](oa.std.6-provide-teams-ownership-of-the-entire-value-stream-for-their-product.md) + [[OA.STD.7] Amplify the scale and impact of centralized functions](oa.std.7-amplify-the-scale-and-impact-of-centralized-functions.md) + [[OA.STD.8] Promote cognitive diversity within teams](oa.std.8-promote-cognitive-diversity-within-teams.md) # [OA.STD.1] Organize teams into distinct topology types to optimize the value stream **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL To optimize the value stream and achieve desired business outcomes, embrace the four team topologies model, as outlined in [Team Topologies](https://teamtopologies.com/) by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Assess each team and categorize them into one of the four topologies, aligning them with the overall value stream and creating clear purpose and goals. Organizing teams according to these topologies allows organizations to manage dependencies, enhance collaboration, and facilitate effective value delivery. The four team topologies are: + Stream-aligned teams are responsible for delivering value to customers by focusing on specific product lines or customer segments. These teams possess cross-functional expertise that enables them to build, test, and deploy software independently, while minimizing dependencies and handoffs with other teams. They are the primary teams within the organization, normally representing 60–80% of the total teams within an organization. + Platform teams create and maintain shared infrastructure, tools, and services that support multiple stream-aligned teams across the organization. They produce reusable components, improve efficiency, reduce duplication of work, and overall reduce the amount of individual team effort. As these teams support many teams within the organization, they make up a smaller portion of the organization, usually between 10-20%. + Teams support other teams by providing just-in-time skills, knowledge, and expertise. They help other teams overcome technical challenges, adopt best practices, and improve their capabilities. All assistance provided by enabling teams is meant to be temporary, as they strive to make other teams self-sufficient through facilitation and mentoring. The percentage of enabling teams is fewer than platform and stream-aligned, often ranging between 5-15% of the overall organization. + Complicated subsystem teams are teams responsible for specialized subsystems within a larger system that require complex, deep domain knowledge and expertise. These subsystems are typically part of the core business logic or functionality of a single product or application. Their primary consumers are internal components within that system. Distinguishing between platform teams and complicated subsystem teams may not always be clear-cut, and a team could have characteristics of both types. When a team is providing a foundational service to multiple teams, they are usually considered platform teams. If they support a single product or application, it is generally considered a complicated subsystem team. Typically, there are fewer complicated subsystem teams than other team types, making up 0–10% of the distribution. **Related information:** + [Team Topologies](https://teamtopologies.com) # [OA.STD.2] Tailor operating models to business needs and team preferences **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Adopt operating models that align with the needs of the business goals, while considering the capabilities and preferences of individual teams. The AWS Well-Architected Framework Operational Excellence Pillar provides a detailed [2 by 2 representations of operating model implementations](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/operational-excellence-pillar/operating-model-2-by-2-representations.html) that can be reviewed to gain insights into potential combinations. Selecting the right operating model involves evaluating the organization's requirements, such as decision-making processes, communication channels, and resource allocation. Keep in mind that multiple operating models can be used concurrently, catering to different use cases, levels of organizational maturity, and individual team and product needs. Not all operating models support a DevOps culture, and DevOps might not be suitable for every system. In some cases, especially in large and diverse organizations, it might be necessary to support stringent compliance requirements. Additionally, mass migration to a new way of working for all teams may not be feasible due to time, complexity of the system, or skill requirements. For these use cases, a [fully separated](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/operational-excellence-pillar/fully-separated-operating-model.html) operating model or introducing an Internal MSP and Consulting Partner might be needed for those systems that must stay *as is* with more traditional ways of working. When choosing a Well-Architected operating model for systems that can support DevOps, first determine if centralized or decentralized control of governance is necessary. A centralized governance model grants platform teams within an organization the ability to control *how* and *what* other teams are able to deploy, at the cost of restricting those teams' ability to innovate and make changes quickly. Conversely, a fully decentralized model offers teams more flexibility and autonomy, requiring less intensive collaboration between teams through reliance on guardrails and automated governance over strict control. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Operational Excellence Pillar: Operating model 2 by 2 representations](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/operational-excellence-pillar/operating-model-2-by-2-representations.html) + [Building your Cloud Operating Model: Organize for Success](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/strategy-cloud-operating-model/implement-roadmap.html#organize) # [OA.STD.3] Prioritize shared accountability over individual achievements **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Encourage a culture of teamwork and shared accountability by establishing common goals and fostering collaboration and open communication. Create a sense of shared ownership and responsibility for achieving team success, encouraging members to support each other and provide constructive feedback. Regularly evaluate progress towards goals and celebrate successes together as a team. Prioritizing team success over individual accomplishments promotes a cohesive and high-performing team environment that is essential for successful DevOps adoption. # [OA.STD.4] Structure teams around desired business outcomes **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL To maximize value and effectiveness in product delivery, intentionally design team structures that reflect the desired architecture and interactions of the systems being built. Clearly define roles, responsibilities, and ownership for each team and align with the expected business outcomes. This approach increases the chances of building and supporting effective products optimized for full coverage of the full value stream. Conway's Law, introduced by Melvin Conway in the paper [https://www.melconway.com/Home/pdf/committees.pdf](https://www.melconway.com/Home/pdf/committees.pdf), posits that the structure of an organization influences the design of the systems it builds. Organizations can use this concept to build more effective team structures by employing the [Inverse Conway Maneuver](http://jonnyleroy.com/2011/02/03/dealing-with-creaky-legacy-platforms/), also known as *Reverse Conway's Law*, as described by Jonny LeRoy and Matt Simons. By designing teams and their communication structures to reflect the intended architecture and interactions of the system being built, organizations can achieve increased efficiency and more effective collaboration between teams, ultimately enhancing the overall product delivery process. **Related information:** + [How Do Committees Invent?](https://www.melconway.com/Home/pdf/committees.pdf) + [Dealing with creaky legacy platforms](http://jonnyleroy.com/2011/02/03/dealing-with-creaky-legacy-platforms/) + [Demystifying Conway's Law](https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/articles/demystifying-conways-law) + [Inverse Conway Maneuver](https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-de/radar/techniques/inverse-conway-maneuver) # [OA.STD.5] Establish team norms that enhance work performance **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Optimize work performance by establishing norms that define clear roles, schedules, and processes for agile ceremonies. Agree on regular meeting schedules, such as daily stand-ups, sprint planning, backlog refinement, and sprint retrospectives if you are following Scrum. Define roles for each team member during ceremonies, clarifying responsibilities and purpose in the ceremony. Conduct regular process reviews to identify areas for improvement and refine the ceremony structure as needed. Encourage active participation and engagement in the ceremonies. When establishing team norms, consider the stages of group development as described in the paper [Developmental Sequence in Small Groups](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1965-12187-001) by Bruce Tuckman, which describes the common stages of forming, storming, norming, and performing. Be mindful of these stages to provide the right support to teams, especially as they progress through the early phases of group formation. **Related information:** + [What Is Scrum?](https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/scrum) + [Developmental sequence in small groups](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1965-12187-001) # [OA.STD.6] Provide teams ownership of the entire value stream for their product **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Establish teams that are able to own their respective value streams and products. These teams follow a *you build it, you run it* approach, as coined by Werner Vogels in 2006. The team responsible for building a system should also be responsible for running, maintaining, and overall owning it. At Amazon, we call these small, autonomous teams with a single-threaded focus [two-pizza teams](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/introduction-devops-aws/two-pizza-teams.html). This approach minimizes handoffs and makes teams both the creators and custodians of their products. Value stream ownership does not mean preventing teams from working together. These teams not only own the development of their product, but also take responsibility of aspects like security and quality assurance. To be successful in this model at scale, centralized functions, such as centralized security teams, must also evolve: instead of direct oversight, they should act as enablers, providing resources and expertise to these distributed teams. The enabling functions should provide the necessary knowledge, resources, and attention required for teams to be successful. Individual teams build relationships with the centralized functions, share knowledge, and enhance processes consistently over time. This ultimately leads to improved outcomes for their products, customers, and the organization. Invest in ongoing cross-functional training to help individual team members acquire skills that will make them successful within their value streams. This training could include teaching developers to be security-minded, or teaching security resources to develop. Over time the teams should gradually become more self-reliant, collaboration between teams should improve, and deployment frequency should increase. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar: SEC11-BP01 Train for application security](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/sec_appsec_train_for_application_security.html) + [AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar: SEC11-BP08 Build a program that embeds security ownership in workload teams](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/security-pillar/sec_appsec_build_program_that_embeds_security_ownership_in_teams.html) + [Enterprise DevOps: Why You Should Run What You Build](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/enterprise-devops-why-you-should-run-what-you-build/) + [Amazon's approach to security during development: Ownership](https://youtu.be/NeR7FhHqDGQ?t=632) + [Amazon's approach to security during development: Security Review Process](https://youtu.be/NeR7FhHqDGQ?t=1285) + [Powering Innovation and Speed with Amazon's Two-Pizza Teams](https://aws.amazon.com/executive-insights/content/amazon-two-pizza-team/) + [The Amazon Software Development Process: DevOps Teams](https://youtu.be/52SC80SFPOw?t=387) # [OA.STD.7] Amplify the scale and impact of centralized functions **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL As decentralized teams become responsible for their respective value streams and products, including responsibilities like security and quality assurance, centralized functions can often become bottlenecks. These bottlenecks can delay releases and cause inefficiencies in the development lifecycle, which can limit the adoption of DevOps best practices. We recommend adopting a [Guardian Model](https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxFAoUn6nHH6D3GjwAHD3xXK07Q2NhcYGx) within your organization to scale centralized functions. This involves embedding specialized champions or *Guardians* within individual teams to enhance and scale the capabilities of centralized functions, such as security, quality, and audit. Embedding guardians directly into teams helps make specialized knowledge always available, reducing wait times and facilitating real-time, context-aware decision-making. This approach not only accelerates delivery, but also continually meets quality, security, and compliance standards. To implement this model, begin by defining the strategy for the initiative. Recognize the inefficiencies and gaps within teams that these guardians can rectify, and identify which centralized function would benefit most from on-the-ground, embedded expertise. Security, quality assurance, and audit functions are great examples of centralized functions that must scale when adopting DevOps best practices. Leadership support is required so that they can allocate necessary resources, make policy changes, and inspire an organizational culture that genuinely values the guardian role. When selecting and training guardians, pinpoint passionate team members who volunteer to undergo specialized training to become focal points for their respective domains. This includes proactive responsibilities, such as threat modeling or test planning, and reactive responsibilities, like defect resolution or compliance checks. These responsibilities should be clearly defined to avoid ambiguity, confusion, and conflict. Continue to gather feedback from guardians and their teams, using the insights to refine and iterate on the model. The guardian role is an important factor for the success of this model. Encourage adoption of the role by providing specialized training opportunities, avenues for influencing best practices, and clear paths for career evolution. These incentives keep guardians motivated, engaged, and eager to drive excellence within their respective teams. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar: SEC11-BP08 Build a program that embeds security ownership in workload teams](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/security-pillar/sec_appsec_build_program_that_embeds_security_ownership_in_teams.html) + [Scaling security and compliance](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/scaling-security-and-compliance/) + [AWS Security Guardians](https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxFAoUn6nHH6D3GjwAHD3xXK07Q2NhcYGx) + [Amazon's approach to security during development: Security Review Process](https://youtu.be/NeR7FhHqDGQ?t=1285) # [OA.STD.8] Promote cognitive diversity within teams **Category:** RECOMMENDED Optimized DevOps teams should remain small and agile in how they deliver their products. This approach requires team members to have a wide range of cross-functional skills, from software development and testing to operations and security. Having a diverse mix of skills, experiences, and backgrounds within the team helps them effectively innovate to solve complex problems and better mimic the personas and culture of their users. Promote cognitive diversity within small teams by including members with varied ethnic, cultural, regional, gender, age, and other backgrounds. Avoid hiring bias and promote diversity and inclusion when forming teams. Implement inclusive hiring practices, such as blind resume screening and diverse interview panels. Encourage cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing so that teams can frequently gain the perspectives of others. Aim to maintain strong cognitive diversity by regularly assessing the diversity of the team and identifying any potential gaps. This can be done through team surveys, diversity and inclusion training, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation. Additionally, invest in security training and awareness programs, equipping your team members with the knowledge and skills to identify and mitigate security risks. Doing so enhances the overall security posture and culture of the organization. By creating teams that embrace cognitive diversity, organizations can improve innovation, creativity, and problem solving, leading to better outcomes for the organization and its customers. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar: SEC11-BP01 Train for application security](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/sec_appsec_train_for_application_security.html) # Anti-patterns for supportive team dynamics + **Project-based teams**: If teams are structured around short-term projects rather than being aligned with products or services, it can prevent them from taking ownership of the value stream. Project-based teams tend to focus on completing tasks and moving on to the next assignment, rather than fostering long-term ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement. This can impact delivery speed, quality, and maintainability of resulting products. Shift the focus towards product-aligned teams that have ownership of their entire value stream. This encourages teams to take responsibility for the full lifecycle of the product, from idea to delivery and ongoing maintenance. + **Restrictive tool support**: If supporting teams support a limited set of tools, frameworks, or programming languages, it can discourage individual teams from adopting new tools or choosing the best tool for specific use cases. Requiring teams to use a standardized tool, which may be the wrong tool for the specific use case, can lead to sub-optimal solutions and decreased developer productivity. To overcome this, supportive teams should take a more flexible approach by creating solutions that are inclusive of using multiple tools, frameworks, and programming languages. This encourages teams to choose tools for their specific needs, creating an adaptable development environment that fosters a culture of experimentation and learning. + **Rigid hierarchical structures**: Traditional rigid hierarchical organizational structures can hinder the flow of information and introduce unnecessary dependencies between teams. When decisions are always made by executive leadership and individual teams lack autonomy, it can suppress innovation, delay time to market, and deter accountability. These structures can also discourage teams from collaborating freely, due to potential political dynamics or fear of overstepping boundaries. To address this, create an environment where teams have the autonomy to make decisions that align with their goals and the organization's business objectives. Encourage open channels of communication across all levels and departments. # Metrics for supportive team dynamics + **Employee net promoter score (eNPS):** Measure employees' engagement and satisfaction within the organization, gauging their likelihood to recommend the organization as an ideal workplace. This can provide insight into the overall health of the organizational culture and indicates the effectiveness of leadership in creating an inclusive and positive work environment. A higher eNPS can correlate with better productivity, lower turnover, and improved team dynamics. Track using periodic, anonymized [net promoter score](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_promoter_score) surveys that require no more that 5–7 minutes to complete. Subtract the percentage of detractors (those who score 0–6) from promoters (those who score 9–10) to get the eNPS value. Neutral scores (7–8) can be ignored. + **Cross-functional dependency tracking:** The number of dependencies a team has on other teams is measured by the frequency of interactions between teams. Dependencies can slow down work, indicate siloed teams, or point towards inefficient processes. The frequency of cross-team interactions can help gauge how siloed teams are and how effectively they are collaborating. This metric should improve as teams become more autonomous and fully responsible for their value stream. Use time tracking tools, calendar analytics, and dependencies between work items in project management tools to track and categorize dependencies. On a regular basis, such as monthly or at the end of a sprint, calculate the average number of dependencies and the frequency of cross-team meetings. + **Team health:** Hold periodic surveys that gauge team members' feelings and perceptions about collaboration, support, and team dynamics. These surveys create feedback loops that can highlight strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. If following Scrum, this survey might take the form of a sprint retrospective. If not following Scrum, or for more granular feedback, administer surveys on a regular basis, such as monthly or quarterly. Measure the percentage of positive responses over time and track trends as they emerge. + **Team turnover:** The frequency that team members depart from a specific team. High turnover can indicate issues with team dynamics, satisfaction, or other underlying problems affecting team cohesion. Identify these issues early to maintain project consistency, team morale, and productivity. Monitor the reasons for departures using exit interviews, and progress towards resolving points of friction within the team. On a regular basis, such as monthly or quarterly, calculate the turnover rate by taking the number of employees who left during that period divided by the average number of employees during the same period, then multiply by 100 for the percentage. # Team interfaces Team interfaces are the input and output mechanisms that direct the flow of work between teams in a DevOps environment. These interfaces work to share information and resources aacross the organization, facilitate collaboration, and help teams to align their goals and priorities. Effective team interfaces streamline processes, reduce bottlenecks, and improve overall productivity within and across teams. **Topics** + [Indicators for team interfaces](indicators-for-team-interfaces.md) + [Anti-patterns for team interfaces](anti-patterns-for-team-interfaces.md) + [Metrics for team interfaces](metrics-for-team-interfaces.md) # Indicators for team interfaces Implement mechanisms to enhance productivity within and across teams, providing effective communication channels to guide the flow of work. **Topics** + [[OA.TI.1] Communicate work flow and goals between teams and stakeholders](oa.ti.1-communicate-work-flow-and-goals-between-teams-and-stakeholders.md) + [[OA.TI.2] Streamline intra-team communication using tools and processes](oa.ti.2-streamline-intra-team-communication-using-tools-and-processes.md) + [[OA.TI.3] Establish mechanisms for teams to gather and manage customer feedback](oa.ti.3-establish-mechanisms-for-teams-to-gather-and-manage-customer-feedback.md) + [[OA.TI.4] Refine error tracking and resolution](oa.ti.4-refine-error-tracking-and-resolution.md) + [[OA.TI.5] Design adaptive approval workflows without compromising safety](oa.ti.5-design-adaptive-approval-workflows-without-compromising-safety.md) + [[OA.TI.6] Prioritize customer needs to deliver optimal business outcomes](oa.ti.6-prioritize-customer-needs-to-deliver-optimal-business-outcomes.md) + [[OA.TI.7] Maintain a unified knowledge source for teams](oa.ti.7-maintain-a-unified-knowledge-source-for-teams.md) + [[OA.TI.8] Simplify access to organizational information](oa.ti.8-simplify-access-to-organizational-information.md) + [[OA.TI.9] Facilitate self-service collaboration through APIs and documentation](oa.ti.9-facilitate-self-service-collaboration-through-apis-and-documentation.md) + [[OA.TI.10] Choose interaction modes for improved efficiency and cost savings](oa.ti.10-choose-interaction-modes-for-optimal-efficiency-and-cost-savings.md) + [[OA.TI.11] Offer optional opportunities for cross-team collaboration](oa.ti.11-offer-optional-opportunities-for-cross-team-collaboration.md) # [OA.TI.1] Communicate work flow and goals between teams and stakeholders **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL When operating in a DevOps model, many small teams work together to deliver business outcomes to customers. Working in this way requires effective interteam communication and collaboration, as any miscommunication or delay can impact the speed and quality of delivering products. One way to achieve this is by regularly sharing ongoing work, roadmaps, and team goals with key stakeholders and other teams. By externalizing this information, teams can improve visibility across the organization. This helps teams understand how their work impacts others and the overall business goals. Teams can use work tracking tools that promote a more agile, adaptive approach, such as Scrum or Kanban boards, and dashboards to make their work, priorities, and key metrics visible to others in the organization. Make these tools easily accessible, either through physical displays or digital platforms, to promote alignment with business objectives. Regularly review the flow of work to identify bottlenecks, areas for improvement, and opportunities to optimize the process. # [OA.TI.2] Streamline intra-team communication using tools and processes **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Equip teams with tools to automate and manage their workflows, priorities, and decision-making processes. Implement team collaboration, document sharing, task creation, and progress monitoring tools. Establish team norms and practices, such as lexicons, story pointing, and defining *done*, to streamline intra-team communication. Use reporting tools, playbooks, and retrospective sessions to improve processes and team norms. **Related information:** + [Team Collaboration with Amazon CodeCatalyst](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/devops/team-collaboration-with-amazon-codecatalyst/) # [OA.TI.3] Establish mechanisms for teams to gather and manage customer feedback **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Establish feedback channels that help teams gather and manage input from both internal and external customers of their products. Related processes should be created for teams to track, prioritize, and act on the feedback received for their respective value stream. Integrate the feedback with collaboration tools and existing workflows so that inputs, decisions, and outcomes are documented and prioritized with the rest of the value stream work. Embed the feedback into your team norms. Feedback data should continually be analyzed to identify trends, prioritize areas for improvement, and communicate progress to stakeholders. # [OA.TI.4] Refine error tracking and resolution **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Establish mechanisms for continuous improvement in error correction, tracking, and resolution. This includes developing a culture of learning from mistakes, sharing knowledge, and using data-driven insights to drive improvements. Implement tools and processes to facilitate effective error tracking and resolution, such as issue tracking systems, monitoring, and alerting solutions. Regularly review and analyze error data to identify trends, prioritize issues, and take corrective action. Encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing among teams to improve overall error management and resolution capabilities. **Related information:** + [Correction of Error (COE)](https://wa.aws.amazon.com/wat.concept.coe.en.html) + [Amazon's approach to high-availability deployment: How we learn from deployment failures](https://youtu.be/bCgD2bX1LI4?t=325) # [OA.TI.5] Design adaptive approval workflows without compromising safety **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Establish approval processes and guidelines that prioritize speed, safety, and agility. These processes should account for factors such as risk assessment, impact analysis, and stakeholder engagement, while also allowing for feedback and improvement. Use automation and tools to support these processes, rather than requiring complex, human-driven collaboration between teams. Use data and APIs from version control systems, deployment pipelines, and release management tools to support automated approval processes. These tools can help streamline the approval process, reducing the risk of errors and delays while promoting agility and speed. Make all stakeholders aware of changes, and verify that they can provide input and feedback in a timely manner. Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure the time it takes to submit, review, approve, and deploy changes. Use these metrics to drive continuous improvement in the change management process. # [OA.TI.6] Prioritize customer needs to deliver optimal business outcomes **Category:** RECOMMENDED Customer-driven development is an approach that places the end user's needs and expectations at the heart of product development. Instead of starting with technical specifications or available resources, teams start by visualizing the ideal user experience. From there, iteratively work backwards to determine how to deliver on that plan. An example of this is the Amazon *working backwards* process. At Amazon, the development process begins with a document that outlines the product's core value to customers as a Press Release and Frequently Asked Questions (PRFAQ) document. This document often contains detailed data points such as usage forecasts, adoption expectations, the value to the customer, and how we can provide that value to customers. With this approach, Amazon can continuously build products and features that resonate with user needs. To implement this mechanism within your organization, begin the development process by writing a document that envisions the desired customer outcome. From there, work backwards to establish the technical and operational steps to achieve that outcome. Use mechanisms such as surveys and interviews to understand customer needs and gather data points. Next, add a detailed set of meaningful FAQs to clarify product intricacies, anticipate questions customers will have, and preempt potential challenges. Before starting development, create visual mock-ups and provide use cases to offer a tangible representation for the team so they understand how users interact with the product. Draft user guides or documentation that can provide clarity on how users will interact with the system and features to expect. Share these documents internally to gain alignment and additional perspective from other teams and leaders. The documents can also be used throughout the development lifecycle to provide developers a clear understanding of the desired customer experience, leading to fewer errors and quicker deployment cycles. Establish a continuous feedback loop that gathers customer insights and use them to inform decision-making and prioritize additional products and features. **Related information:** + [Working Backwards](https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2006/11/working_backwards.html) + [The Amazon Software Development Process: Listen to Customers](https://youtu.be/52SC80SFPOw?t=2076) + [AWS re:Invent 2020: Working backwards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFdpBqmDpzM) # [OA.TI.7] Maintain a unified knowledge source for teams **Category:** RECOMMENDED Adopt collaboration and configuration tools, supported by established processes, to store documents, configurations, and other artifacts in a unified source of record. Keep documentation up-to-date to help teams work more autonomously and build trust. Implement processes for regular review of artifacts in the source of record and remove outdated content as needed. DevOps adoption can be achieved without a unified source of record between teams. However, it's more challenging for teams to find and manage information as they transition how they work and adopt new tools. This approach can lead to inefficient or duplicated processes and communication gaps over time. Therefore, it is highly recommended to have a centralized knowledge repository in place to improve team collaboration, knowledge sharing, onboarding time, and overall development and operational efficiency. For example, create internal wiki pages for each team to document their team norms and best practices. # [OA.TI.8] Simplify access to organizational information **Category:** RECOMMENDED Provide internal users access to vital organizational information, such as details about the organization, objectives, analytics, employee data, policies, hierarchical structures, and escalation channels. One approach is to manage a centralized platform, like an intranet, where employees can swiftly locate the information they need for effective job performance. To improve the platform's information integrity and relevance, connect it with internal systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, and maintain regular updates at the source. Include instruction and training on using this platform as part of the onboarding process to equip employees with the necessary skills for information access. Further enhance the platform with generative AI-powered internal research and search capabilities. This helps users swiftly access and interpret proprietary, complex documentation regarding compliance, regulations, or portfolio research using text summarization. Search is another method for faster information retrieval and classification, expediting access to relevant documents during review processes. Search also improves extraction of accurate answers from researched materials by querying a topic. **Related information:** + [Business Value is IT's Primary Measure of Progress](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/business-value-is-its-primary-measure-of-progress/) + [Amazon Bedrock](https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/) + [Amazon Kendra](https://aws.amazon.com/kendra/) + [Amazon OpenSearch Service](https://aws.amazon.com/opensearch-service/) # [OA.TI.9] Facilitate self-service collaboration through APIs and documentation **Category:** RECOMMENDED Develop clear and comprehensive service documentation for improved accessibility and navigation, including user guides, tutorials, and FAQs. Provide well-defined interfaces, such as APIs or web portals, to simplify access and usage. Regularly review and update interfaces to meet user needs. Establish ownership for documentation and services, and implement mechanisms for teams to ask for clarification, help, or provide feedback. Define metrics around the usage, availability, and quality of self-service documentation and APIs. Providing self-service access to services through APIs simplifies integration between systems and teams, reduces the need for manual intervention, and promotes better documentation. This approach helps teams work more autonomously and accelerates the development process. This capability is highly recommended for a more efficient and streamlined DevOps environment, but it is not a foundational requirement for successful DevOps adoption. Without this capability, expect increased manual coordination and required communication between teams, which could impact overall efficiency. **Related information:** + [The Amazon Software Development Process: Self-Service Tools](https://youtu.be/52SC80SFPOw?t=579) # [OA.TI.10] Choose interaction modes for improved efficiency and cost savings **Category:** RECOMMENDED Teach teams about the different interaction modes as outlined in [Team Topologies](https://teamtopologies.com/), including *X as a Service* (XaaS), facilitation, and collaboration. With knowledge of how to optimize interaction modes for specific scenarios, teams can measure the cost, efficiency, and applicability of each mode against their use case. Identify excessive and costly interaction modes and create a tailored improvement plan to optimize them depending on each team's preferences, topology, and skills. Provide training and support to help teams better understand the available interaction modes and how to use them effectively to achieve the desired outcome. By optimizing team interactions, organizations can reduce costs while maintaining efficiency and collaboration. XaaS is typically the most cost-effective and efficient interaction mode between teams when available, as it involves providing and consuming self-service capabilities rather than sustained direct communications. In this mode, a team provides an interface that can easily be integrated into the existing workflows of one or more teams. Facilitation is the second most efficient, where a team temporarily mentors another team to provide resources and support to accomplish a task. While facilitation can be more expensive than XaaS, it can also be more effective in situations where face-to-face communication or more direct support is needed.  Collaboration is the least efficient interaction mode. It involves working together as a team to achieve a common goal. This interaction mode can be highly effective in certain situations; however, it can also be more time-consuming and less cost-efficient than other interaction modes. Meetings are expensive, and collaboration always requires direct involvement between teams. Find the right balance between the different interaction modes by choosing the right mode for the use case. # [OA.TI.11] Offer optional opportunities for cross-team collaboration **Category:** RECOMMENDED Establish regular communication channels and forums to encourage cross-team collaboration and information sharing. This can include joint planning sessions, team demos, or cross-team retrospectives. Encourage a culture of open communication and collaboration across teams, sharing knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned. Monitor the effectiveness of these cross-team communication and collaboration opportunities and adjust the approach as needed based on feedback and observed outcomes. # Anti-patterns for team interfaces + **Documentation overload and neglect**: Having too much documentation can slow down the development lifecycle and increase the cognitive load of readers. Insufficient or outdated documentation can lead to misinformed decisions and missed opportunities. Create a balance between comprehensive documentation and agile methodology. Continually update documentation to reflect current practices and insights, while also maintaining a focus on action and progress. + **Lack of cross-functional collaboration:** Teams that operate in silos and avoid collaborating with other departments can miss broader organizational context and perspectives. Siloed teams often result in longer feedback loops and reduced sharing of best practices across the organization. Introduce opportunities for teams to meet, such as joint workshops, gamification opportunities, technical communities, or using shared documentation platforms. These opportunities can help to create a culture of open communication and knowledge sharing among teams. + **Inflexible approval processes**: Overly bureaucratic approval processes can act as barriers to progress, inhibiting agility and slowing down product delivery. These processes can lead to delays and reduce the organization's ability to adapt quickly to changes. Make improvements to quality assurance and automated governance capabilities to introduce automated change management workflows. By automating these traditionally human-driven decision gates, teams become more autonomous leading to improved deployment frequency and reduced time to market. # Metrics for team interfaces + **Feedback response time:** The average time it takes for a team to address and respond to customer feedback. This metric indicates agility and adaptiveness to customer needs and showcases the team's efficiency in addressing feedback. Implement a dedicated system to track and prioritize customer feedback. Store a timestamp for when the feedback is received and another when the feedback is responded to. Calculate the difference and average over all feedback received within a set period. + **Handoff frequency:** The count of handoffs in a process, including those across different teams. Having many handoffs can indicate potential inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas where errors might occur due to excessive handoffs. Use process mapping tools, such as [value stream mapping](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/strategy-devops-value-stream-mapping/introduction.html), to understand and visualize workflows. Count the number of handoffs within a given process, particularly between different teams. A lower number of handoffs across many processes generally indicates more autonomy within a team. + **Knowledge sharing index:** This refers to how much teams share, update, and use collective knowledge repositories and assets. This highlights the effectiveness of knowledge management processes and the extent to which shared knowledge supports team activities. Track the number of accesses, contributions, and modifications to shared repositories or platforms. Consider using surveys or setting up a scale to assess the perceived value and utility of shared knowledge sources. + **Onboarding satisfaction (OSAT):** The satisfaction level of new team members regarding their onboarding experience. This metric provides insights into the effectiveness and efficiency of the onboarding process, identifying areas that need improvement. Use surveys to measure satisfaction on a scale (for example, 1–10) after a new hire goes through the onboarding process. Calculate the average score and track changes over time. # Balanced cognitive load Maintaining a balanced cognitive load challenges team members without overwhelming or under-stimulating them. Focusing on cognitive load not only promotes individual job satisfaction, but also yields improved performance by teaching them to process information effectively, learn from their experiences, and retain knowledge. In a DevOps environment, a balanced cognitive load supports a healthy environment for innovation and adaptability, directly contributing to the overall success of the organization. **Topics** + [Indicators for balanced cognitive load](indicators-for-balanced-cognitive-load.md) + [Anti-patterns for balanced cognitive load](anti-patterns-for-balanced-cognitive-load.md) + [Metrics for balanced cognitive load](metrics-for-balanced-cognitive-load.md) # Indicators for balanced cognitive load Maintain a balance where team members are adequately challenged without feeling overwhelmed, improving job satisfaction, innovation, and organizational success. **Topics** + [[OA.BCL.1] Clarify purpose and direction to improve cognitive well-being](oa.bcl.1-clarify-purpose-and-direction-to-improve-cognitive-well-being.md) + [[OA.BCL.2] Automate repetitive tasks to reduce toil](oa.bcl.2-automate-repetitive-tasks-to-reduce-toil.md) + [[OA.BCL.3] Reduce troubleshooting and technical debt through continuous improvement](oa.bcl.3-reduce-troubleshooting-and-technical-debt-through-continuous-improvement.md) + [[OA.BCL.4] Boost team efficiency by limiting work in progress](oa.bcl.4-boost-team-efficiency-by-limiting-work-in-progress.md) + [[OA.BCL.5] Establish clear escalation paths and encourage constructive disagreement](oa.bcl.5-establish-clear-escalation-paths-and-encourage-constructive-disagreement.md) + [[OA.BCL.6] Provide teams the autonomy to make decision that align with organizational objectives](oa.bcl.6-provide-teams-the-autonomy-to-make-decision-that-align-with-organizational-objectives.md) + [[OA.BCL.7] Cultivate a psychologically-safe culture for experimentation](oa.bcl.7-cultivate-a-psychologically-safe-culture-for-experimentation.md) + [[OA.BCL.8] Determine team sizes based on cognitive capacity](oa.bcl.8-determine-team-sizes-based-on-cognitive-capacity.md) + [[OA.BCL.9] Use guiding principles to make consistent team decisions](oa.bcl.9-use-guiding-principles-to-make-consistent-team-decisions.md) + [[OA.BCL.10] Make informed decisions using data](oa.bcl.10-make-informed-decisions-using-data.md) # [OA.BCL.1] Clarify purpose and direction to improve cognitive well-being **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Verify that every individual feels aligned with the organizational goals and sees the impact of their contributions. A motivated workforce that is driven by a sense of purpose can lead to enhanced cognitive well-being, reduced burnout, and improved retention rates. Regularly communicate a clear strategy, and communicate the organization's business objectives it to all team members. Align individual goals and targets with the business objectives so that every member understands their unique role and contribution. Provide frequent updates on organizational progress towards achieving business goals to keep the team informed and involved. Implement a structured feedback mechanism and recognize the efforts of team members in contributing to the organization's success. **Related information:** + [Amazon's approach to security during development: Ownership](https://youtu.be/NeR7FhHqDGQ?t=632) # [OA.BCL.2] Automate repetitive tasks to reduce toil **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Identify repetitive, time-consuming tasks, referred to as toil. Assess the potential for automation, setting a high standard for automation with limited allowance for manual work. Continually review and reduce this allowance as more tasks are automated. Implement automation tools and processes to reduce toil and improve overall team efficiency. Encourage team members to identify opportunities for automation, and provide the necessary training and resources to support automation efforts. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Cost Optimization Pillar: COST11-BP01 Perform automations for operations](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/cost-optimization-pillar/cost_evaluate_cost_effort_automations_operations.html) # [OA.BCL.3] Reduce troubleshooting and technical debt through continuous improvement **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Proactively reducing the frequency of interruptions and addressing technical debt can have a significant positive impact on overall DevOps adoption. Allocating budget and a portion of the team's time to improve existing processes, environments, and workloads can yield a net improvement to overall development speed, code quality, and system stability. This can be achieved by implementing tools, processes, and team norms to identify, track, and manage technical debt, as well as regularly assessing and prioritizing process improvement opportunities.  To focus teams on impactful improvements, encourage teams to factor in time and effort towards these initiatives. Establish metrics to measure their impact. Prioritizing addressing technical debt as part of regular work can also reduce the likelihood of production issues, ultimately resulting in more stable and reliable systems. # [OA.BCL.4] Boost team efficiency by limiting work in progress **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Provide ample capacity to accomplish goals on time by reducing work in progress (WIP). Prioritize finishing tasks over starting new ones, which helps to reduce context-switching and impacts overall team efficiency. Continually monitor and adjust WIP limits to prioritize tasks that align with business outcomes. Encourage teams to use agile project management tools and rules, such as Kanban or Scrum, to manage work in progress and complete tasks in a timely manner. # [OA.BCL.5] Establish clear escalation paths and encourage constructive disagreement **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Optimize issue resolution by establishing clear escalation paths and making it part of every team's norms. Define and communicate processes for how and when to escalate issues, and identify the individuals or groups responsible for making decisions. The escalation process should be documented, data-driven, and shared broadly so that everyone is aware of the steps involved. Encourage open communication and a culture of constructive disagreement, where team members can respectfully challenge decisions while still committing to a strategy as a team once a decision has been made. Escalation should not be feared, but instead expected to be frequent and fully supported by leadership. Once a decision is made through the escalation process, everyone should commit to the decision that is made. Introduce the concept of the *Andon cord*, inspired by Toyota's manufacturing process and adopted by companies like Amazon, as an actionable step to help team members raise concerns and stop processes when problems arise. The Andon cord serves as a mechanism for team members to escalate issues quickly, addressing problems promptly and effectively. # [OA.BCL.6] Provide teams the autonomy to make decision that align with organizational objectives **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Provide teams with the autonomy to make decisions and changes at the lowest level possible. Provide the necessary information, policies, and tools to make informed decisions aligned with the organization's goals and objectives. Establish clear guardrails to guide decisions and achieve consistency with the overall strategy while avoiding adverse impacts on other teams or the organization. Encourage a culture of empowerment, where team members feel confident in making decisions and taking action. **Related information:** + [Amazon's approach to security during development: Ownership](https://youtu.be/NeR7FhHqDGQ?t=632) # [OA.BCL.7] Cultivate a psychologically-safe culture for experimentation **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Encourage experimentation and learning from failures by establishing clear guidelines and hosting sharing sessions for both successful and failed experiments. Foster a psychologically-safe environment where team members feel encouraged to share their ideas and speak up without fear of negative consequences. Recognize and celebrate successes, while also recognizing individuals who take risks and contribute to innovation. Cultivate a culture that values open communication, feedback, and continuous learning. Provide support for team members who are willing to experiment and think big. **Related information:** + [Amazon's approach to security during development: Technical fearlessness](https://youtu.be/NeR7FhHqDGQ?t=1031) # [OA.BCL.8] Determine team sizes based on cognitive capacity **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Determine team size using [Dunbar's number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number) and the [7 ± 2 rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two), which state that teams should be composed of no more than 7 to 10 individuals. With smaller teams, they require the autonomy and resources necessary to be successful within their value stream. Keep team sizes manageable, and foster effective communication, collaboration, and decision-making. Regularly assess the team's composition and structure, making adjustments as needed to maintain efficiency and effectiveness. Provide teams with the necessary tools and resources to support collaboration and communication in small group settings. Larger organizations might have teams of teams, often referred to as guilds, chapters, or squads. The name used here is completely dependent on the organization's preference and culture. In this scenario, Dunbar's number advises that the number of people not exceed 150. Having a team of teams allows smaller teams to work together towards common goals that align to related business outcomes, while maintaining the benefits of smaller team sizes and scaling effectively within a larger organization. **Related information:** + [Dunbar's number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number) + [The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two) + [Two-Pizza Teams](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/introduction-devops-aws/two-pizza-teams.html) # [OA.BCL.9] Use guiding principles to make consistent team decisions **Category:** RECOMMENDED Establish team guiding principles. These guiding principles should be created collaboratively and should outline the team's purpose, goals, values, and operating principles. Verify that the charter is well understood by all team members and regularly referenced in decision-making processes. Periodically review and update the guiding principles to ensure they remain relevant and aligned with the team's evolving goals and values. Encourage team members to use these guiding principles as a framework for making decisions and resolving conflicts, ensuring consistency and alignment across the team. **Related information:** + [Tenets: supercharging decision-making](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/tenets-supercharging-decision-making/) # [OA.BCL.10] Make informed decisions using data **Category:** RECOMMENDED Encourage teams to shift from relying solely on intuition or personal experience to using data to inform their decisions so that they become more objective than subjective. Teams should consider what to measure (and why), how to measure it, and how to effectively present the data for informed decision making. Provide training on data analysis and visualization, and aim to make data easily accessible and up-to-date. Use tools to collect, store, analyze, and visualize data effectively, allowing teams to make data-driven decisions. Incorporate the *build-measure-learn* feedback loop and *validated learning* concepts from Eric Ries' [The Lean Startup](https://theleanstartup.com/principles) to enhance decision-making capabilities and alignment with organizational goals. Use the build-measure-learn loop and validated learning to make data-driven decisions, test assumptions, and adapt quickly to changing conditions to foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. By partnering with customers throughout the innovation process, teams can better align their efforts with organizational objectives while remaining agile and responsive to evolving requirements. Doing so confirms that solutions are built with customer empathy, measured for impact, and refined through collaborative learning. **Related information:** + [The Lean Startup Methodology](https://theleanstartup.com) # Anti-patterns for balanced cognitive load + **Imbalanced workload**: Both overloading team members with too many tasks or responsibilities and underutilizing them by assigning insufficient responsibilities or challenges can lead to reduced productivity. An imbalanced workload can hinder an individual's ability to learn and retain knowledge, ultimately impeding the effectiveness of DevOps adoption. Strike the right balance between challenging team members and avoiding burnout to foster a productive and engaged team. + **Oversized teams**: Forming excessively large teams that exceed the cognitive limit of effectively managing relationships as described by [Dunbar's number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number) (approximately 150 people). As teams grow beyond this size, there is a risk that communication, collaboration, and decision making will suffer, reducing the team's overall effectiveness. Create smaller teams that can communicate more effectively, make better decisions, and deliver higher-quality products and services. This is especially important in the beginning stages of product development; try to keep your teams as small as you can for as long as you can. + **Lack of autonomy and psychological safety**: Cultivating an environment that lacks autonomy and intolerance to failure can lead to risk aversion and an unwillingness to experiment and innovate. In environments that micromanage or over prioritize being risk adverse, individuals tend to shift focus from delivering value to avoiding failure, resulting in sub-optimal outcomes and slower delivery. Embrace a culture of psychological safety that encourages autonomy, experimentation, and risk-taking. Allowing individuals to make decisions and experiment can lead to significant breakthroughs and innovations, as well as higher job satisfaction and performance. # Metrics for balanced cognitive load + **Team size ratio:** Comparing the actual team size against the recommended team size based on cognitive limits. To measure this metric, compare the current team size to the recommended team size to calculate the ratio based on cognitive limits, for example, less than 10 people in individual teams, and less than 150 in a team of teams. + **Burnout assessment scores:** Evaluate team members' well-being using a burnout assessment survey. For example, the [Maslach Burnout Inventory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslach_Burnout_Inventory) general survey delves into exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy as indicators of burnout. Distribute the questionnaire to team members on a regular basis, such as quarterly or biannually, to monitor trends and respond proactively to burnout indicators. Over time, track changes to help ensure that interventions are effective and that overall team well-being is trending positively. Encourage open communication and feedback, allowing teams to voice concerns or provide suggestions to improve the work environment. Consider working with human resources (HR) professionals or occupational psychologists to interpret the results and develop appropriate interventions. # Adaptive work environment An adaptive work environment allows organizations to maximize team performance and collaboration, whether teams are working onsite, remotely, or a mix of both. By providing the necessary tools, processes, and support, organizations can create an environment that enables teams to collaborate efficiently, share knowledge, and adapt to changing circumstances. This flexibility is essential for maintaining productivity and agility in a constantly evolving business landscape. By implementing inclusive collaboration options, flexible work schedules, adaptable workspaces, and regular team-building activities, organizations foster a more cohesive and efficient team dynamic, ultimately contributing to the success of their DevOps initiatives. **Topics** + [Indicators for adaptive work environment](indicators-for-adaptive-work-environment.md) + [Anti-patterns for adaptive work environment](anti-patterns-for-adaptive-work-environment.md) + [Metrics for adaptive work environment](metrics-for-adaptive-work-environment.md) # Indicators for adaptive work environment Support diverse, distributed teams by offering flexible and adaptable work environments that enable sustainable productivity and collaboration. **Topics** + [[OA.AWE.1] Equip teams with feature-rich tools for virtual collaboration](oa.awe.1-equip-teams-with-feature-rich-tools-for-virtual-collaboration.md) + [[OA.AWE.2] Offer inclusive options for both virtual and on-site collaboration](oa.awe.2-offer-inclusive-options-for-both-virtual-and-onsite-collaboration.md) + [[OA.AWE.3] Balance work schedules for diverse global teams](oa.awe.3-balance-work-schedules-for-diverse-global-teams.md) + [[OA.AWE.4] Provide adaptable workspaces for effective on-site collaboration](oa.awe.4-provide-adaptable-workspaces-for-effective-onsite-collaboration.md) + [[OA.AWE.5] Organize team-building activities and social events to foster a sense of community and promote collaboration](oa.awe.5-organize-team-building-activities-and-social-events-to-foster-a-sense-of-community-and-promote-collaboration.md) # [OA.AWE.1] Equip teams with feature-rich tools for virtual collaboration **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL In a DevOps environment, collaboration tools are required to facilitate effective communication and collaboration among distributed teams. These tools allow teams to rapidly make decisions and solve problems together. Provide well-integrated collaboration tools that support virtual collaboration through chats, voice, video, break-outs, and interactive boards for virtual meetings. These tools should be available on different devices, including desktops, tablets, and mobile. Invest in training for teams on how to use these tools effectively and securely. Gather feedback from teams on the suitability of the collaboration tools and any new features that could enhance their virtual collaboration experience. # [OA.AWE.2] Offer inclusive options for both virtual and on-site collaboration **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Create a more inclusive and high-performing work environment by accommodating employees with diverse needs. To improve the organization's capability to accommodate employees with special needs, conduct assessments of existing facilities and identify areas that require improvement. Collaboration tools should include accessibility features such as closed captioning, screen readers, and speech-to-text capabilities. Promote an inclusive culture throughout the organization by providing training for employees on topics such as diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Gather feedback from employees with special must identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to create a more inclusive and accessible work environment. # [OA.AWE.3] Balance work schedules for diverse global teams **Category:** RECOMMENDED Flexible work policies for appropriate roles are recommended because they help organizations attract and retain skilled employees, while also promoting a healthy work-life balance, improving employee satisfaction, and facilitating global collaboration. Establish policies and guidelines that facilitate remote work and flexible schedules, while fostering communication and collaboration among team members across different time zones and locations. Use techniques such as *follow-the-sun* support models and handovers to promote seamless collaboration across different time zones. Schedule meetings that are convenient for all team members or record and share information if such scheduling is not feasible. Provide employees with the necessary technology and tools to effectively work remotely, while protecting company information through appropriate security measures. Seek feedback from employees to refine and improve the organization's remote work and flexible schedule policies to better meet the needs and preferences of its workforce. # [OA.AWE.4] Provide adaptable workspaces for effective on-site collaboration **Category:** RECOMMENDED Having a flexible and reconfigurable workspace environment promotes DevOps adoption by allowing for customizable collaboration and communication methods that fit individual and team needs. When teams work in the office or use a hybrid approach that requires meeting in person, they require tools and equipment to support their unique ways of working. If your team is fully remote and does not ever meet in person in a designated office, this capability might not apply to your organization. Evaluate the current workspace layout and identify areas that can be reconfigured to better support in-person collaboration. Arrange the seating of teams and team members working on the same products or closely collaborating teams to be in close proximity to each other. This arrangement improves communication, collaboration, and problem resolution among team members. Provide on-site collaboration tools, such as meeting rooms, physical and virtual whiteboards, projectors, and conferencing equipment. Keep the workplace area clean, organized, and accessible for all employees. Gather feedback from teams to assess the effectiveness of the workspace environments, and make necessary improvements to be sure that they meet the needs of the teams. # [OA.AWE.5] Organize team-building activities and social events to foster a sense of community and promote collaboration **Category:** OPTIONAL Organize regular team-building activities and social events to help team members build relationships, foster a sense of community, and promote collaboration. These events can be both in-person and virtual to accommodate remote team members. Encourage employees to participate and provide feedback on these activities to collect data on how impactful or enjoyable they are. These events are more impactful for distributed teams that span multiple time zones, and cities, or work fully remote. # Anti-patterns for adaptive work environment + **Insufficient collaboration tools:** Relying on outdated tools that do not support efficient communication and collaboration between team members. Modern collaboration tools provide feature-rich environments which help facilitate effective team interactions, regardless of geographical location. Invest in up-to-date collaboration tools that support both virtual and in-office collaboration. Regularly assess the needs of your team to help ensure that the tools match their requirements. + **Exclusionary practices:** Using collaboration tools and practices that are not inclusive could alienate some team members and lead to a lack of engagement and participation. Inclusivity helps ensure that all team members, regardless of their preferences or constraints, feel engaged and can contribute equally. Regularly review collaboration tools and practices to verify that they meet the needs of all team members, promoting an inclusive work environment. + **Rigid ways of working:** Mandating strict working conditions without accommodating individual needs and time zones. Flexibility in ways of working enhances productivity and collaboration, especially with global teams spread across different time zones. Implement flexible working conditions, taking into account individual requirements and the global nature of teams. This could include flexible work schedules or permitting team members to work virtually. + **Inflexible workspaces:** Having static workspaces that do not cater to different team needs and collaboration styles can make it difficult for team members to work together efficiently. Adaptable workspaces foster better communication, enhance productivity, and cater to varied team requirements. Re-design workspaces to be more modular and adaptable, ensuring that they can be easily reconfigured to match the evolving needs of teams. + **Neglecting team-building activities**: Failing to organize regular team-building activities and social events prevents the opportunity to strengthen team relationships and build trust. Schedule regular team-building exercises and social events, ensuring they are inclusive of both virtual and on-site team members, and foster a sense of community within the team. # Metrics for adaptive work environment + **Employee net promoter score (eNPS):** Measure employees' engagement and satisfaction within the organization, gauging their likelihood to recommend the organization as an ideal workplace. This can provide insight into the overall health of the organizational culture and indicates the effectiveness of leadership in creating an inclusive and positive work environment. A higher eNPS can correlate with better productivity, lower turnover, and improved team dynamics. Track using periodic, anonymized [net promoter score](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_promoter_score) surveys that require no more that 5–7 minutes to complete. Subtract the percentage of detractors (those who score 0–6) from promoters (those who score 9–10) to get the eNPS value. Neutral scores (7–8) can be ignored. + **Developer efficacy score**: The efficiency and satisfaction of developers measured by their access to and use of necessary tools, resources, and processes that help them get their work done effectively. This metric provides insight into the adaptability of the work environment and how well it caters to the specific needs of the developers. A higher efficacy score indicates a well-adapted environment where developers feel empowered and equipped. Calculate this metric by distributing periodic, anonymized surveys. These surveys should ask team members to rate the effectiveness of tools and resources available to them on a scale from 1 to 10. Then, subtract the percentage of low scorers (those who rate 1–4) from high scorers (those who rate 7–10) to get the developer efficacy score. Neutral scores (5–6) can be ignored. This survey should also inquire about any obstacles, additional tools, or resources they feel would increase their efficiency. # Personal and professional development Organizations that provide personal and professional growth opportunities are able to improve overall employee satisfaction and enable individuals to be more amenable to adopting new ways of working. While transitioning to a DevOps environment, providing professional skills training to existing employees allows them to become accustomed to and fully utilize new technologies, rules, and practices. By supporting ongoing growth opportunities over time, teams can stay up-to-date with industry trends, identify areas for improvement, and drive innovation, which is critical in the fast-paced world of DevOps. **Topics** + [Indicators for personal and professional development](indicators-for-personal-and-professional-development.md) + [Anti-patterns for personal and professional development](anti-patterns-for-personal-and-professional-development.md) + [Metrics for personal and professional development](metrics-for-personal-and-professional-development.md) # Indicators for personal and professional development Nurture a culture of innovation and adaptability by providing continuous growth opportunities. **Topics** + [[OA.PPD.1] Encourage collaboration, innovation, learning, and continuous growth to foster a generative culture](oa.ppd.1-encourage-collaboration-innovation-learning-and-continuous-growth-to-foster-a-generative-culture.md) + [[OA.PPD.2] Allocate time and budget for targeted training](oa.ppd.2-allocate-time-and-budget-for-targeted-training.md) + [[OA.PPD.3] Offer diverse and accessible training options](oa.ppd.3-offer-diverse-and-accessible-training-options.md) + [[OA.PPD.4] Invest in attracting, developing, and retaining skilled employees](oa.ppd.4-invest-in-attracting-developing-and-retaining-skilled-employees.md) + [[OA.PPD.5] Recognize and reward continuous learning](oa.ppd.5-recognize-and-reward-continuous-learning.md) + [[OA.PPD.6] Promote knowledge sharing through inter-team interest groups](oa.ppd.6-promote-knowledge-sharing-through-inter-team-interest-groups.md) # [OA.PPD.1] Encourage collaboration, innovation, learning, and continuous growth to foster a generative culture **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL A generative culture, as defined by [Dr. Ron Westrum's research](https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/13/suppl_2/ii22), provides teams with the autonomy and opportunities to experiment and learn from failures, creating a space for development and performance growth. In a generative culture, individuals feel comfortable expressing their ideas and opinions without fear, and information is openly shared for improvement. This culture is more amenable to successful DevOps adoption than pathological and bureaucratic cultures, which are characterized by a focus on individual power and authority and strict adherence to rules and procedures, respectively. Leaders should promote a culture of openness and inclusivity and provide teams the autonomy and opportunities to experiment and learn from failures. Encouraging these behaviors allows individual contributors to feel comfortable expressing their ideas and opinions. Recognize and celebrate successes at all levels of the organization, while also providing constructive feedback for improvement as part of performance review processes. Leaders should model these behaviors and create an environment that promotes collaboration, innovation, learning, and continuous growth. For example, if individual contributors are asked to learn about DevOps, cloud technologies, or similar topics, leaders should also strive to become certified and knowledgeable about those topics as well, at least at a high level. Leaders should model these behaviors and create an environment that promotes collaboration, innovation, learning, and continuous growth. For example, if individual contributors are asked to learn about DevOps, cloud technologies, or similar topics, leaders should also strive to become knowledgeable about those topics as well. **Related information:** + [A typology of organisational cultures](https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/13/suppl_2/ii22) # [OA.PPD.2] Allocate time and budget for targeted training **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Allocate dedicated time and budget for internal and external training, specifically targeting areas that are necessary for achieving business objectives and driving transformation. This could include leadership training, new employee training, or continuous training for already experienced individual contributors. Identify relevant skills and knowledge gaps, develop a comprehensive training plan, and dedicate resources and time to complete the training. Implement feedback and evaluation mechanisms to measure training outcomes and identify areas for improvement. Exemplary organizations tend to provide financial support or reimbursements for costs associated with taking certifications or course registration fees. **Related information:** + [AWS Well-Architected Cost Optimization Pillar: COST01-BP03 Establish cloud budgets and forecasts](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/cost-optimization-pillar/cost_cloud_financial_management_budget_forecast.html) + [AWS Certification Paths](https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs/AWS_certification_paths.pdf) + [AWS Learning Needs Analysis](https://aws.amazon.com/training/teams/learning-needs-analysis/) # [OA.PPD.3] Offer diverse and accessible training options **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Offer accessible training options with materials and courses made available in multiple languages and formats, including in-person, remote, and self-paced options. Provide accessible and inclusive content for employees with visual or communication impairments, incorporating features like closed captioning and screen reader compatibility. Leaders should identify the diverse training needs of teams and individual team members, and develop accessible training options that are available in multiple languages and formats. Keep training content relevant and up-to-date. Some organizations choose to implement a learning management system (LMS) to track employee progress and provide access to training materials, while others choose to use content developed by third parties. Gather feedback from employees to improve the training modules and delivery formats. **Related information:** + [AWS Certification](https://aws.amazon.com/certification) + [AWS Educate](https://aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate/) + [AWS Skills Centers](https://aws.amazon.com/training/skills-centers/) + [AWS re/Start](https://aws.amazon.com/training/restart/) + [Cloud Academy: DevOps Training Library](https://cloudacademy.com/library/devops/) + [Pluralsight: DevOps Courses](https://www.pluralsight.com/search?q=DevOps) # [OA.PPD.4] Invest in attracting, developing, and retaining skilled employees **Category:** FOUNDATIONAL Invest in attracting, developing, and retaining skilled employees by providing clear role definitions, mentorship programs, career advancement opportunities, and actionable feedback. Gather feedback regularly from employees to understand their needs and inform training and development initiatives. Regularly collect feedback from employees to gauge their needs, directing training and development initiatives accordingly. Build transparent reward and recognition programs, and communicate promotion criteria unambiguously to every employee. This proactive approach crafts an environment where employees can flourish and significantly contribute to the organization's triumph. # [OA.PPD.5] Recognize and reward continuous learning **Category:** RECOMMENDED Establish measurable learning targets, including stretch goals, and design meaningful reward systems to encourage team members to meet their set targets. Regularly provide feedback and progress assessments, which keeps employees aligned with their learning goals. Emphasize the significance of soft skills training and how they correlate with the broader business and team goals. Celebrate and broadly acknowledge individual and team accomplishments related to learning and skill development to reinforce the organization's commitment to fostering a culture of continuous learning. Encourage individuals to pursue relevant certifications that align to their roles and responsibilities to validate their expertise and keep up to date with latest technologies and best practices. Consider financial incentives or reimbursements for successfully obtaining a certification to further motive team members to invest in their continued learning. Organizations can also host regular internal training sessions, workshops, or mentorship programs to facilitate individuals learning from one-another and help accelerate learning through collaboration. Exemplary organizations tend to introduce immersive experiential learning platforms that develop skills through simulation, hands-on problem solving, and gamification. **Related information:** + [AWS Certification Paths](https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs/AWS_certification_paths.pdf) + [AWS Ramp-Up Guide: DevOps Engineer](https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/ramp-up_guides/Ramp-Up_Guide_DevOps.pdf) + [AWS Jams](https://aws.amazon.com/professional-services/jam/) # [OA.PPD.6] Promote knowledge sharing through inter-team interest groups **Category:** RECOMMENDED Facilitate and support knowledge-sharing opportunities and interest groups, often called *skills guilds*, that allow individuals to interact with other like-minded people within the organization on topics of interest. These groups can partake in activities such as internal blogging, hosting internal conferences, attending external events, or group discussions. These opportunities allow for individuals to share their experiences, discuss industry trends, and collaborate on projects with others outside of their immediate team. Allocate time and resources to support these opportunities and groups tailored based on your organization's unique needs and circumstances. This can range from dedicating specific hours each week, providing meeting spaces, or assigning budget for professional development courses and symposiums. Hosting *lunch and learns* or *tech talks*, where passionate individuals or teams discuss specific topics or showcase their projects, can be a great start to facilitating inter-team collaboration. We recommend creating groups which focus on each of the DevOps Sagas presented in this guidance. Groups may choose to further expand into sub-groups to focus on individual capabilities, such as continuous deployment, everything-as-code, monitoring, or security testing, as they see fit. These opportunities and groups help to break down silos and improve cross-team collaboration, which can hasten DevOps adoption. # Anti-patterns for personal and professional development + **Unclear growth opportunities:** Solely depending on existing expertise without providing consistent learning opportunities, combined with a lack of clarity on career progression. Without regular upskilling and a visible growth path, teams can become demotivated and less efficient. Regularly offer training, workshops, and certifications while also outlining clear career pathways that link professional development to career advancement in the organization. + **Non-inclusive training:** Neglecting to consider non-functional skill sets like soft skills and considering the diverse needs of team members might not fully address specific skill gaps, learning styles, or embrace the unique backgrounds and experiences of team members. This can limit the effectiveness of the training and alienate portions of the team. Design targeted training programs that cater to various skill levels, functional and non-functional skills, and recognize the importance of diversity and inclusivity. Ensure that these programs are adaptable and resonate with the unique requirements of team members. + **Reactive talent development:** Only providing development opportunities when a skill gap emerges or when talent starts looking elsewhere, rather than proactively investing in talent attraction, development, and retention. This short-term view can cause a delay in progress and missed growth opportunities. Be proactive about identifying industry trends and upcoming skills requirements. Regularly engage in discussions with team members about their career aspirations and invest in programs that help them achieve these goals. + **Ignoring autonomous knowledge sharing**: Not supporting inter-team knowledge sharing fails to harness the collective knowledge and skills within the organization. Self-directed learning provided through these interactions enables team members to engage with others in the organization about innovative solutions and practices that emerge from diverse experiences and expertise. Encourage team members to actively participate in interest groups to share their experiences, discuss industry trends, and collaborate on projects outside their immediate teams. Recognize and reward active participation and knowledge-sharing to promote a culture of continuous learning and collaboration. # Metrics for personal and professional development + **Employee net promoter score (eNPS):** Measure employees' engagement and satisfaction within the organization, gauging their likelihood to recommend the organization as an ideal workplace. This can provide insight into the overall health of the organizational culture and indicates the effectiveness of leadership in creating an inclusive and positive work environment. A higher eNPS can correlate with better productivity, lower turnover, and improved team dynamics. Track using periodic, anonymized [net promoter score](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_promoter_score) surveys that require no more that 5–7 minutes to complete. Subtract the percentage of detractors (those who score 0–6) from promoters (those who score 9–10) to get the eNPS value. Neutral scores (7–8) can be ignored. + **Meetup frequency:** The frequency of inter-team knowledge-sharing sessions, such as skills guild meetings, internal conferences, or *Lunch and Learns*, held within a specific period, such as monthly or quarterly. A consistent frequency of meetups indicates active collaboration, knowledge transfer, and a vibrant sharing environment among teams. Track each knowledge-sharing session in a dedicated log or system. At the end of your tracking period, tally the total number of sessions. + **Retention rate:** The percentage of team members that remain with the organization over a specific time frame, such as quarterly or yearly. A high retention rate suggests a positive organizational culture, employee satisfaction, and effective professional development initiatives. It also signals stability, which can have positive impacts on business continuity, team dynamics, and retaining top talent. Begin by noting the total number of team members at the start of your tracking period. Then, at the end of this time frame, note the number of team members who have left the organization during that period. To determine the retention rate, subtract the percentage of team members who have left from 100%. For example, if 10 out of 100 team members left over a year, then the retention rate would be 90% for that year. Regularly monitor and compare these rates over different time frames to identify trends and areas for improvement. + **Skill growth rate:** The improvement in employees' skills over a specified period, which indicates the effectiveness of personal and professional development initiatives and an organizational emphasis on continuous learning and growth. Improve this metric by allocating budget and time to dedicated learning activities, setting individual learning goals, and rewarding continuous growth. Use tools such as skill assessments, certifications, or self-assessments to track skill improvements over time.