DevOps For Startups: High-Performing Teams, Happy Customers

We can define ‘DevOps’ in a number of ways.

Can’t we?

Yes, DevOps is an approach, DevOps is a culture, DevOps is a philosophy, DevOps is a set of processes, DevOps is a set of principles, and so on.

It has a great influence on project management, development, and delivery.

We have already written a bunch of articles on DevOps, covering its broad scope, cultural impact, and potential to truly transform organizations of any size, any type.

Through this post, we are exploring a combination of DevOps and Startups, how it is advantageous to the startups and why DevOps is great for startups.

If we define DevOps in one line, certainly we can say,

DevOps puts emphasize on culture, collaboration, continuation.

From startups to large-scale enterprises, DevOps is changing how organizations build and deliver software or products. It promotes a ‘continuous environment’ where improvement, releases, and updates are frequent than ever.

DevOps for Startups: Correct Or Complex?

Updates and releases are no longer a part of the ‘Big Bang’ launch now.

They become one of the norms companies have to follow in order to stay competitive in the market irrespective of size and type.

Whether it is a startup or a successful business – every organization has to meet today’s customers’ ever-changing demands. DevOps can help ease this journey by enabling ‘continuous everything’ at every level of your organization.

Companies who have implemented DevOps, are able to get things done collaboratively, quickly and efficiently. Productivity and customer-satisfaction also increased after implementing DevOps in their organizations.

For startups, DevOps seems to solve all questions at an early stage, rather realizing it later and deal with it. DevOps has numerous benefits to offer to the startup world including strong collaboration, cross-functional team, faster time-to-market, and quality-first approach.

Startups have numerous things uncertain at the initial phase.

And DevOps seems a perfect approach to overcome all the hurdles in your venture.

Why We Advocate DevOps For Startups? Here’s Your Answer

Startups need to pay closer attention to a wide range of factors from day one.

Everything will be in trial and error mode until the idea will be fully shaped and executed. Three things are crucial for startups:

• Maintain business agility
• Faster reflection of changes
• Strong collaboration

DevOps can help startups to improve or modify as quickly as possible and then release rapidly along with feedback from everyone who is associated with the idea. DevOps means more benefits for startups.

It can be:

• Cultural Benefits
• Technical Benefits
• Organizational/ Business Benefits

Cultural Benefits of DevOps For Startups: Close The Gap Between Teams

Culture is simply having a shared vision for doing something passionately. Right behavior, people-friendly atmosphere, and core beliefs are very crucial for startup success. Implementing ‘DevOps As A Philosophy’ increase the chances of happier teams and strong connections between everyone in the organization.

DevOps For Startup: From Culture Perspectives

• High-performing, more productive teams
• Increased employee engagement
• Involvement of every person in the team in all the organizational activity
• Shared vision and individual accountability
• Opportunities for everyone

Coming to the technical aspects, DevOps yields higher results by transforming the ways of software development and delivery.

DevOps for Startup: From Technical Perspectives

DevOps puts software development journey on the fast track, i.e., incremental updates rather following the ‘plan-build-launch-everything’ approach.

DevOps follows ‘continuous everything’ practices with the help of continuous integration, continuous testing, and continuous delivery. In that way, DevOps practices can meet the changing expectations of customers and employees.

DevOps is not just a set of processes and frameworks; it’s an approach to software development. That’s the reason it mandates changes in mindset also.

A wide range of tools available in the market that help you establish continuous software delivery driven by feedbacks, resulting in faster and secure development.

More Technical Benefits of DevOps For Startups:

• Streamlined infrastructure and configuration environment
• Faster reflection of changes
• Scale resources as and when needed
• Fewer complexities in the whole process
• Shared responsibilities
• Automated deployment pipeline
• Quick fixes and solution of issues

It promotes a people-first culture which further helps you understand feedbacks and requirements clearly to deliver great products.

Now, most important, what are the business benefits of DevOps for startups?

Business Point of View: DevOps for Startups

Fin Goulding, Aviva International CIO talks about the role of DevOps in Startup in one Forbes “Do All Businesses Need DevOps?” article, he further mentioned that,

“Smaller companies and start-ups have no option. Fungible roles, extreme automation and everyone pitching in, is the norm. This is how they get features into the hands of customers at pace. But that organizational agility is something that large companies struggle with.”

In this hyper-connected and ever-changing business environment, it’s extremely important for businesses to keep up with changes.

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ DevOps implementation. Every organization has its own requirements and challenges that can’t be solved using the same model and DevOps practices.

But, as we said, it’s more of a mindset, it helps create a stable and yet changing environment where updates and close collaboration are important factors.

Business Benefits of DevOps For Startups:

• Increased customer satisfaction
• Improved communication between teams
• Strong collaboration to work on a common vision
• Focus on updates and innovation, not on maintenance and fixing issues
• Happy employees, happy customers
• Cost-saving and time-saving

A startup is closely associated with the right timing. To deliver a product at the right time and with the right modification can make a huge difference.

DevOps for Scaleups: Greater Benefits, Fewer Efforts

When your startup is established, up and running, you can scale up easier with DevOps. It helps you expand your scopes, add required resources, manage infrastructure effortlessly, add/remove functionalities in products, and maintain the quality throughout the journey.

DevOps In Startups Brings Innovation, Speed, And Efficiency

It is a continuous journey.

You try and fail. You try and get succeeded. It is always a continuous cycle of innovating and trying something so you can survive in the ever-changing business landscape. DevOps can help you overcome every hurdle related to startup, establishing a modern, forward-looking culture where agility and efficiency are of more value.