Resourcing

The complaint

The first and often hardest challenge is to build a successful development team. First off, it is often difficult to attract the right people due to the labor shortage. In addition, the required manpower and knowledge are variable throughout time. Hiring specialists whose knowledge is only briefly required, or temporarily phasing out a team, is often difficult to achieve within your own organization.

The remedy

By relying on a DevOps factory, you'll always have a team with the right capacity and talent available. Moreover, such a team offers a wide range of talents, ensuring that all your project needs are met. In addition, rapid up- or downscaling is possible. This allows for a smooth navigation of dips and surges in project demands. The same team always works with the same project or customer, eliminating the hassle of starting over with new people each time. The traveler's mechanism also applies; because the team is embedded in a larger IT organization, they always have access to an inexhaustible source of knowledge as a sounding board. In this way, expertise from someone outside the team is quickly available in the critical phases of a project.

Knowledge Retention and Continuity

The complaint

Due to the strong competition in the labor market, retention of sought-after IT professionals is poor. This can be very detrimental to the progress of your project. Not only do you experience a delay, there is also a real chance that the departure of a team member will result in significant loss of knowledge.

The remedy

A DevOps factory is in a better position to absorb such fluctuations due to the large volume of available talent. Knowledge is held and disseminated within one team. The team remains intact after completion of the project and can continue to maintain the project if necessary. In addition, they gradually create a knowledge database.

Methodology and Tools

The complaint

The development of an application is often too slow for the business, which can cause tensions and a loss of market opportunity. Working transparently and efficiently also necessitates many additional tools, such as a building environment or documentation tool. As non-IT companies generally don't have these tools, this is an added investment.

The remedy

By developing iteratively and incrementally, an initial version (minimum viable product) can be delivered quickly. The iterative approach also provides a lot of feedback loops and a proper focus on the most important functionality. A DevOps factory usually has an ecosystem of tools that are tailored to the available methodology. The tools provide real-time quality control and automate labor-intensive tasks. Often, agile coaches are also available to constantly evaluate and adjust the process.

Managed Services and Maintenance

The complaint

Once an application is finished, it must be transferred to a maintenance team. This often leads to loss of knowledge, and is a time-consuming process. If the work is done in iterations, support is really required from the first release.

The remedy

Maintenance is carried out by the same team in a DevOps factory. Managed services were already operational during the project, with the team providing support and continuing work in parallel to the road map.

Collaboration and Business Value

The complaint

Passing on a project to an external team can also raise concerns. Is it really safe to have knowledge build up about my organization in the course of the project? Will the team remain a black box to us? In short, involving an unknown party leads to uncertainty.

The remedy

The company the DevOps team works for is considered a full team member. This also means that all your business knowledge is taken into account during the project. Cooperation is close, with contact moments at least once a week, allowing for co-creation. This enables the team to provide permanent insights in terms of progress and budget, scope changes and quality.