How DevOps and Change Management Work Together

Many commentators are recognizing the link between digital transformation and the adoption of DevOps practices to deliver solutions faster and remain competitive. But what does progress look like?

Faster innovation adoption, and product delivery, all suggest DevOps adoption. But without the assistance of the right tools, mainframe organizations expecting reduced cycle times, quicker onboarding of new technologies, improved quality, security, stability and compliance may find a clear divide between reality and expectation. We can help bridge that gap.

Managing change vs Change Management

The ultimate goal of IT transformation is improvement – specifically a faster, more reliable path through the delivery lifecycle. That’s the change piece. And it takes Change Management tools to facilitate effective transformation. Because DevOps must include – in simple terms – a blend of technology and process. So effective change requires careful, targeted management supported by effective tools.

Long story short: Process, Application and Infrastructure are the three hot spots any mainframe-based modernisation effort will target. While process change underpins DevOps adoption, all three areas will come into focus during the transformation process. Different tools contribute, and there is no hierarchy – hence our ‘better together’ motif.

Our new series of mainframe DevOps webinars is also going to help you understand which areas of change need most careful management, and where our tools, knowledge and experience meet those needs in a collaborative journey to improvement.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ strategy for DevOps implementation, so understanding the unique journey your code changes take on their way to IT operations and delivery is key. This complex path includes processes, people, tooling – essentially everything that impacts application delivery. But that’s where the improvements happen and where the DevOps magic lies.

So your first priority should be identifying the critical paths in your change management value stream. They will define your DevOps priorities  – the changes that offer the best and fastest return.

That sounds like best practices?

It does. Our webinars will tackle many common challenges our customers experience in their DevOps implementation. The first webinar, Change Management at the heart of DevOps adoption, included a best practices section, proven over many years to help and prepare enterprise organizations like yours successfully implement DevOps adoption.

Bob Yates, our Sr. Mainframe Solutions Architect – a specialist in change and source control management – presented alongside me, and the webinar is now available to download in full by following this link

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