How to Prove Value With DevOps Metrics
Speed to market is a critical success factor in today’s highly competitive software market. However, customer experience can make or break a release, so development teams must always balance the efficient delivery of a release against quality user experience. DevOps methodologies were developed to ensure balance can be achieved, focusing on a unified development and operations team that facilitates continuous integration and delivery. DevOps can transform the development process, but only if you are able to measure its business value.
Focus on Value Stream Mapping
Metrics are only valuable when you’re measuring the right things. There are endless ways to measure the effectiveness of DevOps, but one of the most effective strategies is known as value stream mapping. Strong value stream mapping ensures software is indeed continually improving the customer experience.
Value stream mapping focuses on collecting relevant data that includes value stream health status, tool chain performance, traceability and more. This methodology allows project managers to compare apples to apples for measurable results. Value stream mapping focuses on similar streams across a common set of KPIs that allow objective determinations about whether DevOps is actually delivering increased speed and a better customer experience.
How To Get Started With Value Stream Mapping in DevOps
When it comes to value stream mapping, unique metrics will always be specific to your organizational goals. However, there are some important KPIs that can always be useful when measuring DevOps success:
- Unplanned work rate: Measures the percentage of unplanned issues that occur.
- Rework rate: Measures the percentage of tickets issued per release.
- Change lead time: Measures the length of time between submission of a change and execution of the change.
- Defect rate: The number of defects uncovered for a set timeframe.
- Mean time between failures: The average time between a problem being uncovered and that problem being corrected.
This data, along with other KPIs you deem important based on your goals, can be leveraged to make data-driven decisions in the development process, and can be incorporated into the process to trigger events as the lifecycle of a project progresses. The end goals of value stream mapping should always be to help the team gain a strong understanding of their impact and value on a project, and to gain a better understanding of where to focus resources in the future.
Are You Looking for DevOps Talent?
DevOps only adds value when you have the right people in the right seats, pulling together to achieve common goals. If you are looking for top tech talent in DevOps, development or operations who can help you achieve your strategic goals, contact the tech recruiting experts at Talon today.
