What DevOps Teams Can Learn From the Patriots Success

Being from New England, it’s hard not to be excited about the Patriots. As a writer in the DevOps field, I’m constantly looking up trends and behaviors that make DevOps teams successful. It’s hard not to recognize a parallel between a team that has sustained success over almost 20 years, and what makes a DevOps team successful today.

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One thing that the Patriots have done is redefine the NFL over the years. They’ve innovated through their gameplans, roster decisions, culture, etc. DevOps is working in a similar way. It is redefining the IT world through new technologies and a collaborative team culture. There is more to learn about DevOps from the success of a football team than you might think.

Learning from failure

We all hate to fail, that’s especially true of Bill Belichick. However, sometimes failing is exactly what needs to happen to find improvement.

In last year’s Super Bowl the Patriots failed for most of the game, falling behind 28-3. They devised a new plan after recognizing their failures and made the proper adjustments. Any successful sports team sees failure in a different way. IT teams need to change how they view failure as well.

Avoidance is easy to do in the IT world, you simply don’t change anything. This approach doesn’t make sense when the technology around your IT team is constantly changing. Adopting new approaches, like cloud platforms or container management, are important to maintaining success in your business. One thing that differentiates Bill Belichick from other coaches is that he’s constantly experimenting with new gameplans. Experimentation and change isn’t a bad thing, even if failure comes, use failure to improve yourself and your team.

Gameplan

Gameplanning is an obvious component of any sport. The Patriots’ gameplans tend to be successful, hence their historic success. Gameplanning is just as important in IT.

When implementing DevOps, it’s important to start on a smaller scale. People hear about large companies, like Netflix, finding tremendous success using DevOps, but getting overzealous is going to hinder the transition. Having patience is critical to finding success in DevOps. The Patriots weren’t the Patriots overnight. Bill Belichick’s first season with the Patriots ended with a 5-11 record. That might be where you start, but gameplanning will set you up for future success.

Gameplanning starts with understanding the needs of your teams and what tools they can best utilize. Not every team is going to need the same tools at the outset. Our Free Buyer’s Guide has information about individual providers and what they specifically offer to enterprises. Finding the right tools starts with research, as with any gameplan.

Rethink your team

For years NFL tight ends were traditionally pass-blockers. There were a few exceptions, but the standard was set. Then comes Rob Gronkowski and the Patriots change the way defenses think about tight ends.

IT executives need to change their approach in a similar way. The classic IT organizational structure is obsolete. The adage “that’s how we’ve always done it” is not an option in the IT space. Teams need to remove the strict silos and allow teams to be collaborative. Culture is what DevOps is all about. The same can be said of the Patriots success. It’s all about culture.

Culture is far more important than any singular technology. Hence, leadership needs to be willing to change anything that will hinder a team’s success.  If your IT teams aren’t working collaboratively then you might not find the success you want. Sports teams with the most talent don’t always beat a team with the best culture. Culture is what drives success.

For example, your team shouldn’t be doing repetitive tasks anymore. Use automation to eliminate tasks that don’t necessarily need a human touch. Your teams will have more time to work together and deliver the best software possible to your end-users. Making your team’s job easier and providing customers with the best experience should always be priorities. This is easier to accomplish than ever with cloud platforms and container tools.