Bengaluru, September 5 : The DevOps culture signifies a sea change in how businesses handle software development and IT operations. DevOps provides quicker, more reliable software delivery by embracing collaboration, automation, continuous integration, and a dedication to feedback. While deploying DevOps might be difficult, the benefits in terms of greater efficiency, quality, and cooperation make it a revolutionary force in today’s digital economy.
In an era where agility and innovation are critical, a DevOps culture is not a choice; it is a need for enterprises looking to flourish in a competitive market. Join Marquis Fernandes, Business Head – Quantic India, as he talks with Ms. Usha Seetharaman, Director of Engineering – Google Pay to dive into the world of DevOps
Ms. Usha is an accomplished Engineering Leader with over 23+ years of experience in the technology industry. She spearheads cross-functional teams at GPay, driving the development of key UPI features, scaling Bill Pay and Recharges, improving transaction reliability and enhancing the overall pay flow experience. With a keen eye for detail and a results-oriented mindset, Usha is known for her unwavering focus on driving continuous improvement in product development processes and driving innovation to deliver outstanding customer experiences
Being a leader who comes with an experience of building high performance teams with an agile culture, what should be some key traits of a leader as they lead a DevOps team?
Drawing from my experience in cultivating high-performance teams with an agile culture, I believe some of key traits that can be incorporated within a DevOps team are:
- Promoting Continuous Improvement: Encouraging a mindset of continuous improvement is vital. Leaders should provide opportunities to enhance processes continuously that help unblock teams faster, address bottlenecks, and optimize workflows.
- Incorporating Data-Driven Decision-Making: It is important to advocate for data-informed decision-making. Encouraging the use of metrics and insights enables teams to make informed choices that drive outcomes.
- Nurturing a User-Focused Approach: Ensuring the team’s alignment with user needs is crucial, establishing a robust feedback loop from user insights and feedback that fuels continuous improvement efforts.
- Enabling Cross-functional Collaboration: Collaboration, clear communication and shared goals ensures a holistic approach to problem-solving and maximizes the team’s collective expertise.
How do you perceive innovation and experimentation when it comes to product development?
Fostering a culture of innovation involves equipping teams with the infrastructure, tools and promoting a safe environment needed for controlled experimentation. Through practices like feature flags, gradual rollouts, A/B testing and canary releases, teams can introduce changes while closely monitoring outcomes. This approach empowers risk control by swiftly identifying and addressing issues and also ensures that user experience and operational stability aren’t impacted.
What sparked your interest in speaking about startups? Do you think DevOps can be a key component in this industry to drive their future?
During my tenure at a startup, I gained invaluable experience in overseeing processes from inception to completion—addressing bugs, assembling high-achieving teams, and engaging in marketing and product development. Recognizing the value of fostering mutual learning and support within the community, I sought to share insights and also learn in the process, ultimately benefiting the startup ecosystem.
I firmly believe that DevOps has the potential to be a transformative force within the startup sector, significantly shaping its future trajectory. Startups operate in an environment where agility, speed, and efficiency are paramount, and these are precisely the areas where DevOps excels. Some of the reasons why DevOps would be a key driver are:
- Efficiency and Resource Optimization: With limited resources, startups need to make the most of what they have. DevOps practices streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and optimize resource allocation, resulting in efficient operations and cost savings.
- Innovation and Experimentation: Startups thrive on innovation and experimentation. DevOps embraces the tools and infra needed to create a culture of experimentation by making it easier to test, gather feedback, and refine products based on real-world insights.
In your opinion, what are the most significant challenges that organizations typically face when transitioning to a DevOps culture, and how can these challenges be overcome?
One of the key hurdles for transitioning to DevOps is the required mindset shift towards continuous development. Overcoming traditional silos and fostering collaboration is essential. Balancing technical excellence and business priorities is another critical aspect to deliver high-quality software and maintain a reliable infrastructure.
Automation is a key tenet of DevOps. How have you seen the adoption of automation impact efficiency and reliability in your software development processes?
Automation is one of the key cornerstones of the DevOps philosophy, and its adoption has had a profound impact on the efficiency and reliability of our software development processes.
- Acceleration of Deployment and Releases: Automation has revolutionized our deployment and release cycles. This not only reduces the risk of human errors but also significantly speeds up the time to market.
- Enhanced Consistency and Repeatability: The integration of automation has helped streamline operations by ensuring consistency which minimizes variations that could potentially lead to issues, resulting in a more stable and reliable system.
- Focus on Innovation and Strategy: By increasing automation, teams can channel their expertise and time toward more innovative and strategic endeavors such as designing new features, optimizing performance, and tackling complex challenges that drive products forward.
- Proactive Issue Identification and Reliability: Automated testing and continuous monitoring have become our allies in achieving higher reliability. These tools enable us to identify potential issues at an early stage of development, facilitating swift remediation before they escalate.
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