A theme we encounter very often with companies attempting DevOps transformations is that they rarely know where to start. Our advice: start by figuring out your goals – DevOps is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

One of the most common goals we come across is that companies want to “ship faster without breaking everything” – accelerate the delivery of new features to their users while maintaining a sufficiently high level of quality. A clear, measurable goal, which is good…but where do you go from there?

Here is our take:

1. Start by just enacting simple, tooling-related changes that move you towards your goal. We’ve all heard about the principles, philosophies, culture etc. behind “successful DevOps,” but you generally need a basic technical foundation before you’re in a position to start to promote those.
2. Make your focus on practicing improvement, not “practicing “DevOps.”