This article is based on commentary originally published by ZDNet, featuring perspectives from CIO consultant Andrew Abboud, Scope CDO Mark Foulsham, Camden Council interim CIO Omid Shiraji, and Capgemini’s Paul Pogonoski.
DevOps is much more than a toolkit for faster software releases. The core principles behind it — iterative development, continuous delivery, cross-functional collaboration, and tight feedback loops — are spreading beyond IT departments and reshaping how entire organisations operate. Here are four practitioner perspectives on where DevOps is heading and how to get the most from it.
1. Tailored Agility Will Drive Cross-Organisation Integration
CIO consultant Andrew Abboud argues that DevOps is now a permanent fixture in modern enterprise — but cautions against applying it uniformly. “DevOps is here to stay — it’s an essential part of a truly agile organisation,” he says, “but you have to tailor DevOps to the specific needs of your organisation.”
Continuous release cycles, for example, are critical for high-traffic e-commerce platforms but may be unnecessary overhead for organisations with different delivery rhythms. Forcing the same cadence on every team or department can create friction rather than value.
Abboud, formerly CIO at Laureate Education, also draws a direct line between DevOps adoption and the broader automation of previously manual processes. Crucially, he insists that automation does not diminish the need for skilled people — it changes the nature of that need.
“You still need people in your IT department with the skills to manage projects — that’s where the value comes from. Even with all the increasing automation in modern business, IT is still about great people. Each new way of using technology still requires people to make the most of those tools.”
Andrew Abboud, CIO Consultant
The implication for IT leaders is clear: before adopting DevOps practices wholesale, audit your organisation’s actual delivery cadence, customer expectations, and risk tolerance. Fit the practice to the organisation, not the other way around.
2. Measured Customer Feedback Will Improve Service Quality
Mark Foulsham, Chief Digital Officer at Scope, argues that effective DevOps is inseparable from product and service outcomes. If customers are not integrated into the development loop, the process is incomplete — regardless of how technically sophisticated the pipeline is.
“If you’re not involving your customers in your development process, then you’re not doing it right. You must look to build the customer into your development chain.”
Mark Foulsham, CDO, Scope
Practical approaches include bringing customers into testing phases for new services, defining measurable service objectives from the outset, and building the means to measure those objectives directly into the business model. The goal is to create a convergence point where Agile development practices, DevOps delivery mechanisms, and real customer feedback reinforce each other continuously.
Foulsham also acknowledges that traditional waterfall methods retain a legitimate role — particularly in IT infrastructure projects where requirements are stable and upfront planning delivers clear value. Agile and DevOps come into their own, he argues, when the focus shifts to delivering products and services that customers will directly consume and evaluate.
3. Talented People in the Right Context Will Help Organisations Excel
Omid Shiraji, then interim CIO at Camden Council, identifies the skills gap as one of the most persistent challenges facing IT leaders adopting DevOps. His experience running a DevOps function in a public-sector organisation highlights a tension that many enterprises encounter: the mindset required for rapid iterative delivery is often different from the mindset required for stable ongoing support and maintenance.
“That is two different mindsets — most people will end up being really good at either delivery or support. CIOs who use Agile have got to make sure they create the right environment and put the right sort of governance and procedures in place.”
Omid Shiraji, Interim CIO, Camden Council
Rather than avoiding Agile because of this tension, Shiraji recommends that leaders actively design structures that accommodate both profiles. This means being deliberate about team composition, role definitions, and the governance frameworks that surround DevOps-enabled delivery.
He is equally emphatic about context-sensitivity. In high-stakes environments — critical infrastructure, adult social care, children’s services — the rigour applied to support and operations must be proportionally higher. Agile’s value is real, but it must be deployed selectively and with appropriate controls.
4. Federated IT Departments Will Cope with the Rapid Pace of Change
Paul Pogonoski, Director of Cloud Foundation Services at Capgemini, takes a structural view of DevOps’ trajectory. He argues that the pace of change in digital business is fundamentally altering the IT lifecycle — application lifespans of two to three years are becoming common — and that only organisations willing to experiment at pace will remain competitive.
“Digital means a business is engaging with its customers in the way they want to engage. There is an emphasis on doing things quickly. CIOs must recognise how the IT lifecycle is changing over time.”
Paul Pogonoski, Director of Cloud Foundation Services, Capgemini
Pogonoski identifies several practical benefits that Agile and continuous delivery unlock for organisations willing to commit to them: the ability to break work into smaller, lower-risk increments; a culture that accepts and learns from fast failure; and the capacity to measure outcomes and iterate quickly based on real data.
His structural prescription is that IT must become less centralised and more federated — with central functions setting guardrails and standards, but delivery authority distributed across teams closer to the business. The distinction he draws between “bleeding edge” and “fast follower” is particularly useful: organisations do not need to pioneer new practices, but they do need the organisational capacity to adopt proven ones quickly.
“You don’t have to keep inventing new things, but you do have to react quickly. IT must become less centralised and more federated; control but don’t manage.”
Paul Pogonoski, Capgemini
Key Takeaways for DevOps Leaders
- Tailor before you implement. Match DevOps practices to your organisation’s actual delivery cadence and risk profile — avoid cargo-culting approaches designed for web-scale businesses if your context is different.
- Build the customer into the loop. Customer feedback is not a post-release activity. Define measurable outcomes early and instrument your delivery pipeline to capture them.
- Invest in people deliberately. Recognise that delivery-focused and support-focused mindsets are different, and design team structures and hiring strategies accordingly.
- Federate, don’t centralise. Distribute delivery authority while maintaining central governance. This is what enables the experimentation and rapid iteration that DevOps promises.
- Apply appropriate rigour by context. High-stakes environments demand higher operational rigour. Agile and DevOps can coexist with strict governance — but only if that governance is designed in from the start.
Original source: ZDNet (2017). Quotes and perspectives are attributed to the individuals named and reflect their views at the time of publication.