Scaling down: DevOps ROI for small organizations

Small organizations face a unique set of challenges when it comes to DevOps:

• On the one hand, they don’t share the traditional challenge of “siloed” development and operations teams.

• On the other hand, they need the value that DevOps toolstacks can provide all the more, but have limited implementation resources.

In this presentation, we will share how our company of six (all wearing many hats!) has leveraged some of the many services and practices now available. Just as or more importantly, we present the decision-making framework we use when deciding how to allocate development resources, be it towards new features, testing, marketing or any of the other myriad choices. In this way, we aim to capture the most value possible while avoiding the overcommitment of time/resources to any specific domain.

We will compare and contrast available approaches and discuss various DaaS options, (DevOps as a Service, did I just coin that?) but do not recommend any specific companies or services. Instead, our focus is on finding the maximum business value in the organization.

Who should attend: this session will be of particular interest to members of bootstrapped startups, smaller non-profit/educational organizations, and small consulting shops. People without a systems background are particularly encouraged to attend, as this session does not assume foreknowledge of specific DevOps tools or principles.