DevOps Metrics – Time vs. Cost

There are three main principles that will help to optimize your DevOps initiative. You may have heard them referred to as The Three Ways.

All three of the principles will have a role to play but for the purpose of Time vs. Cost, I would like to focus on the first way which is “The Flow of Work from Left to Right”. When considering this flow of work think of the value stream from left to right as being from the time the request is made until the time that value is realized.

Using LEAN methods and applying techniques like the Theory of Constraints we can increase velocity to apply just the right cadence to meet the evolving business demand.

These practices along with our DevOps integration, Continuous Delivery Pipelines and automation will radically increase the time to value for products and services. Time is a key metric. DevOps organizations use “time” as the primary measurement tool.

Why time is a better metric than cost:

Time is used to set goals beyond lead time and cycle time
Time is used to design how work is organized
Time is measured at the physical activity level
Time is used to diagnose problems (early in the pipeline, NOT in production)
Time metrics used will force IT to look at the overall process, policies, and governance of the overall process
Time metrics enable for improvements that really matter

Most importantly time impacts both quality and cost. Therefore, if you were thinking “What about quality or what about cost”, consider the impact that the time to perform all delivery, test, compliance and support will have on both of those.

For every quartering of the total completion time, productivity will double, and cost will be reduced by 20%.

More than ever business must compete. We are competing against time!

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