In the world of always-on services, many organizations have taken the path to modernize their IT operations to provide greater agility, lower cost, and most importantly, to deliver frictionless digital customer experiences.

Is your DevOps team deploying more frequently than operations can support? Are you struggling to keep up with the maintenance issues associated with aging software? Modernizing your IT operations can be the key to overcoming these complexities.

While the path to IT modernization does require new tools and practices, one of the biggest mistakes an organization can make is to overlook the cultural change required.

Set a Collaborative Tone

Implementing IT changes can be difficult for teams to adapt to, especially if it feels like those enforcing the changes and those working within the new processes aren’t aligned. Using effective communication and collaborative methods is critical to breaking down silos. Adopting any new approach requires everyone involved to be on the same page, and communication is the best way to get there. This can be as easy as using words like “we” instead of “I”, but also opening channels of discussion and collaboration where possible.

Documentation Matters

More often than not, writing documentation is treated as an afterthought. But to keep up with the constant changes in today’s complex IT environments and to fill in any knowledge gaps between team members, documentation needs to be looked at as a critical element in the path to modern IT operations. Most organizations have a communications team, or even a technical communications team, that should be included in documentation processes.

Divide and Conquer

Implementing smaller groups, each with a specific focus ensures that there’s no duplication of work and nothing falls through the cracks. The small size of the groups also helps keep each one nimble and agile, so work progresses faster.

Breaking Down Silos

Setting up cross-functional groups where developers are embedded in operations groups, and vice versa reduces misunderstandings and mistakes between departments, keeping everyone aligned. With organizations needing to be more agile than ever, especially in modern IT operations, cross-functional collaboration is key to meeting that demand.

Modernizing your IT operations is no longer a luxury, or even an option; it’s a necessary practice that supports day-to-day operations and to compete in today’s reality. To successfully adopt modern IT operations, organizations cannot overlook the necessary cultural shifts. The companies that don’t take on this modernization path risk falling behind competitors and further impeding any ability they may have to catch up in the long term.

A vital part of any modern IT operation is having the right tools in place, and a service reliability platform is one of those tools. With xMatters, businesses can integrate their tools, automate redundant processes, and accelerate their incident management and response with our leading service reliability platform. Plus, you can get started today for free!

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