You want to do DevOps. Your team wants to do DevOps. Even your CIO wants to do DevOps. But then comes the inevitable question: “What is the business case?” In this five-minute Ignite Talk at DevOpsDays, I share a simple but powerful tool to convince decision makers that DevOps is worth the investment.
The Problem: Decision Makers Want Numbers#
Today’s enterprises struggle with technical debt, organizational silos, and cost cuts. Decision makers want to adopt DevOps, but they do not understand what it actually is. When you talk about trust, accountability, and data-driven decision making, they nod. When you mention faster deployments and improved mean time to recovery, they agree. But then they say: “You cannot have any money. We have cost cuts. What is the business case?”
Understanding Where Value Is Generated#
A business case is simple: divide benefits and chances by costs and risks. If the result is positive, do it. Decision makers care about one thing above all: when do they get their return on investment?
The critical insight is this: value is only generated at the customer site. From idea through implementation to deployment, no value is generated. Only when the customer uses the product and pays for it does value appear. That money can then be reinvested into new ideas flowing through the value stream.
“Value is only generated at the customer site. From the idea through implementation till deployment, no value is generated.”
The Time Value of Money#
The economic concept of Time Value of Money states that a dollar today is always worth more than a dollar tomorrow. This means you should invest early and invest now.
Traditional enterprises have three-month release cycles. During those three months, no value is generated. Only after release does value flow. With DevOps, release cycles shrink. Value reaches the customer faster. Return on investment comes sooner. And that faster return can be reinvested into further DevOps improvements, creating a compounding effect.
The Virtuous Cycle#
The first step is straightforward: take part of your earnings and invest them into improving the lead time of your value chain. As the value stream gets faster, you can do more deployments and achieve faster return on investment, which you reinvest again.
This creates a virtuous cycle: fast value generation leads to fast return on investment, which funds more DevOps improvements, which accelerates value generation even further. Everybody wins: the company, the teams, and the customers.
Key Takeaways#
Focus on fast value generation. The core of the DevOps business case is shortening the time from idea to customer value.
Use the Time Value of Money. Investing in DevOps now is worth more than investing later, because earlier value generation compounds over time.
Show the reinvestment cycle. DevOps is not a one-time cost. Each improvement funds the next, creating accelerating returns.