How do you implement agile infrastructure teams? This article explores the Principles, Methodologies, and Skills required to adopt this approach. Agile infrastructure teams will make your life easier, whether a small startup or a multinational enterprise. Read on to learn more.

Principles

For IT organizations looking to create an agile infrastructure organization, the first step is to define what they want from their new team. Next, define the scope of the team’s work and how they will deliver the service to customers. Once they have determined the scope, it’s time to empower them to execute the plan. Then, using a simple process like an agile scrum master meeting, teams can begin implementing the principles of agility.

Creating an agile infrastructure team starts with defining the scope of the work. For example, consider whether the team needs to involve application developers or operations teams. Then, organize work according to scope, then separate it into appropriate teams. Finally, as each team starts working, consider how they can sustain the change. For example, a team focused on automating the infrastructure might be composed of only a few people, while one focusing on operations and support work might use a kanban process.

Methodologies

Organizations looking to improve their IT infrastructure can benefit from applying new methodologies. For example, agile infrastructure teams can be deployed across the company to improve labor-intensive services, and this type of team can benefit companies in many ways.

Skills required

The roles of engineers in an agile infrastructure organization require different skill sets than those required of application developers. Infrastructure engineers are vital to the success of an agile transformation, but their job responsibilities often overlap. For example, an infrastructure organization at a European financial services company found highly qualified engineers by screening existing employees and offering them roles in the infrastructure squad. The engineers most suited for these roles were promoted to infrastructure engineers. These engineers then worked closely with the application development teams to develop new software and architectures.

In a traditional organization, there is little collaboration between the application and infrastructure teams, as both teams largely focus on the initial set-up of systems for new applications and solving critical incidents. The typical infrastructure engineer is not aware of application development and has little knowledge about the application-development process, and the application developers do not understand the operational issues associated with the applications they support. Agile organizations encourage greater collaboration between application development and infrastructure teams, as well as fostering a common understanding of the other’s role in the organization.