Automating IT operations focuses on replacing routine tasks with automated solutions. This can be applied to two areas: internal company processes and the automation of development processes. Internal business process automation involves management practices and workflow automation techniques. Development automation relates mostly to DevOps services and practices, which improves collaboration between development and operations. In this article, we'll explore both perspectives in detail.

Workflow operations automation within development companies

Global Market Insights forecast a significant growth in the workflow automation market across different businesses, including both SME and enterprise automation, with expectations for the market to reach $25 billion by 2032. Let's explore the criteria that contribute to internal operations automation functioning like clockwork.

Clear goals and objectives

When implementing operations automation it is important to make sure that goals set are business-driven. Any decision should take into account stakeholders across IT, business units, and leadership to define what success looks like. Objectives might be reducing operational costs, accelerating time-to-market, or improving customer experience.

Actions to take:

SMART goals help to clarify objectives. The acronym stands for the characteristics a goal should have: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Workshops and strategy sessions with stakeholders to make sure that business process automation initiatives correspond to the core priorities.

Frameworks like Objectives and Key Result (OKRs) and Narrative, Commitment, Task (NCT) help to track progress against business outcomes. The difference between them is that OKR focuses on setting and tracking specific, measurable goals and outcomes, while NCT emphasizes articulating a strategic narrative and outlining the commitments and tasks necessary to achieve desired outcomes. At Ronas IT, we prefer the NCT framework for its clarity, we revise it annually and make individual plans for each department.

Clearly documenting goals in project charters or automation roadmaps helps in monitoring and controlling progress. This doesn't need to be done through a separate analytics tool. For example, workflow automation software like ClickUp can track work on clients' projects while also accommodating a company's internal documentation, including a percentage scale to show the progress of NCT tasks.

It's important to remember that implementing the techniques mentioned above should focus not on technical efficiency but on generating measurable business value, as that's how they will be most beneficial. For example, enterprise automation in retail can not only improve inventory management processes but also help to analyze sales patterns in real-time, allowing the business to optimize stock levels, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction by making products available.

Identification and eliminations of bottlenecks and inefficiencies

Among widespread reasons that lead to slower performance are such as outdated tech, resource constraints, and inefficient workflows. These result in delays, reduced throughput, and errors. To identify these capacity bottlenecks, the following techniques might be helpful:

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) can help visualize business process flows and distinguish value-added and non-value-added steps. The visual map shows steps involved in producing a product or completing a service. The VSM technique comes from Toyota Production System — the company created a flow where every step of manufacturing was connected and taken into account.

Process simulation software like Simul8 and AnyLogic are useful for “what-if” analysis to predict bottleneck impacts and test solutions. These are tools that allow companies to fast-forward a process to see how changes can influence the workflow, detect slowdowns, and test solutions.

Root cause analysis uses methods like the 5 Whys or Fishbone Diagrams to uncover underlying causes. The 5 Whys is an approach of asking successive questions to find the root cause. Fishbone or Ishikawa Diagrams named after its creator Kaoru Ishikawa helps to see all possible factors that might have caused the issue.

After identifying the bottlenecks, their elimination might require to:

• Automate repetitive or manual tasks to reduce delays.
• Redistribute workloads or add capacity where needed.
• Redesign workflows based on insights from mapping and simulation.
• Add AI automation to help employees perform and speed up routine tasks.

Ownership and accountability for processes

Ownership in the context of processes means identifying a specific person or team responsible for managing and overseeing a process from start to finish. This individual or group is accountable for making the process run smoothly and efficiently. Typical measures to establish ownership include the following:

Key processes should be assigned to process owners with expertise and authority, who are able to manage and improve them.

Roles and responsibilities should be clear, including decision-making powers and expected outcomes. At Ronas IT, we have a responsibility tree in our Figma scheme so that every team member can view key roles in the company, their relationships, and their responsibilities.

The convenient work space with tracking capabilities is key. For process owners to track performance and assign to the tasks, process automation platforms with customizable workflows like ServiceNow, Jira, or Qntrl might be the suitable ones. On such platforms, each's performance becomes visible.

Task tracking should be a reason to motivate employees and celebrate their achievements, not just to monitor process speed. It promotes a culture of accountability by setting clear expectations, regular reviews, and recognition for ownership success.

Continuous monitoring and improvement based on key performance indicators

The process automation is, for sure, not a one-time effort but requires ongoing measurement and refinement. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in case of workflow automation would include:

Cycle time — total time from start to finish of a workflow or process. It demonstrates speed improvements from operations automation.

Lead time — time from customer's request to full completion of a task. Unlike cycle time, it includes the whole route from initiation to finish, including waiting periods. It helps understand and improve delays in the flow.

Throughput — number of tasks completed in a given time period. Throughput measures productivity and workflow capacity, it signals which workflows require better optimization.

Error rate — is a percentage of tasks with errors or requiring rework, which indicates reliability and quality of the workflow automation.

Employee productivity — time saved by operations automation allowing employees to focus on higher-value activities. This factor reflects impact on workforce efficiency and engagement.

Customer satisfaction — scores or feedback reflecting end-user experience with automated processes, which measure the external impact of process automation.

Scalability — the ability of the workload automation system to effectively manage increased demands without a decline in performance. Scalability is essential for supporting growth and adapting to the expansion of business activities.

Return on investment — the last but the most important metric, indicating financial benefits realized versus investment in process automation technology and implementation. It shows tangible business value and justifies further operations automation.

Technical aspects of optimization: A focus on DevOps

The criteria we described for automating work processes could generally apply to businesses in any industry, not just IT. But what sets IT companies apart? Of course, it's the very essence of their work — development. While the improvement of processes related to task handover and team interaction is important, in IT companies that offer digital product development services, the development area specifically requires optimization first and foremost. DevOps practices play a crucial role here, aimed at bridging the development and operations processes to provide continuous production, allowing clients to receive their products as quickly as possible.

Automation tools and solutions

Selecting the right process automation tool should be based on compatibility with existing IT infrastructure, scalability, and alignment with business goals. Here are some of the commonly used DevOps automation tools and solutions:

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

Continuous integration is when developers merge code into a shared repository with automated testing. Continuous deployment extends this by automating the release process. Tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, and Travis CI automate testing and deploying code changes, making sure new code integrates safely and quickly into the main codebase. CI/CD pipelines help reduce integration issues and support frequent releases.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

This automation solution manages and provisions computing infrastructure through machine-readable code instead of manual processes, allowing consistent configurations and an automated process of deployments. Such infrastructure automation solutions provide consistency across environments and help with scaling. Teams use cloud automation tools like AWS CloudFormation, HashiCorp's Terraform, and Microsoft's Azure Resource Manager to provision and manage infrastructure with version-controlled scripts.

Configuration management

Configuration management systematically handles changes to a system to maintain its integrity over time. Tools like Ansible, Puppet, and Chef automate server configuration, application deployment, and management tasks across complex infrastructures, reducing human error and increasing efficiency.

Monitoring and logging

Solutions such as Prometheus for monitoring and the ELK Stack, including Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, or Splunk for logging and analytics provide real-time insights into system performance. These tools help proactively resolve issues and provide optimization.

Containerization and orchestration

Containerization packages apps and their dependencies into portable units called containers. Orchestration automates managing these containers. Docker and Kubernetes allow applications to run consistently across different environments. They help manage containerized applications, enabling scalability and optimizing resource use.

Version control

Version control tracks changes to files, making it easy to manage revisions, collaborate, and restore earlier versions. Git and platforms like GitHub or Bitbucket are essential for maintaining code history, facilitating collaboration, and providing traceability in development efforts.

To measure the effectiveness of automation, in addition to metrics like scalability, ROI, and customer satisfaction, consider including these DevOps-specific metrics:

Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR): The average time to recover from a failure in production. A shorter MTTR shows robust detection and response mechanisms, reducing downtime and mitigating business impact.

Deployment frequency: How often new features, updates, or fixes are deployed to production. Higher frequency can indicate greater agility and innovation.

Change failure rate: The percentage of deployments that result in a failure in production and require remediation. A lower change failure rate often correlates with higher quality releases.

Quality metrics: Defect escape rate and user-reported incident volume. Lower rates indicate better code quality and customer experiences.

If you're interested in improving your DevOps practices or establishing them, explore our DevOps subscription offers.

The business value of IT operations automation

Automated IT operations offer significant benefits that impact IT efficiency and business success. Here are the key advantages:

Increased efficiency by reducing manual workload and human errors

Operations automation simplifies routine tasks like data entry, software updates, and system monitoring, saving time. By reducing manual intervention, the likelihood of human error decreases, improving the quality and reliability of operational tasks while freeing up resources for more important work.

Faster time-to-market through accelerated development and deployment cycles

Automated CI/CD pipelines speed up development and deployment processes, allowing new features and updates to reach production faster. This agility lets businesses respond quickly to market demands and customer feedback, maintaining a competitive edge.

Better resource allocation and cost savings by automating routine tasks

Operations automation reduces the need for manual oversight of routine tasks, optimizing human resources and operational budgets. This leads to cost savings and allows personnel to focus on higher-value projects, which helps the company use resources more efficiently.

More abilities to innovate by freeing IT staff to focus on strategic initiatives rather than repetitive work

By automating tedious tasks, IT staff can dedicate more time to initiatives that drive business growth and transformation. This not only boosts morale but also uses human creativity and strategic thinking to develop new solutions, products, and services.

Competitive advantage by maintaining agile and responsive IT operations

Automation enables businesses to adapt quickly to changing conditions, innovate faster, and deliver superior customer experiences, providing a significant market edge.

Checklist: Identifying and preventing costly inefficiencies

Let's wrap up with a brief summary checklist that will help implement operations automation in processes effectively:

• Align automation goals with business objectives using SMART criteria to avoid wasted efforts.
• Use Value Stream Mapping to identify inefficiencies to make sure resources aren't wasted on bottlenecked processes.
• Assign clear ownership and accountability to prevent business process oversight and inefficiencies.
• Continuously monitor KPIs like cycle time and error rate to identify areas wasting time and resources.
• Choose the right process automation tools like CI/CD and IaC that are compatible and scalable to prevent unnecessary expenses.
• Redirect time saved through operations automation to strategic initiatives to maximize ROI.
• Implement robust version control to manage changes efficiently, avoiding costly mistakes.
• Track DevOps-specific metrics like MTTR and deployment frequency to maintain operational efficiency.
• Integrate security operations automation and automated compliance checks to prevent costly security breaches.
• Use operations automation to fuel innovation and competitiveness, providing long-term financial sustainability.

In conclusion

Automating IT operations is a transformative approach that offers significant benefits for both workflow and development processes. By implementing strategic automation solutions, businesses can reduce manual workload, eliminate inefficiencies, and enhance collaboration between development and operations teams.

The integration of DevOps practices further improves deployment cycles and time-to-market, allowing companies to remain competitive. Key takeaways include the importance of setting clear, business-driven goals, identifying and removing bottlenecks, and continuously monitoring performance with relevant metrics.

As businesses use the power of automation, they unlock new opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and growth. If you need help establishing DevOps practices to save resources in the long run, contact us using the form below.