Why the Gig Economy Thrives in the World of DevOps
DevOps, like agile before it, is becoming less of an option when it comes to the software industry and more of a requirement. Even if the nature of DevOps can be wildly different from team to team, the core concepts themselves are becoming more and more common within successful organizations.
However, even if the industry itself is booming, it’s not easy filling the full-time DevOps roles. Every software team is vying to find the perfect person to come in and establish a culture to promote improved software release cycles, software quality, security, and rapid feedback on product development. But how many of those specific people are out there?
As it turns out, the general newness of DevOps makes it difficult to find viable full-time employees who check all the right boxes. Speaking in an interview with StickyMinds, Martin Chikilian, lead director of engineering at Toptal, explained why the gig economy is such a great match with DevOps.
“The DevOps approach has only been around a few years and involves transforming the standard and resource-intensive approach to software delivery into a modern and more automated approach,” Chikilian explained. “There is only a handful of talent with the depth of expertise and quality to execute this to an enterprise level standard. As you can imagine, this talent is in very high demand.”
With an estimated 60 percent of hiring managers having vacant DevOps engineering positions that they’re struggling to fill, it’s easy to see that proper education and experience within the realm of DevOps is one of the core issues. But it’s not just an overall lack of technical skills within the software community—it’s also difficult to be able to spot someone who would be good for the job.
“Demand has been growing rapidly as businesses are playing catch up in moving to the cloud,” he continued. “The best DevOps talent can make a ten-fold difference to how rapidly you make this shift. However, we see that many HR departments aren’t equipped to source, identify, and attract this talent.”
Seeing such a jump in productivity almost seems like a pipe dream, but with the proper DevOps team in place and employees willing to try new things, this leap is absolutely possible. For now, freelancers and contractors are the best option to instill DevOps. However, if you’re lucky enough to find the right person to fill the role permanently, DevOps can reshape the way you create software.
