"Change is the only constant,” you recall, as your team gears up for the latest addition to your toolbox; the automated infrastructure management solution from Progress. When organizations move to automate their infrastructure management, users are the first to experience changes.
In this article, we explore a few ways this transition can be managed – for the people who will use this new solution daily. I have gathered first-hand accounts from practitioners with varying experiences, along with our folks in support, engineering and product, to give us an inside look into the experiences and the effects of change.
As is with every story, let’s start at the very beginning.
In the context of an organization that possesses IT resources, “infrastructure” refers to the hardware and software aspects of a system and all the peripherals that support it. An infrastructure management software enables organizations to manage their infrastructure, usually within one dashboard.
When infrastructure management is automated, organizations may not need to hire a person to manually push updates and monitor systems. That said, it cannot be left unmonitored and may require human intervention sometimes for functions like reporting and monitoring system performance.
Progress Chef for infrastructure management is, however, more than just an automated infrastructure management solution – it is your new best friend.
There is no doubt that automation brings with it efficiency and impact, so how does that affect a practitioner’s day-to-day?
Before we dive deeper into this topic, let’s categorize it. On the one hand, we have customers moving from legacy systems to modern systems. And on the other, we have customers moving between automated infrastructure management systems. The two, although contrasting, have one thing in common: they have never worked with anything like Chef before.
So, without further ado, let’s jump into the scenarios.
"With great power comes great responsibility”, someone wise once said. So, to all the system admins out there, you’ve got great responsibility now.
Automation comes with freedom, but let’s not forget that we still have a system to manage. Chef may make things easier for your employees, but it may not take too much time away from their day-to-day work.
The practitioner is still tasked with ensuring that the desired state of the systems is well communicated and documented in the master system, configuring the dashboard to produce the desired reports, tending to system notifications, and monitoring the overall health of the system and its performance. For someone moving from a manual system to Chef Infra, it may take a little bit of time mastering the system and learning the Chef Data Manipulation Language (DML).
For employees moving from another automated infrastructure management solution, the learning curve isn’t that steep, the additional aspect for this bucket may most likely be the extent of control that Chef offers.
Employees may need to learn how to access and customize the Chef code based on an organization's goals. Chef does offer to help the organization with this personalization at the start, but it may also be up to the system admin to get into this code and make the changes as needed. We have a lot of content that can support this journey here.
The fact of the matter remains static in all cases—employees moving from familiar territory to unfamiliar territory. According to a few practitioners who I had the pleasure of speaking to, I gathered a few common, unchanging facts when told they are going to be moving to a new software:
One, they wonder even if for a second, whether they are really interested in this change. Practitioners say they hesitate to move to a new software, simply because they need a second to pause and assess if this is what they want to do for the foreseeable future. They have been happy and comfortable with the existing solution and having to perform the tedious act of learning new software and sometimes a new programming language, may not have been what they had in mind for this year!
Two, they want to know how quickly they can realize the value of the solution. Basically, how much time do they have to spend on the software, learning and using it, until the ROI kicks in? ROI in this context could mean when they may gain more time for themselves or when they may start to find the controls easier than the previous solution, etc.
Three, they wonder how it is going to benefit them. When you hear ‘benefit’, your mind may wander to things like ‘lesser time spent on the solution, more time for the practitioner off it’, but contrary to popular belief, what the practitioner wants to know is if this is going to look good on their resume, if this is something that can further their career and if this is the something that may put their name up there with the greats of the organization.
“Highlight opportunities for career advancement, skill enhancement, alignment with industry trends, and increased visibility.” - Phani Sajja, Software Engineer, Principal 3, Progress Software.
When it comes to the conversation that you will have with your employees, it may help to keep in mind the points we covered in the section above, your employees want to know:
First, get all your teammates in one place and break the news to them. In case you have a larger team that the announcement is being made to, try to keep your immediate teammates apprised beforehand so they aren't caught off-guard by the news.
It helps to keep in mind that you may not appeal to all your employees the first time you break the news. The software may face some critique, but these voices will help you form one of the best change strategies.
Learning from the people most opposed to the change and keeping them involved in creating your strategy will help bring your team a holistic and inclusive strategy while giving the critiques a voice. This involvement may sometimes lead to feelings of ownership, so now your critique feels they can influence some part of the change, and rightly so. You may not be able to change things but addressing them goes a long way.
In the words of Terrie Butcher, the Director of Technical Support here at Progress – “Go from opposition to change, by keeping them involved.”
While you are forming your strategy, you can also look for support from a few key leaders who are in line with this change. This measure has the potential to give credibility to your claims and back your standing.
“Leverage the benefits of your knowledge!” - Girija Kolagada, VP of Engineering, Progress Software
Breaking the news of change is an equivocal mission, with surprises at every turn, and your best outlooks can come from the most unexpected places. In concluding this article, I trust that you will have a few tricks up your sleeve when going into that meeting, so be sure to remember that some of your most favorable strategies can come from a dialectical team.
It’s time to put that managerial hat on because you are about to become the Jack of all trades – you are marketing, you are sales, and you’ve got to close this deal!