When developing new systems, senior leaders need to ensure their ICT departments are structured efficiently. This enables them to work towards targets and achieve their objectives.
Often, the decision to look at the structure of ICT is driven by either:
- A top-down requirement to reduce organisational headcount
- A change of leadership that results in organisational change so the new leader can assert that things will be different
- A major change of either strategy or technology
- A business case that says new technology will result in different staff requirements (often based on an assumption that after automation, fewer staff members are required)
Often shortened to PBR, a ‘plan-build-run’ model is an ICT business development structure. It’s a traditional model (used for the past 30 years or so) that organisations use to develop their products and services through careful planning for the future.
Recently, however, the DevOps model has become more widely used. We believe the most effective plan-build-run models incorporate aspects of DevOps, which we’ve discussed below.
What is a ‘plan-build-run (PBR) model?
In a PBR model, ICT is divided into three units: planning, building and running (as you may have guessed). When looking to create or update ICT systems, these sub-departments have the following roles and responsibilities:
- Planning– People in this unit are responsible for brainstorming and researching to develop a detailed strategy, including a target timeframe and road-mapping. They’ll also consider Enterprise Architecture (restructuring an organisation to achieve its objectives) and Demand Management (preparing for realistically how much and how often the system will be used).
- Building – people in this unit are responsible for the actual creation and development of the ICT system. They’ll develop their own project and program management structures to work efficiently.
- Running – the final stage of PBR is the running unit. This team is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the system. They’ll be in close communication with the other two branches, so they understand how it works.
The PBR model isn’t quite so relevant anymore, as cloud services become more vital to ICT, because systems are no longer solely introduced in the manner anticipated by the ‘plan-build-run’ model. This is due, in a large part, to dev-ops, but also because it doesn’t quite fit when an organisation is consuming managed services or uses outsourced ICT. It’s also a fairly slow, measured technology change model which isn’t where ICT now sits.
It’s also limited in terms of adaptability and quick changes. It simply isn’t fast enough in a world of constant updates, upgrades, and instant communication and collaboration.
PBR vs DevOps
DevOps – short for ‘Development Operations’ – is a different ICT business structure. A DevOps team combines employees with these two skillsets to produce new software solutions quickly and efficiently. It’ll also appoint someone to be the DevOps Evangelist – the team leader. Employees should also be brought in to watch over quality assurance and cybersecurity, although this isn’t a primary focus of DevOps.
It’s a beneficial model for creating subscription-based products, as these need to be constantly updated and quickly developed. DevOps and PBR are incompatible frameworks since a DevOps structure also covers planning, building and running.
It’s also important to note that DevOps is operated hand-in-hand with the customer/user, who constantly provided feedback/input/ review of the ‘product’. In contrast, the Prince2 methodology keeps the customer/user a little more distant as they tend to be a senior leader the project is delivered to and who receives reports on project progress.
From a project management point of view, a DevOps leader would typically follow the agile structure, focusing on adaptability and the delivery of a ‘minimum viable product’. PBR leaders are more likely to be tied to the Prince2 methodology: breaking a project down into smaller, more manageable objectives and creating a ‘deliverable’ end product. DevOps is about quick, sudden changes to meet unexpected demands. In contrast, PBR focuses more on careful strategy and preparing for changes in advance.
Should your ICT department use DevOps or PBR?
DevOps is traditionally presented as a model that gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. In contrast, PBR is usually portrayed as restrictive but highly focused. Here at AMDH Solutions Ltd, we firmly believe that the best ICT organisations should combine aspects from both PBR and DevOps. As a result, you’ll have an overall department with the security and focus brought about through PBR but the creative freedom and reaction speed implemented by DevOps.
That being said, most organisations are already a confusing blend of PBR and DevOps. Further mingling the two unnecessarily is likely to cause confusion over targets and individual roles. There’s space for DevOps and PBR structures within your business, provided they’re in different teams with different aims. However, you could still use DevOps in support of PBR.
PBR is the traditional default format for ICT organisations, but today’s climate makes DevOps more applicable in most situations. As an organisation, you may like to start switching across to a DevOps format.
Running DevOps in some parts of the ‘Build’ structure works well, while allowing ‘Build/Run’ to provide some guardrails to the DevOps activity. The challenge is to still achieve the benefits DevOps offers, such as ability to try something and then abandon it, while keeping the control afforded by the change management implicit in the ‘Run’ structure.
Too little control, and the live service might be affected. Too much control might not give your team the freedom to try new things.
Allowing DevOps flexibility within known boundaries, and the means to legitimately modify those boundaries with understanding of the consequences, seems to be a good medium. However, DevOps doesn’t allow for efficient networking and security focuses, so you’ll need to maintain some plan-build-run aspects.
How AMDH can help you
AMDH Services Ltd is an independent ICT partner. As an East Midlands-based consultancy, we specialise in implementing and upgrading ICT networking and cloud services. We’ll send a team member over to your organisation to really understand what you need and how we can help.
We offer specialised services like IT strategy modelling and infrastructure design and thus can assist your ICT department, whether they’re currently following PBR or DevOps. If you decide it’s time for a change, we can help you plan for that change, putting you in the best position possible to react quickly to any changes.
Interested in developing a new plan-build-run and/or DevOps framework? We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch with us through the form at the bottom. Alternatively, you can reach us on 01332 322 588 or email us at info@amdhservicesltd.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
