One of the main goals of DevOps is to improve how work flows through the software development life cycle (SDLC). This flow is often called “work in progress” (WIP). There are many ways to improve WIP, but to remove the problems that slow it down, you first need to look at the people, processes, and tools used in the SDLC. After reviewing this in several Fortune 500 companies and talking with others in the field, I have put together a list of 11 common challenges that hurt the flow of work the most.
1. Inconsistent Environments
In almost every company I have worked with, a lot of time and effort is wasted because different environments—like development, testing, staging, and production—are set up differently. I call this “environment hell.” You’ve probably heard a developer say, “It worked on my laptop.” As code moves between environments, it often breaks because the settings are not the same. I’ve seen teams lose days or even weeks fixing problems caused by these differences—not because the code is wrong. Inconsistent environments are one of the biggest barriers to being flexible and quick.
What to do: Use standard setup templates and automate delivery to keep all environments the same.
2. Manual Steps
Manual steps lead to mistakes and make processes hard to repeat. The two biggest trouble spots are testing and deployments. If testing is done by hand, it’s nearly impossible to do continuous integration or delivery well. Manual testing also makes it easier for bugs to slip through. If deployments aren’t automated, they often fail, which lowers quality and adds unexpected work.
What to do: Automate testing and deployment to reduce errors and save time.
3. Low SDLC Maturity
How mature a team’s development process is affects how well they can deliver software. This has been a problem for a long time. Now, with DevOps pushing for faster, more reliable delivery, it matters even more and it is critical to avoid DevOps Bottlenecks. Some companies still follow old-style “waterfall” methods and struggle with DevOps because they don’t understand or fully use agile practices. Others are just starting agile, or do a mix of both—what I call “Wagile.” Some teams use Kanban but still have trouble managing and prioritizing tasks. Others can’t meet their planned goals using Scrum. Getting good at agile takes time.
What to do: Provide training and hold post-mortem reviews without blaming to gather feedback and improve.
4. Old-Fashioned Change Management
Many companies have change control methods that worked well in the past when updates were rare. But today, with apps made up of smaller parts that change often, these methods slow everything down.
I’ve seen companies with advanced automation in place still wait for weekly manual reviews. Some teams need several approvals before releasing changes. Often, these reviews don’t add value and only slow things down.
What to do: Update your change process to better support quick and frequent updates.
5. Low Operational Maturity
DevOps requires a new way of thinking about operations. Some companies are used to supporting systems that don’t change much. But with modern software, systems are always running and often updated. Developers now need tools to help run and support the software. Yet, many companies only monitor hardware and not the software itself.
To work well in DevOps, developers need tools for logging, performance tracking, analytics, alerts, and more. Processes like change and problem management also need updates to allow faster, clearer work.
What to do: Review your current tools and processes and make updates to support teamwork and faster responses.
6. Outdated Testing Methods
Some companies still treat testing as a separate task. Developers write the code, then “throw it over the wall” to testers. Bugs are found and sent back, and the process repeats until the deadline hits. Teams end up choosing which bugs they can live with. This increases problems over time and adds technical debt.
A better approach is to stop bugs early by using automatic testing. If any test fails, the build should fail too. Testing should happen during development—not after. Developers and testers should work closely together.
What to do: Everyone should be responsible for quality—not just the QA team.
7. Automating Broken Processes
A common mistake is automating bad processes. Some teams or engineers quickly start writing code to automate what they already do—without checking if the process itself is a problem. Automating a broken process only locks in bad habits.
What to do: Fix or improve processes first, then automate.
8. Misaligned Goals and No Shared Ownership
This problem has been around for years and still causes trouble in DevOps. Developers often focus on delivering quickly, while operations teams focus on keeping things safe and stable. These goals clash. Instead, both teams should aim for high customer satisfaction, speed, and quality together.
What to do: Work with HR to align goals and rewards so everyone is working toward the same results.
9. Relying on Heroic Efforts
When teams depend on people working extra-long hours or pulling off last-minute fixes, it’s a sign of deeper problems. These “heroic” efforts usually happen because of a lack of automation, unclear processes, or poor leadership. Over time, this leads to burnout, staff leaving, and unhappy customers.
What to do: Find out why your team needs heroes and fix those root problems.
10. Forgetting About Governance
When DevOps starts from a small team, it’s easy to forget how to scale it across the company. At first, everything works well. But as more teams and systems are added, things can fall apart without clear rules and shared tools. For example, teams might build their own solutions without coordination, leading to wasted money and confusion.
What to do: Assign someone to lead the scaling effort and make a plan for shared tools, services, and standards.
11. No Support from Leadership
The most successful DevOps efforts have strong support from leadership. One of my clients is investing in training and rolling it out to many teams. When leaders support DevOps, they remove roadblocks, fund the work, and help explain why the change is happening.
Without leadership support, DevOps efforts can get stuck or turn into just another isolated team. Even if you start small, track your progress and share your results with executives. Many large programs started this way.
What to do: If starting from the ground up, collect data that shows the value of DevOps and share it with leadership.Summary
Adopting DevOps is a long journey. The key to success is finding and removing the problems that slow things down. While fixing these issues isn’t always hard from a technology point of view, it can be tough to change habits and culture. Don’t try to fix everything at once. Focus on one challenge at a time, and move forward step by step. Start with a few quick wins and then take on the bigger problems that have the most impact. This way, you’ll build momentum and real change.
