How to Upskill Teams for DevOps Roles

DevOps is now a must-have for IT teams, but a lack of skills is holding organisations back.

With 83% of UK IT leaders adopting DevOps, the demand for skilled professionals is surging. Upskilling your team is the most cost-effective way to bridge this gap, especially as external hiring becomes more competitive and expensive. Here's how you can do it:

• Assess Skills Gaps: Use technical interviews, practical tasks, and online tests to identify gaps in areas like cloud infrastructure, automation, and CI/CD.
• Customise Training: Build a programme tied to business goals - whether it's cutting costs, improving efficiency, or scaling operations.
• Certifications: Invest in certifications like AWS, Azure, or Kubernetes to validate expertise and boost team performance.
• Continuous Learning: Create a culture of knowledge-sharing and track ROI with metrics like deployment frequency and lead time improvements.

Why it matters: Upgrading your team's DevOps skills doesn't just improve productivity - it saves money, reduces errors, and ensures compliance with UK-specific regulations like GDPR.

Most Detailed DevOps Roadmap | Weekly Breakdown

Evaluating Current Skills and Finding Gaps

Before starting an upskilling programme, it’s essential to understand where your team currently stands. In the UK, 87% of businesses expect skill gaps, and 44% of essential skills are predicted to be disrupted by automation and AI [1][2].

These gaps aren’t just a minor inconvenience - they can cost the financial sector $1.3 trillion in annual revenue by 2030 [1]. A lack of skills slows down productivity, limits innovation, and leads to missed opportunities.

Skills gap analysis in the modern age isn't just about identifying missing competencies but also about creating an organizational culture of continuous learning, adaptation, and collaboration. – Miriam Groom, CEO of Mindful Career and Leader Human Capital at KPMG [2]

Running Skills Assessments

Guesswork won’t cut it when identifying skills gaps. Structured assessments provide clear insights into your team’s strengths and areas for improvement.

• Technical interviews: These are great for evaluating DevOps knowledge. Tailor the questions to focus on your tech stack, such as cloud infrastructure, automation tools, or CI/CD processes.
• Practical assignments: Test real-world application skills. For example, ask a team member to containerise an existing application to see how they handle practical DevOps tasks.
• Online assessments: These are useful for measuring knowledge, from basic principles to advanced automation techniques.

The best results come from combining all three methods. Start with online assessments to gauge foundational knowledge, follow with practical tasks to test application, and use technical interviews to dig deeper into specific areas.

To ensure fairness and consistency, create a scoring rubric. Include criteria like technical expertise, problem-solving skills, practical application, and teamwork. This structured approach helps align team capabilities with specific DevOps requirements.

Matching Skills to DevOps Requirements

Once you’ve gathered assessment data, the next step is mapping your team’s skills to the demands of DevOps. These include technical expertise, operational know-how, and soft skills.

Skills benchmarking helps compare your team’s abilities against organisational and industry standards [1]. This process highlights areas where your team is falling short and identifies how they measure up to market expectations.

Focus on the gaps that align with your organisation’s goals. For instance, if your team struggles with basic automation, prioritising these skills can have a significant impact on overall performance.

A skills matrix is a helpful tool to visualise team capabilities against DevOps requirements. It pinpoints individual skill gaps and reveals opportunities for cross-training and knowledge sharing. This clarity ensures training efforts target the most critical areas, driving meaningful improvements.

Building a DevOps Training Programme

Once you've pinpointed the skills gaps in your team, the next step is to craft a training programme that directly addresses these shortcomings. This isn’t just about general upskilling - it’s about creating a structured plan that ties each training initiative to specific business goals. Whether it’s improving efficiency, reducing costs, or scaling operations, aligning training with business objectives ensures that the programme delivers practical, measurable results.

For instance, if cutting operational costs is a priority, focus on training that enhances automation and optimises infrastructure. On the other hand, if improving customer satisfaction is the goal, concentrate on areas like monitoring, incident response, and deployment reliability. Each training module should connect to a clear business need. For example, if manual deployments are causing significant downtime, prioritising automated CI/CD training can make a tangible difference. In fact, teams that align their training to DevOps practices have reported spending 60% less time on support cases [4].

To ensure the programme’s success, integrate metrics that measure training effectiveness and return on investment (ROI). These metrics should reflect your business objectives, serving as benchmarks for progress. Without robust measurements, you risk falling into the same pitfalls as nearly 70% of digital transformation initiatives that fail to meet their goals [3].

Combining Different Learning Methods

An effective DevOps training programme should strike a balance between theoretical knowledge and hands-on practice. A mix of learning methods not only enhances understanding but also ensures the skills are applicable in real-world scenarios. For example, hands-on labs can provide a risk-free environment for practising tasks like building pipelines, deploying scalable applications, and automating workflows - especially useful if your team works with platforms like AWS.

Structured, instructor-led sessions are invaluable for offering real-time feedback and ensuring the training aligns with current industry practices. Online courses add flexibility, particularly when they include interactive exercises and practical projects. Mentorship programmes can further enrich learning by pairing less experienced team members with seasoned professionals for guidance and career advice. Additionally, engaging with online DevOps communities can foster collaborative problem-solving and peer learning. By combining these methods, you create a robust learning ecosystem that not only improves technical skills but also supports professional development.

Adapting Training for UK Organisations

UK organisations face unique challenges that require a tailored approach to DevOps training. Regulatory compliance is a key concern, particularly in sectors like financial services, healthcare, and government. For example, GDPR compliance remains a critical focus, as demonstrated by recent enforcement actions [5]. In financial services, regulations such as the Sarbanes–Oxley Act impose significant penalties - up to USD 1 million (around £800,000) - and even imprisonment for executives who certify inaccurate financial reports [5].

Cultural nuances also play a role. Many UK organisations operate within hierarchical structures and departmental silos, which can hinder the collaborative culture essential for DevOps. Training should therefore include modules on cross-functional communication and shared responsibility. Additionally, integrating a security-first mindset is crucial. This could involve secure coding practices, automated security testing, and incident response training as part of a comprehensive DevSecOps strategy.

Industry-specific needs may also require customisation. For instance, manufacturers might benefit from training on industrial IoT security, while healthcare providers should focus on safeguarding patient data and adhering to medical device regulations. Regular training updates are essential to keep pace with evolving UK regulations and emerging security risks. By fostering a culture of collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement, organisations can adopt DevOps practices effectively while staying aligned with professional norms and regulatory requirements.

DevOps Certifications and Career Development

DevOps certifications serve as a benchmark for expertise, helping individuals advance their careers and step into leadership roles. With the global DevOps market growing rapidly, the demand for certified professionals continues to rise [6].

These certifications provide a clear learning path, particularly for those starting out or looking to deepen their understanding. They also help teams keep pace with fast-changing technologies and practices. As DevOps branches into areas like AIOps, MLOps, GitOps, and FinOps, certifications become even more crucial for showcasing skills in these emerging fields. The structured learning offered by certification programmes fills knowledge gaps, especially for teams transitioning from traditional IT roles.

For organisations in the UK, having certified professionals on board delivers immediate benefits. Certified team members bring proven expertise in automation, cloud platforms, and security practices. This is especially valuable in regulated industries, where compliance with standards like GDPR or financial regulations is critical for minimising risks.

Popular DevOps Certifications

A range of certifications has become widely recognised, catering to different career levels and technical specialisations:

• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
  Ideal for organisations that rely on Amazon's cloud services, this certification validates advanced skills in managing distributed systems on AWS. It requires hands-on experience and is associated with premium salaries, with DevOps engineers in the US earning an average of $149,391 annually [7].

• Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert
  This certification is tailored for Azure-centric environments. Candidates must first earn either the Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Developer Associate credential, making it a great choice for organisations committed to Microsoft's cloud ecosystem.

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
  With the rise of microservices, Kubernetes expertise has become a must-have. The CKA certification demonstrates the ability to manage container orchestration across cloud and hybrid environments.

• Docker Certified Associate (DCA) and HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate
  The Docker Certified Associate focuses on containerisation basics, while the HashiCorp Terraform Associate certification highlights infrastructure-as-code skills - both essential for modern cloud operations.

• DevOps Foundation
  This certification provides an introduction to the principles and practices of DevOps, making it a good starting point for managers or team leads who need a conceptual understanding without diving too deeply into technical details.

Choosing the right certification depends on your career goals, current skill set, and the technologies relevant to your job market. Aligning your certification path with these factors ensures you gain the most value.

Comparing Certification Providers

Understanding the cost, prerequisites, and focus of each certification is essential for planning both individual and team development. Here's a quick comparison:

When planning certifications, consider your team’s current skills and the technologies your organisation relies on. For cloud-first organisations, AWS or Azure certifications are often a practical choice. Teams new to DevOps may benefit from starting with foundational certifications like CompTIA Linux+ to build essential command-line skills before moving into more advanced areas.

To maximise the value of certifications, pair them with hands-on projects and lab work. This ensures that certified professionals can apply their knowledge effectively in real-world scenarios, rather than relying solely on theoretical understanding.

Investing in certifications strengthens team capabilities, improves deployment processes, and enhances overall agility. As the DevOps field evolves, staying up-to-date with certifications and pursuing advanced credentials will keep your team competitive and ready to tackle digital transformation challenges. This approach also lays the groundwork for organisations like Hokstad Consulting to further support your DevOps journey.

Building Continuous Learning and Tracking Results

For a DevOps transformation to have lasting impact, it needs to prioritise continuous learning and establish clear ways to track progress. This keeps teams up to date with new technologies while ensuring their efforts translate into measurable benefits for the business. By focusing on these areas, organisations can see tangible improvements in team performance.

Encouraging Continuous Learning

Creating an environment where learning is second nature starts with leadership. When senior managers actively engage in training, share their experiences, and treat mistakes as learning opportunities, they set a standard for the entire organisation. Structured initiatives like '20% time' or scheduled learning sessions can make skill development a regular part of the workday.

Knowledge sharing within the organisation also accelerates learning. Hosting lunch-and-learn sessions, maintaining internal wikis, or using dedicated communication channels allows teams to exchange ideas and best practices. These efforts complement formal training and reinforce a culture of improvement. Practical activities such as hackathons, internal labs, and technical challenges help bridge the gap between theory and application. Additionally, cross-functional initiatives like shadowing programmes and collaborative projects break down silos and bring fresh perspectives.

Studies show that organisations with strong learning cultures often achieve better software delivery outcomes [8].

Measuring Upskilling Impact

While training is essential, it’s equally important to measure its effectiveness. Without tracking the impact of these efforts, organisations can’t be sure their investments in learning are paying off. Both quantitative metrics and qualitative insights are needed to assess whether continuous learning is driving real results.

Key technical metrics, like the DORA benchmarks, provide an objective way to evaluate DevOps performance. These include deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and mean time to recovery. High-performing teams, for example, often deploy changes multiple times a day, achieve lead times in hours, keep change failure rates between 0–15%, and recover from issues in under an hour [9].

Beyond technical metrics, tracking training completion rates, certifications, and engagement levels offers additional quantitative insights. Organisations adopting DevOps practices have reported significant benefits, such as a 22% reduction in IT costs, a 30% increase in deployment rates, and a 30% boost in developer productivity [11].

Qualitative feedback is just as valuable. Regular team surveys can help gauge confidence in new tools and techniques, while also highlighting improvements in job satisfaction as employees feel more skilled and engaged.

To make measurement a routine practice, organisations can use tools like Datadog, New Relic, and Azure DevOps to automate the collection of technical metrics. Learning management systems can track training progress, while retrospectives provide teams with opportunities to reflect and suggest improvements. These feedback loops ensure that learning and performance measurement remain integral to achieving DevOps excellence [10].

How Hokstad Consulting Can Help

Hokstad Consulting focuses on improving DevOps capabilities for UK organisations. They tackle the challenges of upskilling teams, reducing costs, and integrating modern technologies to ensure effective learning and development.

DevOps Transformation with Tangible Results

Hokstad Consulting delivers measurable improvements through their DevOps transformation services. They’ve achieved results like 75% faster deployments, 90% fewer errors, and cutting deployment times from 6 hours to just 20 minutes. Additionally, infrastructure downtime has been reduced by a staggering 95% [12]. These outcomes not only enhance operational efficiency but also create a solid foundation for cost-effective training programmes.

Training Funded by Cost Savings

By optimising cloud infrastructure, Hokstad Consulting helps companies save over £50,000 annually - money that can be redirected into training initiatives, certifications, or learning tools [12].

Cut Your Infrastructure Costs by 30%-50% and Pay Out of Your Savings [12]

Their No Savings, No Fee model means organisations can achieve cost reductions before needing to allocate extra funds for upskilling efforts. This makes training more accessible without straining budgets.

AI Integration and Modern DevOps Skills

As DevOps continues to evolve, integrating AI tools and strategies is becoming essential. Hokstad Consulting ensures teams are equipped with the latest AI and DevOps skills, preparing them to handle both current and future technical challenges effectively.

Tailored Solutions for UK Businesses

Hokstad Consulting offers specialised DevOps and cloud consulting services designed for UK organisations. Their expertise spans public, private, hybrid, and managed hosting environments, ensuring training aligns with the diverse infrastructure needs of British companies. They also facilitate cloud migrations with zero downtime, providing practical, hands-on learning opportunities for teams to refine their skills in real-world scenarios [13].

Tracking Training Success

Using data-driven methods, Hokstad Consulting measures the return on investment (ROI) for training. Their approach has delivered up to 30% improvements in deployment frequency and lead time [14]. This ensures organisations can clearly see how upskilling efforts contribute to business performance.

Adaptable Engagement Options

Hokstad Consulting provides flexible engagement models to meet varying organisational needs. Whether it’s retainer-based support for ongoing guidance or project-based consulting for specific challenges, they ensure businesses of all sizes can access the expertise they need to transform their teams for DevOps roles.

Conclusion: Building a Future-Ready DevOps Workforce

Preparing IT teams for DevOps success takes more than a few scattered training sessions. The most effective organisations take a structured approach, starting with detailed skills assessments. They craft customised training plans that combine theory with hands-on experience and foster a culture of continuous learning to keep up with ever-changing technologies.

The benefits of investing in DevOps upskilling are hard to ignore. For example, Red Hat found that organisations using their learning subscriptions experienced a 38% increase in DevOps team productivity [16]. Meanwhile, the global DevOps market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 19.7% from 2024 to 2028 [15]. For UK businesses, falling behind on this front could mean losing their competitive edge to those fully embracing this transformation.

A commitment to continuous learning is essential for staying ahead in the fast-moving UK tech scene. This approach not only helps organisations adapt to market shifts but also ensures they maintain operational efficiency.

Measuring the impact of these efforts is key. Metrics like deployment frequency, lead time for changes, mean time to recovery, and change failure rates can provide valuable insights. Additionally, tracking employee certification rates and training participation helps demonstrate the programme's success and return on investment.

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