Yesterday I wrote about how we arrived at our solution to the problems we have been working on with design partners for the last two years, Introducing Engineering Relationship Management or ERM.
This short followup article explains what we learned from engineering and security leadership during that time. It’s the business value they wanted to see from solving technical issues and if you don’t improve the lives for the people with the budget, then it's a science project, so we really listened.
What we learned was that there were three important business themes across both engineering and security. These are
Experience - Everyone wanted their teams to go from time-consuming busy work to doing the jobs they were hired for. Stop the busy work and focus on contributing to a long-term strategy and long-term solutions.
Efficiency - Everyone wanted their teams to work on the most important and the most urgent tasks, and leave the rest. They wanted people to stop searching, start fixing. Have the right information to hand when they need it. Stop dealing with alerts playing whack-a-mole, start building campaigns that have a lasting impact.
Expense - Saving money overall or shifting budget to other priorities, whether faced with immediate budget pressure or not, every single leader without fail, wanted to talk about ways to reduce expenses. Identify the tools we need and retire those we don’t. Stop my team wasting valuable time and resources on tasks that don’t matter. Help my team do more with less and fix things once and for all.
Every time we heard about a specific problem that engineers were having such as shadow engineering, finding vulnerable libraries in production, or understanding what actually happened in a build or a deployment, we would remember the conversations with leaders and ask ourselves a simple question.
Does this make the engineering or security leader provide a better experience for their teams, enable their teams to be more efficient, or does improve the way they can manage the costs of delivering their priorities.
If the answer was yes, then we were solving a technical problem and supporting a business goal. ERM helps solve technical engineering and security problems, with a better experience for all, in a way that is more effective and cheaper.
Experience - An ERM platform connects your people and enhances DevOps collaboration. Now, your team can instantly attribute ownership to an individual, resulting in quick and clear communication. Clarity means there is less confusion, frustration, and conflict. And it means developers and engineers can swap the ‘busy work’ for more meaningful and challenging tasks, resulting in happier, more productive teams.
Efficiency - An ERM platform gives true DevOps visibility across code, infrastructure, builds, deployments and developer activity, ensures you understand exactly how everything fits together, so you can work far more efficiently. It facilitates quicker fixes and targeted responses. It equips engineers with the information they need to operate strategically. And it promotes cleaner infrastructure that’s easier to manage and audit.
Expense - An ERM platform reduces the costs associated with building, securing, and managing software. It helps you reduce waste and retire tools that don’t provide sufficient value. It simplifies audits and streamlines time-intensive tasks. And it lets you transition away from wasteful and expensive short-term fixes and focus on work that drives real value in your business.
That's the business value of ERM. No more crystal balls. Single source of truth. Act on facts. See clearly and work smartly.
You may be asking yourself ‘Is Crash Override for me?
Honestly? We don’t know until we sit down to talk, but we’re not going to bend your ear or twist your arm to sell you a solution you don’t need. Instead, we’ll take 30 minutes to demonstrate what Crash Override can do and how it solves DevOps difficulties and we would love to show you around.
