How POD Structures Unlock Digital Value

Organizations often set out on a path of digital transformation to gain a competitive edge in a fast-
changing world. Many enterprises are maximizing outcomes by integrating Application Development (AD)
and Application Management (AM) with next-gen models such as Agile and DevOps. Delivery and
operating models must be structured for maximum efficiency and speed. To complete this restructuring
and unlock value from an agile transformation, enterprises are best served by adopting value stream
mapping and a POD-based DevOps operating model that aligns people, processes and technology.

While the concept of PODs is not new, organizations can achieve new benefits from PODs by embracing
their Agile and DevOps principles to prime their enterprise for microservices development.

PODs can transform a monolithic application to one based on a microservices architecture, a key element
as organizations envision their cloud-native future. POD-based teams are small, autonomous and self-
organizing engineering units designed to fulfill Agile/DevOps requirements with speed and scalability.
Another benefit is the ability to configure PODs based on size, skill, and desired outcome. An Acceleration
POD, for example, is an aligned business value stream that delivers new feature releases. Lighthouse
PODs, meanwhile, have Scrum Masters and Agile coaches, and their shared services facilitate direction-
setting across all teams. POD-based team structures have proven to achieve results through autonomous
design.

PODs provide scalability and sustainability to Application Development and Maintenance (ADM) in a self-
contained, cohesive, and cross-functional construct. They also provide organizations the ability to scale
up and down at short notice to meet demand elasticity.

Finally, PODs feature full-stack developers whose knowledge, experience, and skills transcend
applications, data, and platform and enable them to accelerate a company’s time to market by self-
provisioning environments and infrastructure.

PODs Also Align the Value Stream

In a traditional support environment, different teams work on issues, fixes, enhancements, and
application development. These fragmented teams handle components of work resulting in multiple
hand-offs. Redundancies and inefficiencies arise due to localized decision-making without proper
alignment to business goals. The autonomous design enables PODs to avoid bottlenecks and address the
sources of deployment failures.

Lighthouse PODs are set in place for resource efficiency, which cuts across the product lines, front-ending
operations while driving scale through back-end feature teams. Acceleration PODs make collaboration
easier with greater alignment to the business value stream, leading to greater business agility. Value
stream alignment also ensures a single point of accountability and minimizes hand-offs that lead to delays
and sub-optional results.
POD Models Can Vary Based on Size and Functional Structure

PODs are designed for specific Agile/DevOps goals in such a way that they have no dependencies on
shared services teams and AD projects for burst capacity. The team is composed of cross-skilled individuals
such as product owners, business analysts, full-stack developers, and business architects.

Figure 1: POD structures for a variety of team sizes

PODs can also be development-centric or operations-centric. Value stream-aligned PODs with embedded
site reliability engineering (SRE), enterprise Agile frameworks such as Kanban and SAFe, and mature AIOps
are ideal for improving efficiencies in ADM. Common PODs address expert product and service support
(L2) and new feature development (L3) requirements. The image below depicts a typical hybrid operating
model at the L2-L3 level that has PODs coexisting with typical waterfall L2-L3 support teams.

Figure 2: POD structures for a variety of team functions

PODs are DevOps-centric. They help contribute to the entire development life cycle or value chain. They
are configured for both development and operations and can function based on ‘you break it, you fix it.’
However, there can be SLA implications – a need may be necessary to set up surge teams outside of the
PODs for priority 1 and priority 2 tickets.

More Benefits of POD-Based Model

Frequently, the capacity distribution of DevOps teams must find the right balance between new feature
development and ensuring operational stability. A purpose-driven Agile/DevOps POD design can ensure
outcomes, accelerate delivery of common product backlogs and reduce inefficiencies and cost. Other
benefits of the POD team structure include:
• Increased developer productivity – Developer productivity increases proportionately reducing
velocity impact
• Resilience – Work prioritization rules when operational requirements need higher priority over
new development
• Business alignment – Value alignment across the organization around the transformation journey
• Time to market – Shorter turnaround due to the elimination of hand-offs between the teams

New ways of working

It is time to change the application managed services experience by changing the operating model that
delivers these services in an integrated AD-AM framework. DevOps and other new ways of working are
collapsing the boundaries between digital platforms in a cloud-first environment. While many
organizations have embarked on the transformation journey, the value stream and POD-based model for
DevOps will help achieve better outcomes and put the focus back on goals.