Note: This case study describes work conducted by Evolutioned’s founders during their employment at a previous company, before establishing Evolutioned. The experience and methodologies developed during this engagement directly informed our approach to DevOps transformation and software delivery optimisation.
Project Background
A Division within the Department of Home Affairs faced significant challenges with their existing software development and deployment processes. Slow, error-prone manual procedures were hampering their desired release velocity and creating operational friction. The organisation needed to accelerate software releases, foster better collaboration between development and operations teams, and decrease incidents caused by manual deployments, inadequate integration testing, and a monolithic system architecture.
The future founders of Evolutioned, then working for a different company, were engaged to lead this DevOps transformation initiative. Their task was to modernise the development pipeline while ensuring minimal disruption to ongoing operations in this sensitive government environment.
Initial Assessment: Understanding the DevOps Challenge
When the team began working with the Department, they conducted a collaborative assessment of the current state. This comprehensive evaluation revealed several critical issues:
• Manual, inconsistent deployment processes leading to frequent errors • Siloed development and operations teams with limited collaboration • Lack of automated testing creating quality assurance bottlenecks • Absence of a structured version control strategy hampering concurrent development • Limited monitoring capabilities making it difficult to identify and resolve issues • Monolithic architecture restricting the ability to deploy changes independently
These challenges were creating significant barriers to the Department’s ability to deliver digital services efficiently and reliably. The assessment provided a clear picture of both the technical and cultural changes needed to enable a successful DevOps transformation.
The Journey: Implementing DevOps Transformation
Challenge 1: Creating a Strategic Roadmap
The Problem:
The Division faced numerous DevOps challenges that couldn’t all be addressed simultaneously. Without proper prioritisation, there was a risk of overwhelming teams with too much change at once or focusing on initiatives with limited impact.
Our Solution:
The team created a comprehensive roadmap that balanced potential impact with feasibility. This approach included:
• Evaluating DevOps initiatives based on estimated effort and potential value • Sequencing changes to build on each other and create early wins • Aligning the roadmap with the Department’s broader strategic objectives • Creating clear milestones to track progress and demonstrate success • Establishing feedback mechanisms to adapt the roadmap as implementation progressed
This strategic planning provided a clear path forward while ensuring the flexibility to adjust based on emerging challenges and opportunities.
Challenge 2: Establishing Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery
The Problem:
The Division’s manual deployment processes were time-consuming, error-prone, and created a significant bottleneck in delivering new features and fixes. Without automation, each release required extensive manual testing and verification, further slowing the delivery cycle.
Our Solution:
The team implemented a robust CI/CD pipeline that integrated multiple tools into a seamless workflow:
• Code repositories with structured branching strategies for better collaboration • Automated build systems to ensure consistent compilation • Comprehensive automated testing at multiple levels (unit, integration, system) • Deployment automation to reduce manual errors and accelerate delivery • Centralised monitoring to provide early warning of potential issues
This integrated pipeline dramatically reduced the time required to move code from development to production while simultaneously improving quality through consistent testing and deployment processes.
Challenge 3: Addressing Version Control Challenges
The Problem:
The absence of a streamlined version control strategy was causing frequent code conflicts and integration challenges. Developers struggled to work concurrently on features, and the team lacked confidence in the stability of their codebase.
Our Solution:
The team implemented Git with a clear branching model that transformed how code was managed:
• Established a structured branching strategy aligned with the development workflow • Created automated checks to ensure code quality before merging • Implemented peer review processes to improve code quality and knowledge sharing • Provided comprehensive training on effective Git workflows and conflict resolution • Integrated the version control system with CI/CD pipelines for seamless delivery
This approach allowed developers to work concurrently on features while preserving a stable codebase and simplifying the collaboration process.
Challenge 4: Building a DevOps Culture
The Problem:
Technical solutions alone wouldn’t deliver sustainable change without addressing the cultural divide between development and operations teams. Siloed responsibilities, entrenched workflows, and established power dynamics were creating friction and reducing overall effectiveness. Furthermore, shifting to DevOps represented a fundamental change to how many staff members saw their professional identities and day-to-day work.
Our Solution:
The team recognised that successful DevOps adoption required deep organisational development expertise alongside technical knowledge. They implemented a multifaceted approach to cultural transformation:
• Influence Mapping: Conducted stakeholder analysis to identify key influencers, champions, and potential resistors across the organisation, developing targeted engagement strategies for each group
• Psychological Safety: Established forums where team members could openly discuss concerns and challenges without fear of judgment, creating space for authentic conversations about the changes
• Capability Building: Delivered extensive coaching and training for both development and operations teams, focusing not just on technical skills but also on collaboration, feedback, and shared problem-solving
• Incremental Success: Deliberately structured early wins to demonstrate value and build momentum for the transformation, using these successes to influence broader adoption
• Change Narratives: Developed compelling narratives around the benefits of DevOps that resonated with different stakeholder groups, from executive leadership to technical practitioners
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Facilitated regular cross-team workshops and “walk a mile” exercises where team members experienced each other’s challenges firsthand
This people-centred approach to transformation acknowledged that technical change is ultimately driven by human adoption. By addressing the cultural, psychological and social aspects of DevOps adoption, the team created sustainable change that transformed how people worked together across traditional boundaries.
Results & Transformation
The DevOps transformation led to dramatic improvements across multiple dimensions:
• Accelerated Delivery: Lead time for code changes was significantly reduced, enabling more frequent feature releases and rapid bug fixes.
• Enhanced Quality: Automated testing and Infrastructure as Code practices contributed to a marked decrease in production incidents, resulting in improved overall software quality.
• Collaborative Culture: Development and operations teams evolved from separate silos into collaborative partners, developing shared language and mutual respect that fundamentally changed how problems were approached and solved.
• Measurable Improvement: Key performance indicators such as deployment frequency, lead time, and mean time to recovery (MTTR) clearly demonstrated continuous improvement throughout the engagement.
• Developer Confidence: The implementation of Git with a structured branching strategy significantly reduced merge conflicts during integration, building developer confidence in the codebase’s stability and preventing cascading issues often associated with manual deployments.
• Cultural Indicators: Beyond technical metrics, cultural indicators showed positive transformation—increased cross-team collaboration, more balanced participation in planning sessions, and growing comfort with transparency around both successes and failures.
Legacy of Learning
This DevOps transformation created lasting impact for the Department in several important dimensions:
Enhanced Scalability: The newly adopted CI/CD pipeline and Infrastructure as Code approach significantly improved the organisation’s ability to scale, equipping it to meet increased workloads and handle complex deployments with confidence.
Resource Optimisation: The reduction in manual interventions through automation freed up valuable technical resources, allowing teams to focus on innovation and feature development while minimising operational costs.
Sustainable Practices: Robust documentation and support structures empowered teams to own and maintain DevOps practices long-term, ensuring the transformation would continue to deliver value well beyond the initial engagement.
Cultural Evolution: Perhaps most significantly, the Department experienced a fundamental shift in how technical and business teams collaborated. The transformation broke down longstanding barriers and created new patterns of interaction that extended beyond the immediate DevOps context into other aspects of digital delivery.
Change Management Blueprint: The approach to managing this complex organisational change—balancing technical excellence with nuanced people leadership—became a model for how the Department approached other transformation initiatives.
Ethical Implementation: Throughout the project, the team maintained transparency with stakeholders across all organisational levels. They carefully integrated new tools and processes with respect for existing systems to minimise disruption, and actively addressed potential resistance through focused upskilling and clear communication.
The methodologies and approaches developed during this engagement—both technical DevOps practices and organisational change management techniques—became foundational to Evolutioned’s transformation services when the company was later established. This experience continues to inform our work with clients facing similar challenges in complex government environments.
