How do you define and measure FinOps maturity?

The first step to FinOps maturity is measurement.

FinOps is based around continuous improvement, and that makes measuring progress crucial. Some of the questions FinOps teams must address include:

• What measurements best reveal your progress in your FinOps journey?
• What are the ingredients for success?
• What are some practical examples of success?

Before we can begin to answer these questions we must look at the concept of maturity in FinOps – simple in theory, but complex to carry out in practice.

Introducing a cloud strategy framework

There is no silver bullet to measuring FinOps maturity. By design, FinOps intersects with multiple departments, teams, factors, and actions, each one of which needs to be measured independently. The teams I work with use the framework below to define these “ingredients” of cloud & FinOps maturity.

The eight topics in this model are all vital to FinOps. Of these, Organizational Change, Target Operating Model, and Financial Impact will be especially relevant for most FinOps practitioners.

Connecting the pieces

Defining and measuring your FinOps maturity begins with an assessment of your organization’s overall cloud adoption maturity, including each of the ingredients in our cloud strategy framework above. Look for gaps within each focus area, as well as in the interactions between them. FinOps maturity requires many pieces to come together, and the more gaps your assessment identifies, the greater your potential for gain.

On the other side of the coin, your organization is also likely to have “bright spots” – areas (or individuals) that are especially successful. These bright spots can be even more valuable than gaps as they provide concrete information on what can be attained, and how.

There are three main areas where gaps and bright spots are likely to turn up:

• Organizational change alignment
  1. How mature are the teams that consume cloud?
  2. What kind of reporting do you require to give the proper feedback to the responsible teams so that decision-making becomes more fluent?
  3. What is the role for application transformation and application life cycle management in achieving greater efficiency?

• Skills and governance
  1. How do you incentivize your teams to go beyond the basic hygiene factors? (Can gamification play a role here?) What culture and mindset do you need to inculcate?
  2. Is there a role or group where technology and cloud economics come together in the organization? Who is responsible?
  3. What kind of expertise does the organization have connected with cloud and the cost model attached to it?
• Tools and insights
  1. What tooling is available on the market to provide the optimal cloud consumption?
  2. How can sustainable impact be improved?
  3. What are the cloud cost metrics; how can we make this more actionable and easier to understand?

What is the mature end-state of FinOps?

FinOps has two major stages: the harvesting of low-hanging fruit, followed by steady continuous improvement. In the second stage, a larger goal is also possible. Organizations may choose to craft a plan that relates costs to business value and use FinOps to support strategic choices around their core goals. At this level, FinOps is deeply embedded in the organization, affecting and being affected by the greater company culture.

Over time, FinOps should become increasingly aligned with company strategy. In good times, when cloud requirements are on the rise, FinOps will help make investments more predictable. In difficult economic times, a solid, data-driven plan to prevent wasted cloud consumption is essential. Mature FinOps never stops growing. A well-governed FinOps program is an ever-evolving catalyst for growth within an organization, constantly uncovering innovative ways to drive progress.

A leader in cloud and operational optimization, Capgemini is helping organizations around the world optimize their cloud services, saving money and lowering their carbon footprint.  

  

Looking to go deeper into FinOps? Check out our FinOps Page and the whitepaper – The rise of Finops.