Being Ourselves, Making a Difference.

I’m our UKI DevOps Studio Operations Lead and sit within Intelligent Engineering Services (IES) in Accenture Technology. So, let’s start by telling you about our DevOps Studio…

Presenting our DevOps Studio
DevOps is a software engineering principle and an enabler of agile methodologies. It uses tools and technologies to coordinate processes, release code and build applications faster and therefore remain more competitive in client’s respective markets.

We formed our DevOps Studio in September 2018 and have several go-to-market channels around advisory work (which is more traditional DevOps consulting) and delivery through our Shared Services and embedded resources (people working with client teams to understand their context, their architecture, their challenges etc.). And then we also have our own Accenture DevOps platform (ADOP), which is an integrated tooling environment to support a continuous delivery approach to release management and development – no matter what level of DevOps maturity the client is at.

Growing our team

My role covers a broad scope, from pulling together our strategy and operating model, supporting client advisory workshops, to helping build our visibility internally so our consulting teams understand how we can support them, as well as externally to clients and strategic partners. Most importantly, it’s about supporting our people, making sure they are building the skills to allow them to succeed in their aligned career path. One of our key objectives for this year has been growing our team in the Studio – it’s such a niche skill area that’s continually growing and we need to ensure our headcount meets the increasing demand for services from clients. Right now, we have 76 people working for the Studio and, to give you an idea, that’s approximately a 55% increase since September last year. I’m very passionate about our gender diversity and that’s certainly a focus now and, for our group, we’re looking at ways we could amend our recruitment strategy to be more appealing to females.

From tech to advisory
There’s a perception that to succeed in technology you need to be an engineer, for instance in DevOps you need to have managed a pipeline end to end, but I think nowadays that’s quite narrow-minded. In the past, C-Suite level clients tended to be more managerial and needed that technical expertise. Now, you see engineers and technologists moving into senior positions and they know what they are talking about from a technical perspective but need that strategic input. We are really growing our advisory work in IES and this has so much potential to offer that new breed of C-Suite client as we have people who can understand the technology, the broader strategy and, speak on their level.

Progress that’s limitless
What I love about working here is the variety – you need to be adaptable to changing roles and scope. You have the autonomy to build your own career path and what you can learn and how far you progress is limitless! If you feel like you’ve developed as much as you can in one area, it’s so easy to move on and learn something new. This is especially true in Accenture Technology as we’re so clued-in to new IT and that’s forever going to revolutionise and change, so there will always be opportunities to learn new things.

I do not come from a Technology background, even though I sit within Accenture Technology. When I joined Accenture almost five years ago I was part of Consulting and spent my first three years in various project management roles across Financial Services. Some of the roles were more technical than others, some were technology delivery programmes and others were more business analysis and operational, so my experience is quite broad. But it’s Operational Management that I found I really enjoyed as I just love managerial tasks and organisation – it’s not for everyone, but it suits me.

We are currently hiring for DevOps professionals as well as for other technology skills. To discover our opportunities, visit our website.