While DevOps occupies itself essentially with the automation of processes, the key to a successful implementation lies in a certain change of mindset in the company's culture. While the traditionally structured IT infrastructure acts on the basis of producing as much as possible as cost efficiently as possible, giving rise to tendentially large, longer-term IT projects, DevOps is about approaching a goal step by step, making constant improvements and getting its ideas to the customer as quickly as possible, in order to obtain feedback from them.

This approach requires a change in thought processes and demands quite a bit from a company: the mindset, but also how the teams work have to be rethought. DevOps is based on interdisciplinary cooperation, and not just between Dev and Ops, i.e. Development and IT Operations, but with all of the parties involved in the product lifecycle. For the teamwork that means moving away from the individuals in the product lifecycle focusing on and achieving set goals, and towards interdisciplinary collaboration and constant interaction to achieve a mutual goal.

For that to work, people are needed who are motivated and willing to give up the status quo, to change and take on new responsibilities that were outside their scope of duty before. Managers are required who put this philosophy into practice themselves, who promote the interdepartmental cooperation, and at the same time who give the teams the authority to make decisions, and perhaps mistakes, on their own.