We live in an increasingly self-serviced world where digital natives have become the dominant generation in the workplace. Most individuals today are not only more comfortable with self-service, but they also actively choose it. Therefore, creating and evolving an intuitive yet secure self-service portal for users consuming IT resources has become a key undertaking for many organizations.
Portals can take platform teams years to deliver, and maintenance will remain ongoing. Still, if done well, they can massively lighten the load on IT departments for end users by improving the overall experience and reducing the cognitive load, and for platform teams by optimizing operational efficiency and reducing the number of open tickets. Therefore, it speeds up business processes and places autonomy and control in the hands of a happier workforce.
Self-service IT is about centralizing and giving access to important items such as applications, automation, deployment, documentations, cloud, security, FinOps and GreenOps simply and comprehensively. To use a metaphor, it is not about building a hugely over-engineered Boeing 747 with every feature for a quick city break. Quite the opposite. It is about creating a streamlined glider equipped with the right amount of ability to manage the operationally intensive tasks it needs to.
But, of course, self-service has advantages and disadvantages, and achieving a balance is essential when empowering users in the digital era.
Managing Shadow IT
There has already been a creeping level of unauthorized self-service in many organizations. Therefore, shadow IT, the use of IT-related hardware or software by an individual or department without the knowledge or approval of the IT department has become a major consideration for CIOs, and while not all bad, it is far from ideal.
Shadow IT is a clear signifier of the demand for self-service, it also points to a challenge that IT in isolation cannot overcome — people. On traditional infrastructure, organizations are already starting to develop interfaces on top of virtualizations because they have identified the need to provide self-service guardrails to users. However, when it comes to handling multi-cloud deployments at scale, with security, governance, FinOps and GreenOps considerations, this becomes challenging.
People are unpredictable, they can be set in their ways and/or willing to experiment. They might use a new service for a while and then migrate to another without much thought for security or privacy. They can deploy a new service for proof of concept and forget to delete it. They can become attached to processes or systems with which they’re familiar. It is all well and good to declare an intention to build a self-service portal, but there is no guarantee that individuals will flock to use it.
Assuming that any new self-service portal has all the functionality and features to cover the existing demands of the people who will use it — there are (broadly speaking) two options in change management. Force people to do the new thing or make the new thing easier to do than the old thing. Spoiler alert — one of these options tends to be more effective than the other.
Providing comprehensive support to users as they navigate through a self-service portal is, therefore, essential. Organizations should supply clear and accessible guides, conduct informative training sessions and establish a reliable support system. When developers feel empowered and well-supported, they won’t simply use the portal, they will integrate it as a vital component of their toolkit.
In the long-term, this will help foster loyalty and retention among top talent. It is also critical when it comes to building the best possible developer experience and helping the organization and people focus on what matters — improving and maintaining automation and infrastructure on one side and developing their applications on the other.
Maximizing User Experience
Developer experience, or DevX (as I have written about before), is of paramount importance for the successful uptake of any self-service portal.
It might sound obvious but when creating a portal an organization needs to consider the individuals who will use it, rather than creating something that makes people work differently. A well-designed self-service portal is one characterized by its ability to be used without the need for outside assistance, with both the sophistication suited to a skilled developer community and intuitiveness to encourage engagement with a less technically savvy user group. A successful portal therefore is straightforward, intuitive and enriched with the functionality to enhance developer workflows.
On the topic of workflow, the portal must integrate seamlessly with existing tools and systems. Leveraging everything-as-code serves as an effective foundation to ensure smooth integration across all systems, extending beyond just the self-service portal, with minimal error or delay. Incorporating automation features and orchestration can streamline operations, freeing up time from mundane repetitive tasks to improve DevX, allowing for a greater focus on innovation and problem-solving.
Freedom vs Control
Ultimately, portals must strike the balance between freedom and control, which can be achieved by ensuring flexibility with role-based access control. Granting end users the freedom to deploy within a secure framework of predefined permissions creates an environment ripe for innovation within a robustly protected environment. This means users can explore, experiment and innovate without concerns about security boundaries or unnecessary hurdles.
But of course, as with any project, organizations can’t afford to build something and consider that job done. Measuring success is ongoing. Metrics such as how often the portal is accessed, who uses what, which service catalogs are used and how the portal usage should be tracked, along with other relevant data will help point to any areas that need improvement.
It is also important to remember that it is collaborative work between the platform team and end users. And in technology, there is always room for improvement. For instance, recent advances in AI/ML could soon be leveraged to analyze previously inaccessible datasets and generate smarter and faster decision-making.
A well-designed self-service portal should deliver an experience that demystifies and democratizes access to services and data and enhances the project lifecycle process between teams. To achieve this, they should simplify usability, strive to assist developers in leveraging its features effectively, ensure alignment with existing workflows, enhance its functionality and regularly assess its impact on productivity. This will ensure that self-service users survive and thrive in the digital age.
