Digitalization and networking are prime forms of 21st century learning.  The world is much smaller and thanks to technology; which made learning more transforming into a globally collaborative enterprise. For example professional, networks allow the scientific community to share discoveries much faster than the others.  

The scientists of Harvard are considering that “sharing discoveries is more efficient and honorable than patenting them.”  This idea embodies the true spirit of a successful professional learning network: collaboration for its own sake.

Educators should aim to be connected to advance their craft; and on another level, they need to use networks to prepare and the teach students and make them ready with the ever changing technological needs; as this will make them available in the changing job market.  However, what is the best way to approach professional learning networks - PLNs?

The recent learning networks are based on the theory of connectivism, or learning from varied social webs.  Connectivism implies to learning that relies on communicating ideas with many people at same time. Professional learning networks facilitate learning through meaningful interactions; the advantages of these networks today are two-folded. In one way, they help to improve the classroom teaching and to develop new projects; and on the other hand, they act as a form of shared intelligence that changes communal perceptions.  

We will see more details on what are the ways to grow your PLN and improve the quality of your interactions; as there are diverse ways to build your network and many new management tools.  

• Always keep the spirit of collaboration as your driving force.Professional learning networks are all about working together, so be mutual and resourceful and never think about what you have to gain or gained, rather think what you have to give and Why? This is the right thing to do, when you are working collaboratively. By buying the process and sharing useful information, your professional network will always grow naturally. While collaboration creates a common ground which allows others to see your interests.Authentic interest builds a solid network.Social responsibility is the best kind of motivation for establishing a PLN.
• Join an online community and share ideas by contacting or connecting to people for direct feedback. As direct feedback is more effective in a community setting. The Communities such as, Classroom versions and The Educator’s professional network provide a meaningful circle of experts.These professional development resources, such as online events are a great place to start your networking and build it.
• The next thing to make your network strong is joining a meet-up group.These meet-up groups are common thread interest groups that connect the real world; and make your life easy to extend your social networks. For instance, science teachers in your city or district might create a group to share their teaching ideas; these meet-up groups take online networks and bring them into the real world. But, if in case you can’t meet online then try using Google+ HangOuts, or Skype. Whereas, some university academics even have virtual labs on SecondLife.
• Be as symbol of light.Professional learning networks rely on open sharing of information.So if you know something, then be open to share it!Start with a specific interest and then start growing your network with other topics as time goes on. Turn out to be an expert in your niche by researching current trends.This will draw larger followers on your network, and help you to provide a novel source of information.
• Ask questions; after all, PLNs are all about learning. But do not ask questions that you can easily research. Try simple searches on TED talks, Wikis, blogs, or news articles before posting a question; as these are the. Try to be specific and think of how a question might generate interest from others. For example, you may want to refer to an article or research study when asking a question. Be specific!This will generate the best answers.
• Be an active participant; as brain power is the main asset of any professional learning systems. So you need to spend valuable time to identify the specific cause to communicate on your profile.Let your knowledge be the specific cause as it helps you grow your PLN. Try updating your niche and stay relevant to it.
• Be polite and acknowledge your contributions to the rightful owner. Show respect for the people in your network.
• Designate a professional and personal account. Be active participate in your social life - Facebook and professional life on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.There can be some intersect, but its best thing to keep it least so things are easy to find.So that certain groups will appreciate different types of content. Do this in ways that are comfortable to you.You might designate accounts for each sphere of your life.
• Create a landing page; as it may be a good idea to consolidate all of your accounts on your landing page.A webpage or personal blog will make it easier for people who like to find you; and it will also create a space where you can showcase the different projects you are working on.
• Engage newbies, having this type of diversity in knowledge always allow you to increase your mentoring skills and keeps the essence of collaboration.A blogger can Collaborate, Communicate, and Create any source to be an active participate and can be proved to be the best professional to people who are seeking for connected learning networks; as PLNS trend to create new projects through the power of active collaboration.

Challenge

Corporate leaders recognize that market growth is dependent on customer-centric service delivery models which demand rapid delivery of high-quality software systems. However, there are no specific theories to measure the readiness of the organizations to adopt DevOps culture. Today’s customer has become smart, and Organizations are changing their stance for faster application delivery to live up to the customer expectations. But, organizations encountering with operations, process, and development, will in turn heap up challenges in terms of aligning with governance and strategy.        

Assessing success in a business context is acute, but because DevOps isn’t a formal framework, organizations can still have little way of guidance to assess its efficiency. But this can be a little delicate activity when organizations try to measure systems which are output-based or used on some metrics or methods that incentivize behaviors counter to a DevOps culture.       

Why DevOps?

So far it was assumed that DevOps isn’t easy and it can be a struggle to manage and implement it productively. Today there are several approaches made it easy for the organizations that are looking towards adopting DevOps. Through DevOps Assessments Program Organizations can identify, manage, and implement DevOps principles productively.  DevOps has demonstrated serious effectiveness for accelerating software development and rationalizing the interaction of operations and quality assurance (QA) departments. DevOps imposes demands that every organization needs to be ready to address.    

Opportunity

When adopting DevOps, organizations should consider new approaches identifying and implementing DevOps assessment program. Since DevOps is all about building a robust culture to enhance IT service deliveries, this will include deliberation for actionable metrics that are open, transparent and promote collaboration. DevOps is undoubtedly an extension of agile and lean principles. It is a revolution resulting in an evolution of agile that extends the practice of agile development for speedy delivery. From the formation of ideas or concepts to production and overcome the obstacles of the walls between operations, development, and business via co-operation & collaboration practices.    

Let us look at some assessments which help organization for DevOps Transformation

Assessment I: Does DevOps bring value to the business? 

Implementing DevOps practices will certainly bring value to the businesses as this can be a buying point where organizations are leaning towards implementation of DevOps. This is because the software development cycles take years of coding and testing before releasing their product and requires a lot of resources to bring the required output of a product. But, what if when sales are not guaranteed and issues such as defects and bugs are raised once the product is out. Such issues will definitely hit the success of the product and ROI.  This is where the implementation of DevOps principles can answer to the above-mentioned issues.

Assessment II: Is IT flexible enough to support DevOps?

When DevOps is included to a new development cycle, it works differently and supports the developers and Quality departments and drives the resources on a much faster schedule to test and support each new release. To make sure the process runs all smooth, IT Companies must install the latest versions of software releases on one or multiple servers in the data or cloud centers, and interconnecting storage, performance monitoring, supporting databases, and other resources.

The IT corporations should thoroughly evaluate the application requirements, and approve the infrastructure and servers, and perform the deployment for the approved product. Such firm processes work well when the organization's staff works on occasional software releases.

Assessment III: Is the company large enough for DevOps?

To implement DevOps principles an organization should be capable enough to support the processes, tools, and the resources to keep DevOps productive. Balancing the resources and demands of the project can be difficult for small businesses at the initial point. However, Small businesses can often outsource the application development or invest in applications like Salesforce rather than in-house CRM package.

Organizations with 50 to 250 may not be able to adopt DevOps principles. Whereas, Organizations with more than 1,000 employees may have more advantages.

Assessment IV: Knowing Organization’s DevOps strategy?

DevOps is a mix of people, tools, and processes. It is not an exercise or an event to implement it successfully with one software, tool or a plan taken out from a book.   

With a comprehensive DevOps assessment and supporting tools, organizations adopting DevOps can:

• Quickly measure and establish clear business terms with effective DevOps processes like continuous delivery and parallel development methods

• Support cross-functional teams around business value conception and continuous development

• identify capacity gaps and initiate the remediation policies to achieve targets and goals

• Eliminate existing practices that counter a strong DevOps culture to prevent the flow value to the businesses and customers

Conclusion

Every company has its own approach towards adopting DevOps and implementing.  Adjusting and adapting the people, tools and processes to meet the organization's unique goals is the main aim to adopt DevOps. In this process of adopting DevOps, hiring developers who are familiar with DevOps workflows & cycles, organize IT staff capable of accommodating dynamic release schedules, implementing a suite of tools facilitate collaboration between developers, QA, and IT and applying strong business management that can drive DevOps adoption.

Today’s corporates often evaluate DevOps potential and insert it by slow degrees, developing proficiency and skills with teams working on small and less prioritized projects. Then they steadily involve these skills and tools to work on critical projects over time to bring the overall success of the product or software.