FinOps Framework Flashcards
Provides the operating model for establishing and excelling in the practice of FinOps
FinOps Framework
Six components of the FinOps Framework
Principles - drive our FinOps practices
Personas - stakeholders that FinOps supports
Maturity Model - incremental assessment criteria for understanding the state of any FinOps activity or overall practice
Phases - iterative process model for exercising FinOps Capabilities
Domains - fundamental business outcomes
Capabilities - activities performed to achieve desired outcomes (Domains) of FinOps
This approach to performing FinOps enables organizations to start small and grow in scale, scope, and complexity as business value warrants maturing a functional activity. Taking quick action at a small scale and limited scope allows FinOps teams to assess the outcomes of their actions, and gain insights into the value of taking further action in a larger, faster, or more granular way
Crawl Walk Run
True or false: An organization’s goal should never be simply to achieve a Run maturity in every Capability
True. Every organization does not need to be at the same level and each Capability can be at a different level of maturity as well
Crawl Characteristics
Very little reporting and tooling
Measurements only provide insight into the benefits of maturing the capability
Basic KPIs set for the measurement of success
Basic processes and policies are defined around the Capability
Capability is understood but not followed by all the major teams within the organization
Plans to address “low-hanging fruit”
Walk Characteristics
Capability is understood and followed within the organization
Difficult edge cases are identified but the decision to not address them is adopted
Automation and/or processes cover most of the Capability requirements
Most difficult edge cases (ones that threaten the financial well-being of the organization) are identified and effort to resolve has been estimated
Medium to high goals/KPIs set on the measurement of success
Run Characteristics
Capability is understood and followed by all teams within the organization
Difficult edge cases are being addressed
Very high goals/KPIs set on the measurement of success
Automation is the preferred approach
Approach to Crawl Walk Run across Capabilities
Don’t develop something to Run if it’s not adding value
You can be at Run for some things and crawl at others…and never develop the crawl
The three FinOps phases
Inform
Optimize
Operate
Visibility & Allocation
FinOps activities involve identifying data sources for cloud cost, usage and efficiency data
Inform
Rates & Usage
FinOps activities involve identifying opportunities to improve cloud efficiency using the data and capabilities developed in the Inform phase. This phase is also about collaboration across teams to optimize visibility, reporting, and management processes for areas where unit metrics indicate cloud performance is not aligned to the organization’s cloud value goals.
Optimize
Continuous Improvement & Usage
FinOps activities involve implementing organizational changes to operationalize FinOps using the data and capabilities developed in the Inform and Optimize phase. FinOps success requires organizations build a culture of accountability where teams collaborate on continuous, incremental action based on the data generated in the Inform phase, selecting the best opportunities identified in the Optimize phase, and using a bias for action developed throughout the organization.
Operate
The ultimate goal is to exercise the FinOps Phases as frequently and quickly as possible and to include as much automation to help that process as possible
The ultimate goal is to exercise the FinOps Phases as frequently and quickly as possible and to include as much automation to help that process as possible
refers to any of the cloud provider or third-party software packages that support any of the FinOps Capabilities.
FinOps Tool
refers to a third-party service that delivers outcomes related to the FinOps Capabilities. These services may include training, consultancy, managed services, or even the outsourcing of parts of your FinOps practice altogether.
FinOps Services
tools such as AWS Cost Explorer, Google Cloud Cost Management, or Azure Cost Management. typically going to be available for no cost or very low cost
Cloud Provider Cost Management Tools
often procured to go beyond cloud provider tools and speed up time to value in relation to building your own systems. They also act as a critical abstraction layer between you and the regularly changing landscape of multi-cloud billing data.
FinOps Platforms & Tooling
sometimes built from scratch but often built on top of existing business intelligence (BI) tooling (e.g., Tableau or Looker) or using cloud-specific solutions (e.g., AWS Cost Intelligence Dashboards or Google’s BigQuery Export). Internal reporting and data analysis or metrics teams can often provide skilled resources who can help develop dashboards and other reporting capabilities inside an organization.
Homegrown Tooling (Custom)
True or False: Mature FinOps teams seem to rely on employees over contractors or consultants.
True
True or False: For some organizations, an overreliance or dependence on outside services can create problems
True
FinOps Landscape
Tools available from FinOps org of services and tools in the space
Integrating the Framework
Are there any existing business processes, behaviors, or Capabilities in place that could accelerate or empower Framework adoption? Are there any that could hinder it?
*
What changes are needed in order to resolve those conflicts?
*
What are the most valuable “missing pieces” of the Framework to deliver first, for maximum impact? Are there any elements that may require considerable effort to achieve, and is there sufficient support for that effort?
*
When developing your Framework adoption roadmap(opens in a new tab), ask two important questions: What is the appetite for change within the business? What are the cadences and the pace of change that the business can realistically achieve?
