Bottom-up DevOps initiatives are when an engineer, team leads, or lower management don’t necessarily have buy-in from the company to make changes to the operational model. However, they realize that although changes can’t be made to the overall incumbent operational model, they can try and facilitate positive changes using DevOps philosophies within their team that can help the team perform better and make their productivity more efficient.
When implementing DevOps initiatives from a bottom-up initiative, it is much more difficult and challenging at times as some individuals or teams may not be willing to change the way they work and operate as they don’t have to. But it is important not to become disheartened and do the best possible job for the business.
It is still possible to eventually convince upper management to implement a DevOps initiative using grass roots initiatives to prove the process brings real business benefits.