Why Operations Teams Get Overlooked and How to Build Real Collaboration

As many know, creating and running a website or project is never a one‑person job; it requires product, design, front‑end and back‑end development, testing, system maintenance (deployment, operation, upkeep), platform operation, and more.

In many teams, certain roles arrogantly consider themselves dominant, viewing other positions as merely auxiliary. This mindset breeds frequent personnel conflicts and virtually eliminates collaborative spirit, especially when senior leadership shares the same view.

In some companies, if the system runs smoothly for a long time, people question whether operations are even necessary; if failures occur frequently, they blame operations for everything.

The root causes are varied—misunderstandings, project type (transactional sites value operations more than promotional sites), and organizational structure. Personally, I advise job seekers to target transactional‑type companies, where system uptime directly impacts revenue, giving operations a higher standing.

When programmers or testers demand arbitrary changes without documentation or a process, operations staff feel controlled and frustrated. Conversely, when incidents happen, the immediate reaction is to push blame onto operations, which often escalates disputes.

Here are some suggestions for everyone to consider:

Proactive

Technical people tend to be introverted, perhaps because they spend long hours with machines, but proactive communication remains crucial.

We must make others aware of the extensive work operations perform—choosing data centers, designing architecture, selecting technologies, daily maintenance, night‑time on‑call duties, 24‑hour response, etc.—and document it in detail.

What may seem simple to developers, like deploying a server or installing an OS, actually involves evaluating data‑center bandwidth, service quality, and optimal installation methods; we must articulate these details to demonstrate the effort involved.

No matter how beautiful the UI or how powerful the code, a crashed system is just a pile of useless binaries.

In China’s relationship‑oriented culture, sharing meals can smooth negotiations; consider inviting colleagues from other departments for a dinner.

Collaboration

Blaming others is driven by self‑interest and face‑saving; nobody wants to work hard only to be penalized for failures without recognition.

Since no system can run without any issues, I usually follow these steps when problems arise:

Collect contact information for relevant resources: data‑centers, suppliers, service providers (CDN, etc.).

Gather contact details of technical personnel: technical leads, developers, testers, etc.

Send fault alerts to the appropriate parties based on business impact.

Contact the interface owner to describe the incident and obtain a brief symptom summary.

Request coordinated investigation from the involved staff.

Report your own investigation results (checked items, values, modifications, screenshots, etc.).

Resolve the fault and summarize lessons learned.

Discuss internally to see if the issue can be minimized; avoid over‑emphasizing blame if it’s not your responsibility.

Process

Without a process, chaos ensues—anyone can make arbitrary requests. Overly complex processes also hinder efficiency. While I won’t prescribe a specific workflow, at minimum we should agree on an interface person to channel all requests.

This article was originally published on the public account 51CTO技术栈. Author: 田逸