OPS03-BP06 Team members are encouraged to maintain and grow their skill sets - Operational Excellence Pillar

OPS03-BP06 Team members are encouraged to maintain and grow their skill sets

Teams must grow their skill sets to adopt new technologies, and to support changes in demand and responsibilities in support of your workloads. Growth of skills in new technologies is frequently a source of team member satisfaction and supports innovation. Support your team members’ pursuit and maintenance of industry certifications that validate and acknowledge their growing skills. Cross train to promote knowledge transfer and reduce the risk of significant impact when you lose skilled and experienced team members with institutional knowledge. Provide dedicated structured time for learning.

AWS provides resources, including the AWS Getting Started Resource Center, AWS Blogs, AWS Online Tech Talks, AWS Events and Webinars, and the AWS Well-Architected Labs, that provide guidance, examples, and detailed walkthroughs to educate your teams.

AWS also shares best practices and patterns that we have learned through the operation of AWS in The Amazon Builders' Library and a wide variety of other useful educational material through the AWS Blog and The Official AWS Podcast.

You should take advantage of the education resources provided by AWS such as the Well-Architected labs, AWS Support (AWS Knowledge Center, AWS Discussion Forms, and AWS Support Center) and AWS Documentation to educate your teams. Reach out to AWS Support through AWS Support Center for help with your AWS questions.

AWS Training and Certification provides some free training through self-paced digital courses on AWS fundamentals. You can also register for instructor-led training to further support the development of your teams’ AWS skills.

Level of risk exposed if this best practice is not established: Medium

Implementation guidance

  • Team members are encouraged to maintain and grow their skill sets: To adopt new technologies, support innovation, and to support changes in demand and responsibilities in support of your workloads continuing education is necessary.

    • Provide resources for education: Provided dedicated structured time, access to training materials, lab resources, and support participation in conferences and professional organizations that provide opportunities for learning from both educators and peers. Provide junior team members' access to senior team members as mentors or allow them to shadow their work and be exposed to their methods and skills. Encourage learning about content not directly related to work in order to have a broader perspective.

    • Team education and cross-team engagement: Plan for the continuing education needs of your team members. Provide opportunities for team members to join other teams (temporarily or permanently) to share skills and best practices benefiting your entire organization

    • Support pursuit and maintenance of industry certifications: Support your team members acquiring and maintaining industry certifications that validate what they have learned, and acknowledge their accomplishments.

Resources

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