Is It Time to Retire the Buzzwords?

I want to pause and dig into what these “Ops” actually are and what, if anything, they can bring to the table.

The “Ops” Buzzwords: What’s Hot and What They Claim to Change

DevOps is the origin story here. Born from the need to bridge IT operations and development, its promise is automation, faster releases, and a “you build it, you run it” culture. The real gift of DevOps, when lived authentically, is breaking down silos and building ownership from code through production.

MLOps emerged as data science grew up inside companies. Suddenly, we needed more than clever models; we needed systematic ways to deploy, monitor, update, and secure machine learning in production. MLOps borrows DevOps ideas but adds things like model versioning, data drift monitoring, and compliance for sensitive applications.

LLMOps is the latest buzz, following the rise of large language models (LLMs). Think ChatGPT, enterprise AI chatbots, or smart assistants. LLMOps covers the lifecycle of these massive models, curating training data, fine-tuning, evaluating for bias or hallucinations, and managing API endpoints at scale. The goal is to bring “order to the chaos” that comes along with deploying and governing these cutting-edge models.

AIOps sits at the crossroads of IT and AI. It leverages AI to automate IT operations, catching anomalies in systems, auto-remediating outages, and freeing IT teams from “alert fatigue.” The idea is that by parsing logs and signals with AI, we can anticipate and resolve issues faster than humans can alone.

Here’s the thing: Every “Ops” discipline promises efficiency, scalability, and a path to business value. The danger is adopting new labels without understanding whether they plug an actual gap or simply add another workflow for us to manage.

My Experience: Frameworks Versus Real-World Results

Having hosted deep discussions on my podcast, collaborated with cross-functional teams, and supported organizations through both failure and triumph, I’ve come to realize that success isn’t about collecting frameworks. I’ve seen teams get bogged down in endless meetings about MLOps or AIOps, drawn in by the allure of industry trends, but frustrated when the results haven’t materialized in real benefits for customers or colleagues. I remember a moment with a partner company where we spent months rolling out an “Ops” solution, only to find we were solving the wrong problem because leadership hadn’t asked what the actual bottleneck was.

I’ve noticed how easy it is to get swept up by the excitement of new “Ops” frameworks. So many teams pour weeks into building what they hope will be bulletproof pipelines and systems, only to discover along the way that their most critical roadblock isn’t the sophistication of their deployment, it's more fundamental aspects like data quality, governance, or upstream workflow clarityWhat I’ve learned is that these frameworks can be powerful, but only when rooted in honest reflection about real needs. Are we adopting LLMOps because our team is genuinely struggling to manage language models at scale, or because we’re trying to follow the crowd? Is AIOps something that reduces downtime for our IT teams, or just another dashboard to ignore?

Cutting Through the Hype: What Leaders Should Ask

When a new “Ops” term appears on my radar, here’s what I ask myself and my teams:

• Does this approach solve a pain that’s actually slowing us down, or is it just shiny packaging?

• Could we simplify, instead of adding another layer to our tech stack?

• Are we doing this for our people and customers, or for our resumes and marketing blurbs?

• Will this framework build trust, clarity, or agility, or just more complexity?

Bringing my HR and tech background together, I keep coming back to the same truth: breakthroughs happen when we prioritize what our people and business need, not what the buzzwords dictate. Openness, collaboration, and context matter so much more than picking the hottest framework.

The most valuable moments in my career, on the podcast, in client work, or just in day-to-day problem solving, have always come when we focused on dialogue, not doctrine. When teams feel empowered to ask hard questions about value instead of getting swept away by the latest “Ops” surge, we get solutions that stick (and less burnout along the way).

I’d really love to hear from you: Has any “Ops” movement, DevOps, MLOps, LLMOps, or maybe your own twist, made a real impact on your work? Or have they become extra hurdles that cloud what really matters? Drop a comment with your experiences; I can’t wait to compare notes and ground ourselves in what’s actually driving progress in our teams and industries.

If you’re interested in exploring these ideas further, I invite you to check out the latest episode of LuminaTalks, where Nemanja Radojković (Немања Радојковић) and I dive deeper into this topic and more.

▶️ Catch the conversation here:https://lnkd.in/epNRFuWj