#16. This would be my First 90 days in Charge of FinOps in your Organization

If you were put in charge of FinOps in a large company, what would be your approach?

Let's assume you're starting a new job tomorrow as the lead of FinOps practice, and you've been assigned the challenging task of establishing FinOps in a large corporation that just moved to Cloud. Where would you start? As an advisor, I've thought about this question often, and in this article I'd like to share my approach with you.

Looking at the domains of FinOps, one might say they're all important. The classic approach would be to first show cloud spend (the inform phase), then optimize spending, and finally implement operational practices in the operate phase. However, if you've read my last article, you'll know I disagree with this approach. So, what would I do instead?

TL;DR

Define cloud governance frameworks, including cost allocation, policy enforcement, shift-left practices, and forecasting strategies.
Train and enable cloud stakeholders to implement best practices effectively.
Implement automated controls and protective guardrails.

#1. What is the plan? — Setup

To set up FinOps practices, you need a FinOps Target Operating Model (TOM) that defines the strategy, governance, and best practices. Here are the key components of this model:

Vision: What do we want to deliver with FinOps, and which cloud values do we want to achieve (e.g., speed, quality, or cost)?
FinOps Strategy: Define the organization's current state, desired future state with FinOps, and a gap analysis showing how to get there—complete with KPIs and roadmaps
Governance: encompassing
1. Processes and workflows: what needs to be achieved
2. People: who does what (RACI structure)
3. Technology: how these processes are delivered through platforms and tools

tip: a complete future article will cover the FinOps TOM in detail.

Once this is ready, its time to execute the plan. But first, bring everyone on board.

#2. Bring People onboard — Skill up

Once you know what needs to be done, ensure everyone aligns with your direction. I would implement an intensive upskilling program to help stakeholders understand their roles and how they contribute to FinOps success. Teaching people about FinOps capabilities through a simple "how-to" approach would foster a cloud-aware culture and give everyone clear understanding of cloud operations.

#3. Sharpen your axe before you chop the tree — Automate

When looking at how FinOps maturity is measured, I often see that automation is relegated to the "run" phase, happening much later after many iterative cycles. I strongly disagree with this approach.

If you come from a development background, you know that developers set up project automation (e.g., DevOps CI/CD pipelines) before starting sprint 1. Why should a FinOps project be any different?

Automation and guardrails should be implemented at the very beginning of FinOps, not delayed until reaching high maturity. Here are some examples:

All cloud resources should be deployed exclusively through automated pipelines using Infrastructure as Code (IaC — e.g., Terraform code). When this is in place, governance through policy and shifting left can be implemented upfront. This safeguards against cloud waste and overspending.
By enforcing automatic tagging and deploying infrastructure with a clear account hierarchy, we can ensure 100% cost allocation and avoid complications later.
By ensuring cloud optimization recommendations are assigned to engineers through their ITSM tools (e.g., Jira, ServiceNow, or Slack), we can transform potential savings into actual cost reductions.
Using automated tools to purchase cloud commitments (e.g., RI and Saving plans) in a laddering approach ensures higher savings rates than manual management could achieve.

The list goes on, but the point is clear: implementing automation and protective guardrails early is absolutely necessary.

#4. Eat healthy instead of making diets — Govern rather than optimize

Now that my automations are in place, I would rather take the approach of shifting left and governing the spend through policy instead of running the tedious cycle of optimizations.

Obviously, this isn't everything that needs to be done, but when all these elements are in place, you'll have the best possible first 90 days in charge of FinOps. But what if you're coming into a later stage of cloud adoption, in a brownfield environment? That will be the topic of my next article.

Summary

When launching a greenfield FinOps project, start by establishing clear plans and guidelines through your FinOps Target Operating Model. Build team alignment through comprehensive training and cultivate a cloud-aware culture. Don't delay implementing automations and guardrails—set these up from day one, rather than waiting for your FinOps practice to mature. Finally, put in place effective shift-left and governance practices to create the strongest possible foundation for your FinOps initiative.