The FinOps Framework provides the operating model for how to establish and excel in the practice of FinOps.
Flying is easy. Watching the gauges is easy. Managing the radio is easy. Scanning the sky is easy. Watching the weather is easy. It’s doing them all at once that’s hard.
~Anonymous FinOps Practitioner & Pilot
FinOps is an evolving cloud financial management discipline and cultural practice that enables organizations to get maximum business value by helping engineering, finance, technology and business teams to collaborate on data-driven spending decisions.
Like FinOps, the Framework is evolving and informed by community contributions and conversations. Built by the community for the community.
An important aspect of the FinOps Framework is that it requires you to be intentional about how you adopt and implement FinOps concepts and capabilities into your practice. You must make trade-offs at every step of your journey, iteratively revisiting the FinOps lifecycle phases and reevaluating your goals in the context of your stakeholders and business needs, rather than adhering to a rigid standard and sequential set of steps.
The FinOps Framework is designed to represent 2 constituent components:
| FinOps Domains represents a sphere of activity or knowledge, and every organization adopting FinOps will perform activities in all Domains during their FinOps journey. They are not exclusive to one another or represent process steps; in fact, Multiple Domains may be pursued during any phase of an organization’s FinOps practice.Taken together, the FinOps Domains represent the Capabilities an organization must perform in the practice of FinOps. |  |
| Each Capability can be thought of as a building block; you can combine as many or as few as needed depending on where you are in our FinOps journey and the needs of your organization. Individually, they represent functional areas of activity involving FinOps personas, tasks and/or processes you implement iteratively to meet your FinOps challenges. As such, they may exist in more than one FinOps Domain.
The information architecture is designed to encapsulate attributes like KPIs, measures of success, maturity characteristics, functional activities and the personas responsible for those FinOps activities. Additionally, open-source resources are weaved into the Capabilities core content so that you can extend or adapt them to create new implementations of that Capability to meet your needs. |
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| The designations in the FinOps maturity model enable organizations to start small, and grow in scale, scope and complexity as business value warrants maturing a functional activity. Starting at a small scale and limited scope empowers FinOps teams to assess the outcomes of their actions, gain insights into the value of taking further action, and choose an implementation of the FinOps maturity model that fits their business needs.The FinOps Maturity Model designations are intended to identify where we are currently operating – without judgment – and empower practitioners to seek out opportunities for areas of potential investment. |  |
| Implementing the FinOps Framework requires you to work together with the FinOps Personas in your organization. And all the personas involved in FinOps will benefit from understanding the Framework’s operating model. Operating within the FinOps Framework requires finding allies in times of change, defining a common language, building enablement strategies to elevate, and developing communication programs. The practice of Finops is more than a technology solution or a checklist you hand to your teams.Learn more about the FinOps Personas. |  |
| The FinOps lifecycle consists of three iterative phases: Inform, Optimize, and Operate.The Inform phase gives you the visibility for creating shared accountability. The Optimize phase is intended to identify efficiency opportunities and determine their value. The operate phase defines and implements processes that achieve the goals of technology, finance, and business.
Building maturity in to your FinOps capabilities should be viewed through the lens of this iterative lifecycle. In fact, your organization may be pursuing multiple lifecycle phases at any time across a variety of initiatives. |
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| FinOps Principles are north stars that guide the activities of your FinOps practice. They’re developed by FinOps Foundation members, and honed through experience. Embracing these principles will help you to establish a self-governing, cost-conscious culture within your organization. |  |
