A FinOps Champions Program is an important tool to increase the accountability, adoption, and effectiveness of a FinOps practice. This paper builds upon the existing information regarding the role of a FinOps Champions Program in maturing a FinOps practice, providing actionable steps to establish and maintain such a program. It provides a practical approach, outlining requirements, considerations, and steps for successful implementation.
Please keep in mind that FinOps Champions programs should be designed to suit the needs of your specific organization; no two are alike. Throughout the paper you will find samples of program goals, metrics, etc. These are not meant to be prescribed to all FinOps Champion programs, but rather spark ideas on how you wish to shape your program.
After reading this, you should understand:
This paper is particularly directed at FinOps leaders and senior leadership who are looking to create a FinOps Champion program within their organization. Anyone interested in standing up a FinOps practice, contributing to the success of a FinOps practice, or the factors that contribute to its effectiveness and success may also find this guidance helpful.
The image below describes the three phases of establishing a FinOps Champion program: plan, implement, measure. This section provides the tools and guidance for creating your FinOps Champion program, including the key stakeholders to engage. Notably, this paper focuses on post-decision activities rather than persuading individuals or organizations to initiate a Champion Program.
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FinOps Practitioner(s) are one or more individuals from the central FinOps team who will drive the program as a whole.
FinOps Champions contribute to the success of the program by driving the necessary cultural change in their area.
Key Sponsors are the final approvers of the program and will have to be informed as the program progresses.
Possible Hurdle: Lack of Leadership SupportIt is preferred, and generally expected, that you have leadership support before starting on the journey to create a FinOps Champion program. Without this, you may encounter additional hurdles along the process. However, you might find yourself in a situation in which leadership support is not available. In these scenarios you may choose to adopt a lightweight or ad hoc version of a Champions program through leveraging the concepts and ideas presented in this paper but adapting them to your organization and specific situation. This sort of grassroots approach is how FinOps programs have started in some organizations and this same could be true for a champions program. Additionally, the presentation of phase 1 outputs combined with a potential financial impact of adding this program could highlight the benefits to the leadership and earn their support. |
Possible Hurdle: Lack of ToolsetIn scenarios where sufficient tooling is not available, lean on the tools that are available to you such as those provided by cloud service providers. The native tools provided by the cloud provider often provide the necessary information to the FinOps Practitioner and Champions during the initial stages. |
It is important for FinOps Champions programs to have a clearly defined purpose so that both program participants and the wider organization are able to understand the program’s value. As no two organizations are the same, the goals of your champion program will be unique to your organization. What is most important is that you look to understand the organizational needs and areas for improvement in FinOps practices and then utilize those needs as a source to build goals for the champions program. When determining the objectives of a champions program, one may:
Possible Hurdle: Lack of Funding for TrainingA lack of financial support could impose additional challenges to a Champions program. Training is one of the most likely scenarios in which funds are required but may not be available. In such cases, the FinOps Practitioner can prepare relevant training sessions to ensure the knowledge on this subject or to prepare a short list of free courses that could address this hurdle. Some resources that can be leveraged for this are available below:
Despite budget constraints, a FinOps Champions program can achieve small victories and use them to build momentum. By sharing and celebrating these wins, it can attract more investment into FinOps and the Champions program. |
Selecting FinOps Champions is a critical process that requires careful consideration. Below are some steps to consider when identifying and selecting FinOps Champion Program candidates in an organization:
Possible Hurdle: Lack of access to dataSometimes, due to lack of FinOps maturity, there may be challenges in providing access to cost data or sharing this data with Champions. This issue can be resolved through negotiations with the finance team or those who provision data access, to explain the impact of providing data to champions can have. However, if negotiations are unsuccessful, in such cases, you can narrow down the list of Champion candidates. It is necessary to choose those who have a broader scope of access, such as developers who already have console access or managers and budget owners. |
Champions primarily work in a supporting business unit or job function but work closely with the Central FinOps Team. The Champions are evangelizing FinOps on behalf of the Central FinOps team but bring the context and understanding of their respective Champion area.
Key considerations include defining roles and expectations for the FinOps Champion, establishing expectations from various teams involved, and understanding the financial implications of running the program.
The table below depicts some of the major activities of FinOps Champions (separated by primary job role) and how those activities and responsibilities relate to the central FinOps team. This is not meant to be prescriptive, but to provide some direction that you can adapt to fit your organizational needs
| Activity | Central FinOps Team | Leadership/ Key Sponsors |
FinOps Champion |
| Evaluate and select FinOps tool(s) | A R | I | C |
| Evangelize and promote cultural shift towards FinOps by addressing resistance, promoting collaboration | A | R | R |
| Assist with workshops, training sessions, and documentation to educate teams | A R | I | R |
| Share recommendations, best practices and lessons learned | A R | I | R |
| Advocate for Engineers to negotiate recommendations against constraints (e.g. vendor requirements, SLAs, DR, etc.) | A R | C | R |
| Meet with FinOps team and/or other stakeholders to review business/finance goals and cascade for all personas | A R | R | R |
| Coordinate and track FinOps implementation, reporting activities | A R | C | R |
| Establish a community of practice | A R | R | R |
| Provide program sponsorship and direction | R | A | C |
* R – Responsible, A – Accountable, C – Consulted, I – Informed
Possible Hurdle: Resistance & impossibility to EngageDuring program implementation, you may encounter resistance from key participants, including FinOps Champions or other team members, regarding involvement in FinOps-related discussions and activities. The best approach is to reiterate to individuals why engaging in the proposed action aligns with their interests and how it can be advantageous for them. Competition and recognition could also be used to leverage the objectives and actions from the FinOps Champion program, in an attempt to encourage participation. See the below resources for more information on how to drive better engagement.
It is important to listen to the concerns of individuals to understand why they can’t or are unwilling to participate so that you are best informed on the next step to take. For example, perhaps people are not engaging with you because they are unable to spare the time (personal reasons, conflicting priorities, etc.). Aim to work with them on prioritization and timing to forge a good working relationship for future FinOps successes or if needed you can consider searching for a different individual who perhaps is able to take on the responsibility. |
Host a kickoff meeting for the Champions program to allow the designated champions to get to know one another, to level on objectives and actions to execute to meet those objectives, and to mark the official start of the program. The meeting may include the following:
With the kickoff meeting complete, Champions and program drivers should have a clear understanding of next steps to execute program objectives. Individuals should actively work on these actions, regularly checking in with fellow Champions and program leads to ensure progress towards program goals.
For each FinOps Champion, a robust onboarding process will enable the Champions to succeed in their role. Depending on the organization’s size and/or structure, a buddy system may be helpful to ensure new Champions can hit the ground running. After successful onboarding, it is important to continue to refine the selection process to identify opportunities for enhancement.
Champion Program driver(s) should conduct recurring meetings with the Champions and key stakeholders and sponsors as needed to discuss progress on set goals/objectives, raise any new items for attention, offer a platform for champions to raise any issues and share best practices and success stories back to the other program members, and review progress & opportunities on a regular cadence. Explore gamification opportunities to help in achieving program objectives if desired and able.
Possible Hurdle: Lack of FinOps Central team resourcesIn the list of hurdles and limited resources, we need to include the possibility of the FinOps Practitioner not having availability to prepare this program. If this is the case, additional support from leadership and/or possible FinOps champions candidates can be obtained. This would be to prioritize and shift tasks and responsibilities to align with the availability necessary for this program or to perform smaller tasks from this paper that could be done by the champions candidates. |
As you get underway with the program, it’s important to set up a cycle where you are periodically measuring progress, sharing results, reassessing planned objectives, and identifying improvements as you go.
Reporting on KPIs and other previously determined success criteria help the central FinOps Team and members of the Champions Program gauge their success and can inform decision making on changes that perhaps should be made to ensure future success. Furthermore, key stakeholders such as sponsors and core FinOps personas are important parties to keep informed of progress and to help with celebrating successes. It may also be that the Champions Program is required to deliver certain reports as part of the program. Depending on the reporting and the program objectives, reporting can take various forms. For example, dashboard reporting, email based reporting & news updates, mentions in meetings, etc.
Identify and produce metrics/indicators at varying levels of the organization on a regular cadence and communicate them to the appropriate stakeholders providing clear and concise summaries of performance metrics, trends, and actionable insights. As no two programs are alike, what you should measure to identify your success and progress will depend upon the program goals and objectives previously defined. Measuring your indicators should be carried out periodically – e.g. quarterly, or monthly or at the end of a sprint – in order to evaluate progress and demonstrate success. Here is a list of links and ideas from the many indicators of success that your champion program may find useful:
Regularly collecting feedback from users, sponsors, and stakeholders is crucial for program development and evaluation. This feedback helps assess progress towards goals, evaluate operational processes, measure tool usability, and identify reporting needs. It is important to gather feedback through diverse channels such as 1-1 sessions, brainstorming sessions, or structured surveys. This feedback serves as the basis for informed decision-making and qualitative KPIs for evaluating program success.
The successful completion of this paper should result in a successful and knowledgeable group of FinOps Champions. The group of Champions will serve as a sounding board and as a support for the central FinOps team. As mentioned previously, every Champion program will be unique, aiming to achieve preset targets for specific KPIs. However, there is a set of outcomes that any FinOps Champions Program is likely to attain, irrespective of your custom program configurations and goals:
Possible Hurdle: Not Achieving the Expected OutcomesPotentially, you could run into a situation in which the program is not generating the expected outcome. You may notice that the Indicators of Success are not improving with the program. In cases like this, it is important to go back to Phase 1: Plan. This may happen because the objectives were not correctly related to the plan or because the objectives have changed over the time. Following FinOps approach, real-time feedback loops will bring more efficiency to the program. |
In this document we have listed the activities required to undertake a successful Champions Program. We have gone through the phases of identifying prerequisites, planning, implementing and then getting feedback and measuring KPIs for continual service improvement. While doing this we have identified success indicators, as well as calling out and providing remedial guidance on some possible hurdles you might face.
You may find that your rate of progress is constrained by the FinOps maturity of your organization, and the FinOps Champions involved. Progress can always be made, even if it’s only one small step at a time. Using the iterative approach of the FinOps Maturity model, and with patience and commitment, you will find that as the maturity increases and the capabilities of those FinOps Champions increase, so too will your rate of progress.
We’d like to thank the following people for their help on this Paper:
We’d also like to thank our supporters: Ben de Mora, Courtney Bormann, and Michelle Dupuis.
FinOps Education & Enablement
