How to increase the adopt of Kafka in your team

At OSO, we help enterprises embark on a journey to revolutionise how they manage data through event-driven architecture (EDA) and Apache Kafka. Many of our clients are Fortune 100 companies, who are deeply involved in healthcare and manufacturing. Their transition to EDA is crucial for improving data flow and customer service. Here’s how we developed a strategy to modernise and de-couple enterprise application teams and drive adoption across the whole organisation.

1. Develop a clear strategy

When implementing EDA and Kafka, it’s essential to decide between a centralised or federated model. At OSO, we tend to choose a federated approach to accelerate growth and empower individual teams. This decision is driven by the need to scale quickly across a large organisation with over 10,000 employees.

Key considerations for your strategy:

• Assess your organisation’s size and structure
• Determine your growth objectives
• Evaluate your team’s current capabilities

2. Invest in provider partnerships

Partnering with technology providers like OSO can significantly accelerate your EDA journey. Partnering with Kafka experts enables you to avoid the common pitfalls of scaling a data platform and comes with these benefits:

1. Utilised existing content and training materials
2. Tapped into our network of experts for tech talks and presentations
3. Gained valuable insights from other customers who had already implemented EDA at scale

3. Build a Kafka centre of excellence team

Creating a comprehensive learning environment is crucial for successful EDA adoption. We deploy a multi-faceted approach on client sight:

a) Synchronous content:

• Tech Talks: 90-minute webinars featuring internal and external experts
• Targeted Training: Identifying key areas for in-house training vs. external courses

b) Asynchronous content:

• One-stop shop: Centralised all resources in Confluence or Notion
• External resources: Leveraged free content from Confluent and other providers
• Concise, focused learning: Developed bite-sized, modular content

c) Learning paths with direct channels of communication:

• Create 7 paths catering to different roles and skill levels
• Phased rollout to allow for continuous improvement
• Open access for all employees and contractors

Example Learning Path Structure:

1. Introduction to EDA and Kafka
2. Technical fundamentals
3. Enterprise-Specific platform and architecture
4. Security considerations
5. Design and development
6. Advanced topics and monitoring

4. Implement effective communication strategies

Most organisations overlook who important training and communication is through their teams. Even the best training programs fail if people don’t know about them. We focused on multi-channel promotion:

• Utilised internal social platforms, email lists, and corporate newsletters
• Presented at team meetings
• Created a distinct EDA brand and logo for recognition
• Personalised communications when possible

5. Measure and showcase success

Show and tell to demonstrate the impact of our EDA enablement efforts, we track several key performance indicators:

• Learning path completers reported positive impact on performance
• Number of desire for additional learning paths
• Net promoter Score for training content
• Level of engagement with our Confluence pages over one year
• Number of completions in our corporate learning system

6. Continuously engage and innovate

As your EDA capabilities mature, look for ways to drive further innovation:

• Set up an EDA advisory board with key stakeholders
• Create opportunities for teams to pitch new EDA use cases
• Shift focus from transactional development to high-value, innovative projects