The Importance of Context in FinOps

In this episode of the FinOps on Azure podcast, Erik Norman, an experienced FinOps practitioner with a software engineering background, shares practical lessons on one of the most overlooked elements in cloud financial operations: context.

Rather than focusing only on tools or dashboards, Erik explains that FinOps succeeds when teams understand each other’s terminology, goals, and constraints. Without shared context, even well-intentioned initiatives can lead to misalignment, wasted effort, and stalled progress.

Why Context Matters in FinOps

Erik opens with a real example. He was asked to build a FinOps platform. To him, this meant an engineered solution with automation and data pipelines. To his stakeholders, it meant documentation, onboarding guides, and best practices. The issue was not technical. It was a lack of shared understanding.

This reflects a common challenge:

• Words like platform, risk, or ownership mean different things to engineering, finance, procurement, or security.
• In FinOps, where all these teams collaborate, assumptions can quickly turn into blockers.

Erik emphasizes that cloud cost numbers do not matter unless people understand the purpose behind them. Engineers and product teams need to know why costs matter, how they relate to business value, and who is impacted.

Collaboration Across Teams

FinOps is a shared responsibility. Different teams measure success in different ways:

• Product teams focus on features and customer value.
• Engineers prioritize architecture, reliability, and performance.
• Finance and operations teams look for cost accountability and predictability.

Because of these differences, strict delivery frameworks do not always work. Erik explains how his team moved from Scrum to Kanban to better handle dependencies and shifting priorities. The goal was to align the FinOps process with how people actually work.

He also warns against defaulting to popular solutions like Kubernetes without understanding the problem first. FinOps should be intentional and matched to business needs.

Practical Takeaways

Erik shares several actionable suggestions:

• Use clear and specific language. For example, say financial risk or security risk instead of just risk.
• Create glossaries that define terms across teams. Use FinOps personas and adapt them to your organization.
• Share failure stories as they teach more than success stories.
• Contribute to the FinOps community even if your ideas are not perfect. Conversations and shared experiences build confidence and connection.

Final Thought

Erik’s main point is simple. FinOps is not only about lowering cloud costs. It is about building understanding, accountability, and trust between teams. When context is clear, decisions improve and cloud investments create real value.