Playing the DevOps variant of the Kanban simulation game, the question that invariably surfaces is, "Why should we do any of these Ops maintenance tickets?  They cost us time and money and they don't generate revenue." 

This is central to the problem - Operations is (or is seen) as a cost center.   Companies are often slanted toward new projects (instead of much needed maintenance work) because new projects can be written off as capital expenditures. 

The DevOps movement is shifting the focus away from separate departments working independently to an organization-wide collaboration — a “systems thinking” approach. It’s about addressing all the work as a whole, versus looking only at the bits and pieces, or only looking at capital versus expense. It’s about work flowing across functions (versus lurking in silos) and delivering the right thing quickly.