I was half-kidding with my reply, because a company should realize when there is a bottleneck and address it as long as the resources are available.
But, this isn't always the case, so here's something a dev can do:
- Know basic server administration. Nothing too crazy:
- User roles and permissions setup.
- Database access and setup.
- Webserver access and setup.
- Be the master of your dev environment. If the organization uses virtualization for everything, learn how to manage those virtual machines, or at least, know where to find the config files and where to find the documentation in-case you need to change the config files. Read through the config files so you at least feel confident navigating them.
- Know what happens when code is deployed. Where does it go? Which servers? How to log into those servers to debug issues? Where are the logs? Ask what you'd need to know if you were suddenly put in-charge of the the project as the sole-developer-webmaster type person.
I think if a developer is able to do the above, then their devops team will think more of them and maybe be more willing to help when things aren't working out.