DevOps is the collaboration of Development and Operational processes, to provide a collaborative approach to software development. In DevOps, the teams work together instead of working in silos, adding to the operational efficiency. In simpler words, DevOps is the consolidation of tools, practices, and philosophies, intending to improve an organization’s software delivery performance and capability.
DevOps: An Overview
DevOps functions on a “system thinking” approach in which all the departments of an organization perform as a unified system. All subsystems or departments in DevOps are linked to each other, and the output of one department acts as an input for the next sub-system. In DevOps solutions, operational competence or operational efficiency is defined as the combined efficiency of each sub-system, along with the output served to the ensuing sub-system. This approach enhances the process efficiency by improving operational competence and reducing the time-to-market of the product.
This system also involves a constant exchange of feedback after each output, which helps identify performance flaws.
A DevOps lifecycle embodies seven phases:
● Continuous Development
● Continuous Integration
● Continuous Testing
● Continuous Delivery
● Continuous Feedback
● Continuous Deployment
How DevOps play a key role in your business?
More than 90 percent of the software development companies in the world have adopted DevOps in their operations, which indicates that it acts as a significant solution to business challenges. Here is how DevOps can deliver value to your business.
#1. Reduced time to market
When it comes to developing and delivering software, speeding up processes is essential. Since DevOps provides a unified model, it ensures products are delivered faster. A collaborative working model, along with robust technologies and tools, enables an organization to release products eight to ten times more quickly.
#2. Improved product quality
Deployment failures are common in software development, and programming failures are one of the primary reasons for these failures. DevOps, on the other hand, provides iterative code releases that increase the probability of identifying and rectifying programming defects. This Systems Thinking approach further reduces the recovery time and accelerates the recovery process, thereby promoting high-quality delivery.
#3. Enhanced communication and collaboration
A reliable team can pull off even the hardest of the projects with ease. DevOps improves the relationship between various teams involved in a project. Since all the teams have a common point of view, collaboration, and communication among them simplifies, which improves the overall productivity.
#4. Improved configuration management
Configuration management is a component of DevOps that embodies a separate set of tools for improving infrastructure management. These tools facilitate the organization and execution of configuration plans, along with continuous monitoring and managing of the system infrastructure.
#5. Reduced cost and faster experimentation
The primary application of DevOps is to speed up the entire development and delivery process. From spotting the demand for distributing the product, DevOps ensures all the operations are carried out with maximum efficiency. If a product requires minimal redundancy, it can be delivered before the deadline, which saves both time and cost.
#6. How can you achieve agility using DevOps solutions?
As discussed earlier, DevOps plays a crucial role in improving operational efficiency and bringing agility to the development and delivery process. However, to achieve this agility in DevOps, you need to adopt the DevOps model successfully, along with facilitating dedicated investments, cultural shifts, and resources. If you want to achieve continuous delivery and agility in your organization, here are a few tips to follow.
#7. Culture-oriented structure
DevOps redefines how teams working on a typical project should structure, and work and collaborate. However, people are not machines; thus, the sequential waterfall model is not ideal for the agile culture in an organization. Therefore, it is essential to identify the challenges the waterfall model poses and discuss the beneficial outcomes of the DevOps model and agile culture. Since DevOps is a natural extension of Agile, it will help increase an organization’s collaboration and agility.
#8. Aligned processes and policies
Organization policies need to be revamped for the collaboration of development, infrastructure, testing, and IT teams. To achieve true agility in DevOps, you need to re-look responsibilities, roles, processes, and policies. This process can be slightly complicated because it is not as simple as overlaying weekly scrums onto the pre-existing processes. It requires aligning the new process with an agile mindset by delivering small steps and managing changes carefully. Instead of emphasizing a sudden transformation, try working in short sprints.
#9. Eliminate silos
In an organization, operations, development, and testing departments are often on different pages, which results in reduced operational efficiency. To achieve agility, you need to enable constant development, testing, and deployment, with functional processes and toolchain. This process includes a firm braiding of teams, tools, and operations. Effective communication and collaboration among cross-functional teams are essential for the success of the DevOps model, which ensures there are no barriers across different agile teams.
#10. Toolchain
Toolchain refers to a set of programming tools that are utilized to perform complex software development tasks. For achieving agility in DevOps, toolchain needs to be functional, integrated and aligned with agile processes. A standard DevOps model includes tools for change management, collaboration/communication, issue tracking, configuration management, and test automation & deployment.
#11. Rapid development with minimal disruption
To achieve agility in DevOps, you need to maximize reliability and minimize disruption, which can be obtained by balancing the principles of rapid development, speed, and prioritization. Having the right balance enables companies to adapt and respond to market changes and benefit from the new opportunities.
#12. Continuous measurements
A DevOps model cannot succeed without feedback. For every deployment, you should capture the basic metrics around time, cost, and quality. You can then analyze this data over time to determine efficiency and agility.
The bottom line
DevOps technology is essential for a company to facilitate a seamless development process. DevOps is a collaborative approach between Development and Operations teams, which ensures operational competency. However, to ensure the success of a DevOps model, it is essential to achieve agility, which can be attained by gradually deploying the agile practices.
