DevOps has been
creating a buzz in the IT industryfora long time. But what is DevOps?Even though there is disagreement on
whether it is a philosophy, movement or framework, the good news is that DevOps
is not half as complicated as it appears to be.
It has strong affinities with
Agile and Lean approaches, which have been around for quite a long time. In the
simplest terms, DevOps refers to the mergingofpeople and processes involved in
development and operations into one single unit, such that the engineers work
across the entire lifecycle of an application. It aims at increasing the speedof
a team by enabling developers to independently accomplish a task that normally
would have required assistance from other teams.
The benefits that a
DevOps model brings with it are what set it apart. To begin with, it providesspeed
during development stages and enables rapid delivery, increasing the frequency
of code releases. This is favorablebecause the sooner thebugs fixes or new
features are rolled out, the higher the customer satisfaction.DevOps gives rise
to improved collaboration and helps in building more effective teams.
The question that
follows is obviously this – what are the best practices for DevOps?
People
are Key
DevOps emphasizes direct communication between developers
and product owners. It also gives utmost importance to collaboration between
all stakeholders involved in software development, deployment, and operations.
Implementation ismade possible only when the concerned teams leave their silos
and make aneffort as a team. It must be ensured that new titles, positions, or
roles in the workplace are not framed, as this defeats the entire purpose of what
DevOps is. If, for example, automation becomes the domain of acertain individual
or a group of individuals, then it is no longer everyone’s concern. A division
in responsibilities is again created.
Also Read about: The Rise of DevOps –
Overcoming Software Delivery Challenges
Continuous
Integration
Continuous Integration (CI),
as the name suggests, revolves around continuously integrating changes into the
code while ensuring that as the new code is added, tests on previously existing
code continue andrespond as expected. This prevents bugs from accumulating.Thisprovides
an option to the engineer to revert to an earlier version of error-free, tested
code if necessary,during any stage of development, and can be achieved by
version control. Every time a change is made to the application, it must be
outlined as a new version, so that each modification can be historically traced
back throughout the entire development cycle. CI significantly improves
software quality and efficiently reduces the time taken to validate and release
software updates. It is central to the very idea of what DevOps is –working in
small steps with continuous feedback.
DevOps sets the stage
for one of the key characteristics of implementations,the release of new
features to already existing applications during the course of development, in
place of a pre-determined release date. In a way, continuous deployment extends the practice of continuous integration.
It enables development units to remarkably reduce the time between a new
feature being identified and being deployed into production.
Automated
Testing
Automated regression testing
frequently extended to test-driven development (TDD) and behavior-driven
development (BDD), is generally present in agile teams. DevOps relieson
automated testing, hence promoting early testing, and providing developers with
the freedom to correct problems during development stages, rather than later in
the process. Halting development to correct something which should have been
corrected much earlier in the process, costs both time and money. There are numeroushigh-quality
tools available for automating development and operational tasks as a part of
DevOps.
Integrated Configuration & Change
Management
Integrated
configuration management introduces the development crew to a broaderfield of
operations than the present application they are working on. Developers and system administrators use code
to automate operating system and host configuration, operational tasks, etc.
making configuration changes repeatable and standardized. They get freedom from
manually configuring operating systems, system applications, or server
software.In case a change really is needed,
change management brings operations into the picture so they can offer input regarding
what repercussions (or even opportunities) a change might bring at a broader
level.
The most exciting thing
about DevOps is that there is essentially no end to the number of best
practices. They are discovered as and when DevOps is implemented andapplied to an
organization. Every new practice that emerges, fine tunes the one that existed
before it. Focus must be on continuous examination and improvisation. New ideas
must be welcomed and collaborative discussions must be encouraged. This will
lead to higher customer satisfaction and greater profits.
Author
Bio:
Ashwin Patil is a
passionate content marketer who writes on technology, tech trends, tech reviews.
Also, I work with people, organizations and the community to deliver solutions
which are driven by Big Data, Internet of Things, Machine Learning, and Deep
Learning & Artificial Intelligence.
