Agile methodology has become the standard for all software development companies. It is, after all, a major part of how software is made today, and AppleTech has been using it since the beginning. Now, Agile methodology’s impact on the tech industry continues to evolve with the emergence of DevOps.
DevOps is the collaboration of software development and IT operations. DevOps is a combination of people, processes, and technologies that improves an organization’s capacity to provide applications and services more quickly than conventional techniques. In a DevOps model, the development and operations teams work together throughout the entire software development life cycle (SDLC), from coding and testing to deployment and monitoring. Continuous integration and feedback loops let teams build, test, deploy, and keep an eye on software applications at the same time. In the era of “every firm is a software business”, it is the expansion of Agile thinking beyond the software development team to the complete supplied service.
How DevOps Can Benefit Your Team?
The following are some of the underlying benefits that are associated with DevOps:
- It Promotes Speed: The DevOps movement, like Agile before it, is all about speed. The aim of agile is to iterate quickly toward a better software product; DevOps broadens the scope to encompass end-to-end service delivery and software interaction with an organization’s operational systems. This promotes quick software development and continual innovation, which can help firms gain a competitive edge.
- It Improves Collaboration: By breaking down the walls between development and operations teams, DevOps encourages close collaboration, shared responsibilities, and experiences, and a more efficient workflow. If operations engineers are involved from the beginning of the SDLC, there are likely to be fewer delays and problems when the product is handed over for release. Over time, the DevOps model will help both developers and IT operations improve their skills and knowledge, which (hopefully!) will make the team happier and more fulfilled.
- It Increases Reliability: Fast software delivery is useless if it isn’t safe and stable in real-world scenarios. Quality Assurance (QA) is an important aspect of the DevOps paradigm since it ensures that any issues that impair performance or functionality are detected, reported, and addressed immediately. With a DevOps strategy, the operations team will continuously monitor performance and provide real-time input, developers will make the necessary modifications, and QA testers will ensure that the changes are safe. Thus, this process streamlines everything.
- It Allows For Scalability: DevOps is a collection of technologies, methods, and procedures that, when combined as a ‘culture’, allows enterprises to build highly scalable infrastructure. The extensive use of automation, better flexibility, and improved communication all contribute to the ability to scale as quickly as needed.
- It Encourages Innovation: While the primary goal of DevOps is to deliver software quickly, a more efficient workflow should allow team members to be more creative. Developers will be continually exposed to the demands, difficulties, and issues confronting the larger operations team (and end-users), rather than hiding away to produce code based on rigid instructions. With more time, better communication, and more freedom, it should be easier to come up with new ways to solve problems and make new things.
How to Apply a DevOps Framework?
Of course, implementing a successful DevOps strategy isn’t something that can be done overnight. Here are a few crucial points to remember to achieve a smooth transition.
- Prepare for Cultural Change: DevOps is basically about bringing a cultural shift in your business, although it is made up of a combination of technologies and procedures. Developers and operations staff always had very different goals (like focusing on change and innovation vs. performance and stability), so it’s normal for them to be resistant to working together. It may take some time for them to integrate and perform properly; some engineers may be hesitant to take on responsibilities for duties that were previously outside their job description. That’s OK; if you want to make a significant and long-lasting change in order to attain your long-term goals. You should be able to overcome these obstacles by laying the foundation, developing bridges, and trust amongst teams, presenting the advantages of the new strategy, and giving the necessary training.
- Establish Best Practices: Some say that DevOps is primarily about the concepts of speed, cooperation, and dependability and that the mechanisms by which they are realized are secondary. Some essential techniques, on the other hand, are now widely adopted in successful DevOp frameworks. Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD), for example, are both regarded as DevOps best practices. CI is a method of storing all source code changes in a single location. This necessitates increased communication amongst developers since their modifications will be constantly integrated with others and tested. CD takes this a step further by guaranteeing that all code changes are created, tested, and ready for production release automatically. You can also learn more about DevOps best practices.
- Find the Right Toolset: DevOps is based on automating the whole process of service delivery from start to finish, so a successful model needs a good set of tools. This will free up team members from manual activities, allowing them to focus on larger-scale management of more complicated systems. DevOps tools are accessible at all stages of development, including planning, building, testing, delivering, and monitoring. They can also add value by giving you the communication and collaboration channels you need from start to finish. Instead of making everyone use the same set of tools, software engineer teams can be given the option to use a connected, loosely-coupled set of DevOps tools (this is especially important if working with remote teams).
- Keep Security At The Forefront: Given the dangers and costs of cyberattacks, it’s critical to protect the whole SDLC. ‘DevSecOps’ is a newer branch of DevOps that incorporates security across the whole DevOps lifecycle. Integrating an additional team can be another challenge, it can reduce security loopholes and align security with an organization’s IT and business goals.
What Team Structure Best Suits DevOps?
There is no conclusive answer to this question since it is dependent on several factors. These factors include the organization’s current team structures, corporate culture, interpersonal interactions, and available skills/resources. But we do know that a DevOps model can easily include remote team members like developers, testers, UX designers, release managers, and security engineers. The Covid-19 crisis increased the worldwide shift to remote labor, making this especially appealing.
Using a dispersed workforce of remote software engineers and developers may even help overcome some of the challenges of implementing a DevOps framework successfully. These team members will provide a fresh and impartial perspective on how to increase cooperation and discover new solutions since they are not currently part of the organization’s internal culture or politics.
Conclusion:
DevOps necessitates teams that consider the whole development and infrastructure lifecycle as part of their shared duties, regardless of organizational structure. At AppleTech, our teams of highly experienced remote software engineers are always learning about new technologies, Agile ways of thinking, and best practices for DevOps. Get in contact with us to explore how we can help you achieve your business objectives with an experienced team.
