DevOps Principles and Best Practices
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If you’re a developer, you’ve probably read about the three key DevOps principles. These are Collaboration, Early problem-solving, and Automation. You’ll also want to understand the concept of a “culture of alignment” and how to build a culture of alignment in your own organization. While these principles may not be immediately obvious, they’re the foundation for successful DevOps implementation.
Collaboration
One of the first things to understand about DevOps is the importance of collaboration. The success of the software development process hinges on the ability of teams to work together. They must share a common goal, which prevents conflicts and separate agendas. Collaboration is so important that it can be a DevOps principle in itself. Let’s look at what collaboration is and how it can help improve software development and operations.
In traditional development, the role of each team was to complete a single task. This resulted in bottlenecks in the release cycle, reducing revenue and competitive advantage. With DevOps, the roles and responsibilities of all teams are combined, and teams must collaborate to identify and fix issues early in the SDLC. By combining tasks and priorities, companies can release new software more quickly and improve their margins.
Early problem-solving
DevOps principle one emphasizes the importance of early problem-solving. By addressing problems early in the development cycle, teams can resolve them more efficiently and keep development on schedule. DevOps principles also call for the automation of procedures, allowing specialists to remove repetitive tasks. In addition, early problem-solving also enables swarming to occur. So, it’s a win-win situation for all involved.
Business alignment
As a DevOps leader, you should work to ensure that your team’s development and operations activities are aligned. The lack of alignment between the two sides is rooted in communication and knowledge gaps. To overcome these problems, you should consider a strategy and a plan of action that incorporates business and technical requirements. You should use an iterative approach, and you should consider applying the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle to the implementation process.
Aligning IT and business is the first step toward ensuring success in digital transformation. In a perfect world, IT and business are on the same page and can flow together seamlessly. When this happens, digital transformation is smoother and more successful. To improve alignment, BMC created an e-book that describes the importance of business and IT priorities. Here are some of the key benefits of achieving business and IT alignment:
Automation
Automation in DevOps encapsulates everything from building to deploying to monitoring. By following these principles, your organization will produce better quality software faster. Additionally, it will be possible to make frequent releases without negatively impacting your organization or end users. Listed below are some of the best practices to make your development process more automated. Read on to learn more about these principles and how you can start applying them to your organization today.
First, consider a scenario where a SaaSy startup has just launched their product, but is already experiencing problems. The founder is too busy chasing the next big thing and doesn’t care that his customers are experiencing issues. As customers start finding problems, he doesn’t make time to fix them. Automation in DevOps principles would have allowed him to deliver new features more often. If his company had implemented the DevOps principles, they would have been able to continually develop, integrate, and deliver a new version of their product.
