Best Practice Guide In Creating DevOps Model

DevOps is a software development process that prioritizes communication, collaboration, integration, and automation to improve the speed and quality of software development.

The main goal of DevOps is to reduce the time it takes to deliver new features or updates to customers. To create a successful DevOps model, you should follow certain best practices.

The History of DevOps

DevOps is a fairly recent concept but has its roots in several older practices. To understand DevOps, it is crucial to know the history of the idea.

One can trace the history of DevOps back to the mid-2000s when forward-thinking information technology (IT) operations and software development professionals began discussing problems with software production processes.

The separation of dev and ops created teams solely focused on their procedures. The lack of communication resulted in buggy products, delays, and lost customers.

Developers began to experiment with new ways of working that would allow them to push code changes more rapidly and efficiently. These early adopters found that automating many of the tasks associated with software development could speed up the process and make it more reliable.

Creating a Dedicated DevOps Team

Building a dedicated team responsible for implementing and managing the process is one of the most critical aspects of creating a successful DevOps model. This team should consist of developers, operations staff, and other relevant personnel.

Using the Right Tools

Another vital aspect of DevOps is to use the right tools. Some popular DevOps tools include Jenkins, Puppet, Chef, and Ansible.

Jenkins

Jenkins is an open-source automation server that helps developers automate the process of building and testing software.

Puppet

Puppet is a configuration management tool allowing operators to automate server provisioning, configuring, and managing.

Chef

Chef is a configuration management tool that helps developers automate the process of building, testing, and deploying software.

Ansible

Ansible is a configuration management tool that helps operators automate server provisioning, configuring, and managing.

Nagios

Nagios is a monitoring tool that helps operators monitor the performance of infrastructure and applications.

When implementing DevOps, choosing the right tools for the job is essential. The correct way to pick the best application is to experiment with different tools and see which ones work best for your team and your process. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Automating Processes

One of the critical benefits of DevOps is the ability to automate various processes¹. By automating processes, organizations can improve efficiency and speed up delivery times.

Implementing automation is essential because it can help refine the software development process and improve the quality of applications. Additionally, automation can help teams shift left and decrease the amount of time spent on manual tasks.

Implementing Continuous Integration

Continuous integration (CI) is a crucial component of DevOps. CI involves continuously integrating code changes into a shared repository. This process allows for quick and easy testing and debugging and reduced risks.

Continuous integration (CI) is merging all developer working copies to a shared mainline as often as possible. This merger ensures all changes integrate quickly and efficiently, minimizing the possibility of introducing defects into the application.

Implementing Continuous Delivery

Continuous delivery (CD) is the process of automatically delivering software updates to users. You can do this delivery through various means, such as pushing out updates through an application store or delivered via email.

Benefits of Continuous Delivery

The benefits of continuous delivery are vital to consider when looking at the DevOps process. CD can help organizations improve software quality, reduce risks, and speed up delivery times.

Increased Speed to Market

CD allows you to deploy code or applications to production more frequently, meaning you can get new features and updates to your users faster.

Reduced Risk

By automating the build, test, and deployment process, you can reduce the chances of human error, which leads to fewer production issues and less downtime.

Improved Quality

You can find and fix bugs sooner by deploying code more frequently, which leads to higher quality code and fewer production issues.

Increased Efficiencies

CD automates many tasks previously done manually by developers and ops teams and frees up time so that those teams can focus on more strategic tasks.

Improved Collaboration

CD requires close collaboration between development and operations teams, leading to better communication and more informed decision-making.

Reduced Costs

You can save money on development and operations costs by reducing the time it takes to get code from development to production.

Challenges of Continuous Delivery

CD can be a complex process to set up and maintain. It requires close collaboration between development and operations teams and multiple tools.

Increased Demand for Resources

CD can require additional resources, such as servers, to deploy code frequently.

Requires Buy-in From Stakeholders

CD requires buy-in from all stakeholders, including developers, the ops team, and management.

Requires Change to the Development Process

To implement CD, you must change how your development team works, which can be difficult and time-consuming.

Increased Pressure on the Development Team

The increased speed of deployments can lead to more pressure on the development team to deliver code quickly, leading to burnout and turnover.

Not Suitable for All Projects

CD may not be suitable for all projects. For example, if a project has strict regulatory requirements, it may not be possible to deploy code frequently.

Can Be Difficult To Roll Back Changes

Once code deploys to production, it can be challenging to roll back changes if there are problems. This struggle can create downtime and lost revenue.

Shifting Left in DevOps

“Shifting left” is shifting responsibility for testing and quality assurance (QA) to earlier stages in the software development process. By doing this shift, organizations can improve quality and reduce risks.

The goal is to prevent problems instead of discovering multiple issues late in the development cycle.

This process helps reduce problems and defects that can occur further down the line. Shifting left can also help speed up the overall software development process, as you can use tasks completed earlier to inform and improve subsequent activities.

Monitoring the Toolchain

A DevOps toolchain is a group of tools that assist in the planning and executing of a software development plan.

With so many different professionals taking part in the creation of applications, no one tool can do everything. Instead, a combination of tools manages the process from planning to version control.

Building a Pipeline

A pipeline² is a series of steps you must follow to deliver software updates. By building a pipeline, organizations can automate various tasks and improve efficiency.

Building a pipeline involves:

Finding the correct tools
Creating a central code repository
Setting up the primary server
Implementing automation
Beginning production

Testing in DevOps

Testing³ is an essential aspect of any software development process. In DevOps, you should do testing throughout the entire development process.

Testing should be continuous and different at each stage of development. This process makes it easy to know where to focus when encountering an error. You should automate testing whenever necessary.

The Benefits of DevOps

DevOps has many benefits, including improved communication⁴, collaboration, and efficiency; reduced risks; and quicker delivery times.

DevOps culture is the combination of values, behaviors, and tools that help to promote a culture of collaboration, communication, and automation. By creating a DevOps culture, organizations can improve their overall development process.

By following these practices, organizations can improve the speed and quality of their software development processes. Additionally, they will be able to meet the needs of their customers better.

Today, the term “DevOps” describes a set of practices that streamline the process of software development and delivery by automating tasks and integrating the work of developers and operations teams.

There are many benefits to adopting DevOps within an organization, including:

Increased efficiency⁵ and productivity
Faster time to market
Improved quality and reliability
Better customer satisfaction

To obtain these benefits, it is vital to understand the key components of a DevOps model and how they fit together.

DevOps Culture

DevOps is a set of values, principles, and practices that bring together people, processes, and technology to deliver customer value faster.

The critical components of a DevOps model include:

Automation

Automating tasks allows developers to focus on more critical work and speeds up software delivery.

Integration

Integrating the work of developers and operations teams makes identifying and fixing problems more manageable.

Monitoring

Monitoring the performance of applications and infrastructure is essential for identifying issues and improving quality.

Final Thoughts

Organizations can begin implementing DevOps within their teams and processes by understanding these critical components.

To succeed with DevOps, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the culture and its principles. Additionally, it is crucial to choose the right tools and platforms to support your process.

By following these best practices, you can create a DevOps model that will help your organization deliver value to customers faster.

References

Author Bio

Daniel Jackson

Community Manager

Twitter

Daniel is a community manager for NI (formerly National Instruments), where they create the tools needed for companies to Engineer Ambitiously™. His current interests are at the intersection of software engineering and DevOps. Outside of work, he is a marathon runner and is working on his first novel.