Companies struggle a lot when they decide to develop software. There’s always a lot of to and from between development and operation teams, harming the overall process with delayed launching time, poor communications, and blaming another team.
If you belong to or have an interest in software development, there is a high chance that you’ve heard of DevOps! DevOps has been the talk of the town since its anticipation, and many companies are adopting this new technology.
But what is DevOps? Why do you need it for your software development? How can you elevate your process of software development with DevOps?
If you have the same questions, this guide is going to be for you! In this blog post, we have discussed all about DevOps and how it helps you transform the software development process.
So, let’s get started without any further delays!
What is DevOps?
The DevOps acronym combines two words: Development and Operations. Simply put, DevOps is a set of practices that brings together the development and operations teams to create a culture of development and collaboration.
In times like today’s, it has become important for software development companies to deliver high-quality software and applications with faster speed and agility. To achieve agility and efficiency, it becomes important for businesses to embrace revolutionary methodologies like DevOps.
More than a set of practices, DevOps is a combination of cultural philosophies and state-of-the-art tools that empower organizations to deliver high-quality software at a faster pace.
As you now know what DevOps is and why it is important for your software development process, let’s understand how it helps you improve and transform the way you work.
Related: Evolution of DevOps: A brief History from an Idea to a must-followed IT Solution.
How DevOps Practices Transform the Development and Deployment of Software Applications?
Before you discover how DevOps transforms software development, it’s important to know that the fundamental of DevOps is to speed up the development process without compromising product quality and efficiency. All the sets of practices of DevOps, cultural philosophies, and tools have one and only goal: better outcomes in less time.
Here are 9 ways DevOps Transforms Software Development:
1. Automation
The first way DevOps helps software development is by automation. If there’s no automation in the process, it will take years and years (well, not exactly, but you know what we mean, right?) to develop and deploy software.
With DevOps, you can modify your projects in real time when the repository triggers actions through automation.
For example, when you have set automation, whenever the developers change the codes, it will push a build, which will further trigger the software deployment automation.
So, with DevOps automation, you improve development lifecycle efficiency while keeping your quality standards in place.
Other than deployment automation, you can also automate infrastructure and configuration management with DevOps. By enabling infrastructure automation, you can automate its deployment, management, and scalability – saving you a lot of costs and time.
People will be amazed if you are in software development and haven’t embraced DevOps yet, so if you haven’t done that yet, do it now!
2. Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery
Another way DevOps transforms software development is by Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD).
When you have CI in place, your developers can change the codes in branches without affecting the main code. At the same time, CD ensures the automatic deployment of codes with the help of cloud computing, containers, and cluster management.
By implementing the CI/CD process, you can update the versions of production-ready codes/applications at a particular frequency without causing much inconvenience at the front end. Moreover, CI/CD also ensures constant correction of bugs and the addition of new features.
3. Enhanced Development (Build)
The next thing DevOps helps the software industry is ensuring smooth communication and enhanced development process.
With DevOps in place, your team can easily collaborate on key factors like performance, security, features, reliability, reusability, etc., resulting in enhanced development and deployment of software.
4. Infrastructure as Code
Automatic software development happens in DevOps because of Infrastructure as Code (IaC). With IaC, you can quickly deliver software as it provides you with all the required resources that ensure descriptive and manageable development of software.
IaC minimizes the scope of human errors, leading to a safe and optimized process. Moreover, with IaC, you can leverage configuration management tools that align with servers, databases, system resources, and virtual machines.
Additionally, configuration management helps your company maintain uniformity across its infrastructure to minimize the chances of errors while enhancing the dependability of its systems.
See also: HIPAA Compliance Automation with DevOps | All You Need to Know!
5. Version Control
Imagine you wrote a code a few days ago, and now you want to have a look at that code again to either make changes or track the revisions. Well, the solution is version control. When you have the right DevOps tools in place, you can look at the version history and track the revision of changes.
With version control, you can analyze and recover the code that requires revisions. Additionally, as all the codes get saved in the same file, changes in the files and collaboration of developers become easier.
6. Agile Approach
Though there’s a constant debate about DevOps vs. Agile, the future holds the approach where Agile is merged with DevOps, where teamwork and inclusion of end-users in the process will be a new reality.
The Agile approach fosters a culture of continuous improvement and learning, enabling companies to identify and resolve issues faster.
The best part about Agile is that it makes it possible to make real-time changes to solve problems and meet the constantly evolving expectations of your customers.
7. Synchronization Among Teams
One of the most common issues companies face after submitting the code is a lot of changes. These changes are such that the developer needs to make huge changes in the codebase. But when your team has DevOps practices in place, the development and operations teams can work together simultaneously, saving you a lot of money and time caused by desynchronization.
8. Measurement of DevOps performance
When business owners invest in something, they always look for the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to calculate their Return on Investments (ROI).
With DevOps’s data-driven approach, you can easily gather and analyze data. DevOps has four KPIs to track: deployment frequency, lead time for changes (code commit to code deploy), mean time to restore (MTTR), and the change failure rate.
And as we all know, whatever you can track, you can improve – this approach of DevOps makes it possible to improve and transform the practices of DevOps.
9. Continuous Feedback
Getting feedback on the project from key stakeholders is one of the most important aspects of software development. The good news here is that you can integrate a smooth feedback loop from key stakeholders with an Agile-driven project management style.
Moreover, all the concerned members involved in the project can track the development process, get reports, conduct online team meetings, and share their ideas and concerns within the online project management ecosystem.
Embrace DevOps to Be Part of The Software Development Transformation Journey
DevOps’s fundamentals like team collaboration, automation, Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD), improved build, IaC, version control, Agile approach, synchronization among teams, measurement of DevOps performance, and culture of continuous feedback make DevOps irresistible for any software development companies aiming for better growth.
If your company has not adapted to DevOps yet, it’s high time before it becomes too late, and you get left behind among your peers.
Related: 7 High-Paying DevOps Job Roles in Strong Demand.
FAQs
Why do software companies need DevOps?
DevOps aims to automate communication processes, share development responsibilities, and improve collaborations by breaking down traditional silos while speeding up efficiency in the hierarchy.
How will my company benefit from DevOps?
When you have DevOps in place, it becomes possible to promote a cross-functional and productive culture, resulting in faster outcomes in minimum time.
How can I save more time with DevOps?
With DevOps automation, you can automate many stages of the software development life cycle, helping you save a lot of time and effort, which otherwise would have taken you more time to execute those tasks.
How to do DevOps transformation?
To effectively get DevOps transformation for your firm, you need to align your business goals and objectives, curate a DevOps transformation strategy, hire a team of talented DevOps professionals, integrate the right technology and tools in your ecosystem, measure the efforts and results, and create a workflow.
How can DevOps transform your organization?
By adopting the DevOps approach for your organization, you can streamline the workflow of your business, improve communication among team members, and enhance the quality of codes with faster delivery while preventing bugs and errors before they find their place in your work. All of these things ensure your organization is transforming faster and better.
What are the seven phases of DevOps?
The seven phases of DevOps include continuous development and delivery, continuous integration, continuous testing, continuous monitoring, continuous feedback, continuous deployment, and continuous operations.
What are the benefits of DevOps?
Some of the most important benefits of DevOps include faster and better product delivery, faster issue resolution and reduced complexity, greater scalability and availability, more stable operating environments, better resource utilization, greater automation, visibility into system outcomes, and innovation.
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