DevOps can aptly be defined as a methodology, philosophy or an ideology. DevOps principle stands at narrowing the gap between the Development (Dev) and the Operations (Ops) teams. In other words it is a methodology that includes Dev and Ops coordination that leads to a streamlined flow of work to deliver faster and at the same time high quality software.

DevOps facilitates continuous delivery wherein the deployments can be done as and when required on demand. This can be achieved by ensuring that the code is always in a deployable state even when multiple developers make changes on a continuous basis. Thus, it enables faster and more effective application rollouts with shorter release cycles. The need of the hour for enterprises is shorter release cycles and quality products that is easier with DevOps methodology. Most enterprises and organizations are aligning towards DevOps as it is a preferred philosophy being used with agile software development. It is also being used along with other methodologies like Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. Moreover, DevOps removes the age old friction that existed between the Dev and Ops teams of silos thus enabling more coordination between teams. Let us now see some of the important aspects about DevOps.

5 Important Aspects of DevOps

1. Enterprises and Organizations should accept a culture shift:

Traditionally the development and operations team had entirely different deliverables and responsibilities. But under DevOps, it is all about keeping the software deployable at any point of time working closely and continuously on new features. It necessitates the need for a cultural shift among the stakeholders to work for a common goal and encourages Dev and Ops to function as a single team focused on delivering value across the IT value chain. Thus enterprises should mark a cultural shift in their style of functioning.

2. Strategic Role of QA in DevOps:

Under the DevOps mode, both developers and testers play equally important role and typically the Quality Analyst (QA) ties together Dev and Ops teams. It further enables teams to collaborate to have the software and applications up and running. Both the developer and the tester work in close coordination in a DevOps environment. But it has been observed that organizations without a strong and definite QA and testing strategy in DevOps faces troubles in meeting their goals for an accelerated speed of delivery.

3. Three Accelerators for DevOps Process i.e. People, Process and Tools:

In addition to the culture change the three accelerators for DevOps includes people, a proper process to be in place and there is need for automation tools that may consist of the open source or licensed tools. In addition, DevOps substantiates a need for a cultural change, a figurative environment set-up, configuration, monitoring, automation techniques for deployment and continuous testing that helps achieve collaborative development and ensures faster time to market.

4. DevOps Cycle:

Under a mature DevOps cycle, the process seen is a build, release and operate phases. However, for a typical IT organization, the scope of DevOps cycle spans four functional areas such as a. Continuous integration and testing, b. Continuous delivery and deployment, c. Continuous operations, and d. Continuous assessments.

5. Understand the Important DevOps Patterns:

There are basically four areas with respect to DevOps patterns such as Extend development into production, Create production feedback into development, Embed development into IT operations and lastly Embed IT operations into development. All these patterns are useful as they ensure production readiness of the code and environment. Further, helps to create re-usable user stories for the IT operations and even defines the non-functional requirements that can be used across the process.

Value Add Enterprises Achieve with DevOps
• Faster time to market
• Reduced amount of IT waste
• No silos between development and operations teams
• Improves employee engagement
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Quicker release cycles due to task automation

Increasingly, large traditional enterprises are embracing DevOps principles and patterns to become more agile such that, they can better address market needs and be ahead in the competition. Thus enterprises can achieve significant advantages as they adopt DevOps process. With a plethora of both open source and commercial DevOps tools available, implementing and integrating the most suited tool for your DevOps needs can prove to be a daunting task. However, done with the right partner, you can end up saving a lot of time, resources and duly realize quicker ROI if partnered with a good DevOps service provider.