It’s not enough to want to have a DevOps methodology at your company, you have to plan for it, work for it, and continue to foster that Agile environment. DevOps is not a one size fits all strategy. You have to find the most optimal process for fast-tracking software releases without jeopardizing quality objectives.
Here are some tips for helping your company transition to a DevOps Methodology:
Not just you, or your department, but the whole organization needs to have a DevOps mentality. Take the time to explain what it is, what specific needs of your business it can address and why it’s worth the pain of change.
If you haven’t already, this is a good time to create value stream maps of your processes. Before embarking on your journey into DevOps you should know sections of your process that need the most improvement and start there. In addition to solving your critical inefficiencies you are showing the organization what DevOps is capable of. Get your organization into the habit of questioning why. Why is it done this way and how can you make it better?
Make sure people realize DevOps is about more than automation. Yes, that’s part of enhancing current processes, but the true meat of the DevOps methodology is collaboration. Get everyone on board with collaborative work from software development to end user operations to yield the true benefits.
Even though it may be said, DevOps does not have a one size fits all solution to everyone’s problems. Your biggest hurdle, and biggest impact, will be influencing the habits and beliefs of the people in your organization. The fastest way to fail at that is to ignore the unique needs and attributes of what you do.
You want to create beneficial software quickly. You want to make more efficient processes that lead to better products and satisfied customers. To truly do that you need to understand your customers and target market. You need to recognize strengths and abilities of your organization and move forward accordingly.
Don’t just measure what’s easy. One of the most important parts of DevOps adoption is recording and tracking with the best metrics. Take the risk of measuring something that might not make you look good initially. This way you can show your accurate progress over time and demonstrate credible benefits to upper management.
Here are some suggestions to utilize metrics in the most useful way possible. Think about the needs of your own organization to come up with more:
Deployment Speed: the rate at which you deploy quality completed software should increase as DevOps continues
Downtime: software downtime should decrease with DevOps, happening less often, and recovering faster when it does
Deployment Frequency: a smooth DevOps process should lead to more frequent deployments to test and finalize
The important thing with metrics is to focus on quality. Numbers that make you look good without any real business benefit aren’t doing you or your company any favors. Selecting good, honest metrics and consistently sharing them is one of the best things you can do. Create and display easy to access dashboards that show off your progress. Transparency can be hard but it is a vital part of the DevOps process.
Don’t try to tackle every imperfect company process in the initial phase of your DevOps transition. Quality over quantity. Start by creating a cross-functional team that includes people from each step of the process. Focus on a high impact opportunity for improvement and create a deployment pipeline to solve constraints. Follow your first project from development to fully operational before tackling more.
Once you have a few DevOps improvement operations under your belt you can start to expand. Master the process first. Make sure you’re successful. Utilize your metrics to prove your system works before applying it to other teams and situations. As you master the system, teach other influencers and watch the positive change spread.
Don’t get caught up in completion. If your team creates fast new software that doesn’t accomplish the original goal, you’ve not had success. Make sure not to lose sight of quality assurance each step of the way. This is why taking the time to work smart is so beneficial. Rushing full throttle into something doesn’t do any good if it’s not the right process.
At Aspirant, we are experts in helping you understand the DevOps methodology. If your company is looking to adopt the DevOps way of software development, explore our our App Development & Integration page or let us know how we can help in the form below.