Every few years, a new buzzword appears on the IT canvas that creates hype and excitement amongst the business and technologists alike. DevOps is one such term that has been gathering momentum for a while now and while it is very relevant in today’s digital transformation scenarios, it is also quite misunderstood. From some of my interactions with organizations that are on a journey to embrace DevOps and few others that aspire to, I attempt to explain here some simple concepts behind this big term.
Why DevOps?
Many software development organizations typically spend more time post-development in deployment activities than actually developing – needless to say that this is an overhead that has little business value. The main endeavour of DevOps is to make Development and Operations work as close (and as lean) as possible to reduce such overheads
What makes efficient DevOps?
If we dissect into what goes into effectively establish DevOps, it can simply be categorized into the following four layers:
For an organization assessing to improve its time to market (and hence looking to improve its Development and Operations efficiencies), it is critical for them to first correctly identify where within these four categories their current issues lie. It is important to assess where within these layers does the organization today has issues that hampers team collaboration and process efficiency. Organizations tend to start thinking of deploying tools and technologies before correctly understanding fundamental issues that may need to be corrected on effective Agile development or engineering practices
Is DevOps a new name for Agile?
No.
- Being Agile is a principle that would enable an organization to react to the market fast and efficient. DevOps enables organizations become Agile
- Agile Development methodologies like Scrum are a process following which an organization produces software. Effective Agile Development methodology is fundamental for DevOps adoption
Which DevOps tools are relevant for an organization?
There are a plethora of tools that can be categorized as the ones that enable DevOps – they cover a wide gamut of process, engineering and project management activities. The choice of tools depends on specific needs of an organization and the available budget. The link below provides a comprehensive listing of tools categorized by their applicability within SDLC and commercial terms
https://xebialabs.com/periodic-table-of-devops-tools/
About the author:
Amit leads onsite Delivery and Account Management for Ness-DACH and is responsible for Program Managing Ness accounts within the DACH region. Amit is an Agile practitioner for many years, specializing in creating effective Agile delivery models for geographically distributed teams within complex engineering organizations. This involves conducting process maturity assessments, establishing new set-up’s, leading process transformations and conducting trainings.
