What does it take to keep up with the DevOps speedometer?

The underlying rule of DevOps is to become better on a continuous basis with continuous testing and continuous integration. Nevertheless, it is absolutely critical to keep measuring the progress and gauge whether the technology is making a difference for the organization. This will save the organization from wasting a lot of time and efforts by defining the right metrics and focussing on the aspects that really bring relevance. In case DevOps is not giving you the required results, here are a few factors to consider.

Gartner aptly states in its Webinar summary, ‘Agile and DevOps are revolutionizing the way that highly effective IT organizations are organized and run. Every digital business is doing more application development. DevOps emphasizes collaboration, automation and integration of development and operations teams, resulting in more frequent releases at higher quality.’

DevOps as a practice can be taxing for enterprises to cope up with. This not only makes it necessary to draw statistics, but also track them scrupulously. One of the biggest challenges that DevOps admins face regularly is dealing with over-dependence on technology. Technology can practically be the easiest component in the equation, but most of the times teams get carried away by new tools and these tools or automation platforms supersede the core objective of the project.

Key aspects to consider while working in a DevOps mode

A Gartner study suggests, 73 percent of what organizations should focus on consists of attention to culture and communication, information exchanges and building operations process and organizational consistency. Only 27 percent should be on tooling.

Communication and Transparency are at the core of the DevOps practice. It supports and accelerates the release management process and ensures that all the parties involved are in sync and well-connected on the defined scope. Once the cultural aspect is fixed and the people are managed, Technology/tool/platform is an enabler for the teams. Eventually, they would be able to cope up with the speed that DevOps demands.

Make Automation your ally

Automation is the biggest enabler in the DevOps methodology and practically nothing can be achieved without effective automation strategy. Nevertheless, just adoption of the tool is not enough, as it must bring relevance for the organization and the business objectives. Automation is needed for near-simultaneous development and testing of applications and prototypes, where deployment happens on a continuous basis.

It enables teams to track every activity in the testing and development process. For instance, there are tools that can even automate check-out of a new application across different devices and appliances. If implemented well, automation within DevOps can ease out testing and make it more efficient.

Build a dedicated DevOps team

Implementing DevOps can be a specialized activity that needs analytical thinking and planning capabilities. Hence, it becomes absolutely indispensable to ensure that the team is well trained and there are dedicated team members for the task. Also, it is important to implement right folks on the task, who are not just sound technically, but are active team members with a collaborative and team-oriented outlook. Moreover, the team must hold the capability to think from a user’s perspective as well, which makes the requirement distinct.

No shortcuts on Quality

New and inventive methodologies are adopted to ensure that quality is not compromised and development is kept on track. Hence, there cannot be any compromises while building quality metrics. The testing tools must be selected on the basis of its capability to bring in flexibility, constant alterations, and continuous deployment. Quality becomes an integral element in the overall DevOps lifecycle. The DevOps manager must develop and propose an effective testing mix to ensure that testing is flawlessly done and even the development process is not obstructed due to commitments to QA.

Where are you implementing DevOps?

DevOps has been implemented increasingly during the application development process in the current digital canvas, as it can be highly experimental and exploratory in approach. Hence, it is recommended to consider its application within the confines of the organization and for internal purposes. It might not fit well for external application, resulting in disruption and chaos, as it needs understanding and collaboration between teams. It cannot be practically expected from end users or customers to work by the organization’s protocols and cultural nuances. It would be easier to have it implemented internally at an organizational level.

DevOps initiatives comprise diverse technologies and methodologies that span across the software delivery process. Hence, it is important to gauge the readiness and preparedness of an organization to adopt these technologies to ultimately accelerate their time to market and enhance the application development process.

At Cigniti, we standardize efforts and ensure accelerated time to market with DevOps Testing. We also focus on delivering improved deployment quality and greater operational efficiency. Cigniti’s CI testing experts boast of a rich experience in Continuous Integration testing and can configure and execute popular CI tools such as Agile GO, Cruise Control, Chef, Puppet, Microsoft TFS, Jenkins, Bamboo, Hudson and so on, helping client’s DevOps teams.

Cigniti professionals have an in-depth understanding of the shift-left approach of DevOps, and are ready to help to implement the same in your organization. Incorporating DevOps QA testing helps organizations develop a seamless development and production environment, armed with a continuous feedback made possible through continuous testing.

Connect with us to leverage our experience in DevOps implementation and bring value to your application development process.