OVERVIEW OF DEVOPS
Thakshila De Silva
Manual Testing & Test Automation | Passionate about Business Analysis and Data Analytics | Master’s in IT Management | Keen on Learning New Skills.
This article is based on the content I researched for my university assignment.
What is DevOps?
"DevOps" is a modern approach that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to bridge the gap through a set of practices, tools, and a cultural philosophy. It highlights team empowerment, cross-team communication, collaboration, and automation. The practices of shared responsibility and continuous integration make DevOps enable faster, more efficient, and higher-quality software delivery (Atlassian, 2023).
How does DevOps work?
A "DevOps" team contains developers and IT operations working together throughout the product lifecycle to enhance the speed and quality of software deployment. This approach gives a cultural shift with significant implications for teams and organisations.
In the DevOps structure, development and operations are no longer isolated from each other. Often, they are combined together, with engineers having multidisciplinary skills that work the entire lifecycle from development and testing to deployment and operations.
To improve reliability, DevOps teams influence tools that automate and accelerate processes. A DevOps toolchain supports key practices such as continuous integration, continuous delivery, automation, and collaboration.
The DevOps life cycle
The continuous nature of "DevOps" is often represented using the infinity loop, which illustrates the interconnected phases of the DevOps lifecycle. Although the loop may appear sequential, it represents the ongoing need for collaboration and iterative improvement across the entire lifecycle.
Diagram 1 shows the DevOps lifecycle with eight phases, containing the processes, capabilities, and tools required for development on the left side of the loop and operations on the right. Throughout these phases, teams work together, maintaining alignment and speed and maintaining quality through regular communication and collaboration (Atlassian, 2023; DevOps Lifecycle: Different Phases in DevOps, 2023).
Discover: Software development is a collaborative effort where teams must brainstorm ideas, ensuring they align with strategic goals and deliver customer impact. Agile methodologies guide DevOps teams in this phase.
Plan: Agile techniques help DevOps teams to break work into smaller tasks, which improve speed and quality while delivering incremental outcomes.
Build: GIT, an open-source version control system, supports workflows that improve the build process through branching, merging, and revising code.
Test: Continuous integration (CI) allows developers to merge developed codes into a shared repository, running automated tests to ensure the quality and predictability before deployment.
Deploy: Continuous deployment (CD) automates the release of features into production, usually using feature flags to deliver updates slowly, which enhances the productivity and sustainability of the development team.
Operate: This phase concerns managing the full delivery of IT services, including designing, deploying, and maintaining the supporting infrastructure.
Observe: Monitoring and addressing the issues quickly which are directly impacting the product performance. Automated alerts may help teams maintain uptime and functionality.
Continuous Feedback: After each release, teams should analyse the feedback to refine processes and include customer insights to improve future releases.
(Atlassian, 2023; DevOps Lifecycle: Different Phases in DevOps, 2023)
DevOps tools
DevOps tools support the key phases of the DevOps lifecycle by enhancing collaboration, reducing context-switching, automating processes, and enabling observability and monitoring.
There are two primary approaches to DevOps toolchains "all-in-one" and "open". The all-in-one approach provides a complete solution that does not support the integration with third-party tools. On the other hand, the open approach permits customisation by integrating different tools. permits customisation by integrating different tools. The diagram 4 shows different tools for each phase.
DevOps is a cultural and technical approach that combines development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams to streamline and improve software delivery processes.
Its importance lies in the following key aspects:
Faster Time-to-Market: DevOps enables continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), allowing organisations to release features, updates, and bug fixes more frequently and efficiently.
Improved Collaboration: It breaks down silos between development and operations teams, fostering better communication and shared responsibility for the software lifecycle.
Enhanced Quality and Reliability: Automated testing and monitoring reduce errors and ensure consistent performance, leading to more reliable applications.
Increased Efficiency: Automation of repetitive tasks, such as deployments and infrastructure management, reduces manual effort, saving time and resources.
Scalability and Flexibility: DevOps practices allow organisations to scale infrastructure dynamically and respond quickly to changes in user demand or business priorities.
Customer Satisfaction: By delivering better software faster, organisations can respond to customer needs more effectively, enhancing user experiences and satisfaction.
Risk Reduction: Continuous monitoring, logging, and automated recovery processes minimise downtime and improve security, ensuring smoother operations.
Innovation and Competitiveness: The speed and agility enabled by DevOps give organisations a competitive edge, allowing them to innovate rapidly in response to market demands.
In summary, DevOps aligns technology, processes, and culture to create a collaborative environment that drives efficiency, quality, and innovation in software development and delivery.