Introduction to DevOps
DevOps is not just about tools but it also includes a set of best practices which enables to bridge the gap between the development and operations teams in the areas of continuous integration and deployment by using an integrated set of tools to automate the software delivery.
It is imperative that the developers understand the operations side and vice versa. So the goal of DevOps is simply to help any organization in the speed of delivering applications to the end users and enabling faster end-user feedback which is the need for any business today.
Overview of Agile and DevOps
There is no difference between DevOps and Agile . Instead, they complement one other. Let’s start by looking at the Waterfall model where all the requirements are frozen, and design & development are done one after the other until a stable product is available.
So the issue here is that if there is a change in the customer’s need at this stage then there is no way to include and deliver the changed need.
In order to address the issue of adapting to the needs of the customer changes better than in the waterfall method was Agile adoption. The idea here was to develop a software in smaller sprints or iteration say around 2 to 3 weeks which helped the development teams to work on the end-user feedback and incorporate the changes in the newer releases.
Hence development and operation teams must have agile in their areas of work and DevOps was born to enable better collaboration between them.
Agile brings in processes like XP, SCRUM etc. and DevOps brings in practices like Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Continuous Testing and Continuous Monitoring which we will see in detail as we move further in this tutorial.
Is DevOps only about Tools?
In a way, you may argue that to implement DevOps you need tools. It is true but tools are only accelerators.
But actually, it is about the following 3 aspects:
People: It is very important to train and have a highly motivated team of people to be able to effectively communicate and collaborate through this entire journey of cultural change.
Process: As we are talking about cultural change for DevOps implementation it is very much a necessity to have practices and strategies which provide value to the customer. A proper way of doing it would be to do an AS-IS maturity assessment, look at gaps and propose a roadmap for implementation of giving appropriate recommendations.
I will not be talking in-depth about how I have got about doing these assessments but I will be glad to share any inputs on the same.
Tools: Finally, it is about using the accelerators by automating the process using standard DevOps tools that are available today. It could be Open-Source (Jenkins, Git etc.), Commercial (Microsoft TFS, VSTS, IBM Rational, Jira etc.) or a mix of both.
Components of DevOps
I hope by now you would have got an idea of what is DevOps.
Let’s now look at the following 4 components of DevOps which form the core from an implementation point of view and also the organizations have developed good automation frameworks around the same offering it as a service to their clients.
I have truly believed that if a developer has to work in this mode then there should be an execution item like a Task or a Defect (In Agile it can be a part of User Story) assigned to him to enable him to deliver the work within the sprint timeframe.
So even before the above-listed steps can be implemented these developer Tasks or Defects should be planned in a Sprint.
DevOps is not just about tools but it also includes a set of best practices which enables to bridge the gap between the development and operations teams in the areas of continuous integration and deployment by using an integrated set of tools to automate the software delivery.
 |
| DevOps |
It is imperative that the developers understand the operations side and vice versa. So the goal of DevOps is simply to help any organization in the speed of delivering applications to the end users and enabling faster end-user feedback which is the need for any business today.
Overview of Agile and DevOps
There is no difference between DevOps and Agile . Instead, they complement one other. Let’s start by looking at the Waterfall model where all the requirements are frozen, and design & development are done one after the other until a stable product is available.
So the issue here is that if there is a change in the customer’s need at this stage then there is no way to include and deliver the changed need.
In order to address the issue of adapting to the needs of the customer changes better than in the waterfall method was Agile adoption. The idea here was to develop a software in smaller sprints or iteration say around 2 to 3 weeks which helped the development teams to work on the end-user feedback and incorporate the changes in the newer releases.
Hence development and operation teams must have agile in their areas of work and DevOps was born to enable better collaboration between them.
Agile brings in processes like XP, SCRUM etc. and DevOps brings in practices like Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Continuous Testing and Continuous Monitoring which we will see in detail as we move further in this tutorial.
Is DevOps only about Tools?
In a way, you may argue that to implement DevOps you need tools. It is true but tools are only accelerators.
But actually, it is about the following 3 aspects:
People: It is very important to train and have a highly motivated team of people to be able to effectively communicate and collaborate through this entire journey of cultural change.
Process: As we are talking about cultural change for DevOps implementation it is very much a necessity to have practices and strategies which provide value to the customer. A proper way of doing it would be to do an AS-IS maturity assessment, look at gaps and propose a roadmap for implementation of giving appropriate recommendations.
I will not be talking in-depth about how I have got about doing these assessments but I will be glad to share any inputs on the same.
Tools: Finally, it is about using the accelerators by automating the process using standard DevOps tools that are available today. It could be Open-Source (Jenkins, Git etc.), Commercial (Microsoft TFS, VSTS, IBM Rational, Jira etc.) or a mix of both.
Components of DevOps
I hope by now you would have got an idea of what is DevOps.
Let’s now look at the following 4 components of DevOps which form the core from an implementation point of view and also the organizations have developed good automation frameworks around the same offering it as a service to their clients.
- Continuous Integration
- Continuous Testing
- Continuous Delivery
- Continuous Monitoring
I have truly believed that if a developer has to work in this mode then there should be an execution item like a Task or a Defect (In Agile it can be a part of User Story) assigned to him to enable him to deliver the work within the sprint timeframe.
So even before the above-listed steps can be implemented these developer Tasks or Defects should be planned in a Sprint.
