Completing a project is an art! After all, it is necessary on time to complete a rather complex, high-tech development cycle, without allowing malfunctions and deviations. This is what DevOps is for. What it is? What is it used for? What is this development philosophy?
general information
Existing realities require that the project execution time, from the emergence of an idea to the presentation of a finished product, is constantly reduced. And this is accompanied by a limited budget. Therefore, a better option was not found than the optimization of the technical process. And as one of the development directions DevOps appeared. What it is? Temporary reserves can be found in almost any department. It is possible to tense up not only developers, but also testers, managers, analysts, the implementation unit. It remains to do a little - to think how to do it.
What are the solutions?
Often, for problems that arise, they use the
methodology of flexible, rapid, and sometimes extreme development. She got the name Agile. DevOps is considered her legacy. Initially, they tried to reduce the development process to a series of short cycles, which were called iterations. They should have lasted several weeks. Moreover, each of them, in fact, is a small project. After each iteration, the team stops and evaluates the work done.
Initially, it seemed that such an approach was qualitative, but practice showed a number of shortcomings. So, there were no common tools and the ability to share knowledge between different departments. Therefore, the development is far from always and not as fast as we would like to progress. In addition, it was also affected by the fact that each unit has its own criteria for evaluating effectiveness, which makes general standardization and unification more difficult. Therefore, the search for solutions continued.
Now let's look at one of the proposed options. Namely, we will find out what DevOps is for dummies. Fortunately, more than one year has passed, and we can more or less objectively evaluate this methodology.
What it is?
In 2009, the general public was notified of another approach to software development. It is called the DevOps Philosophy. The art of IT management involves the implementation of a software development methodology (software), in which specialists in creation and maintenance actively interact. This approach is based on the idea that it is necessary to make software development and operation interdependent. The goal was to allow organizations to create, and subsequently update, software products and services that were released even faster. In order to talk about the essence of this methodology, a metaphor of three paths was used. Let's look at it more closely.
Three way
Speaking of DevOps and what it is, it is impossible to get around this metaphor. It represents:
- First way. Emphasizes the need to increase and work on the performance of the entire system. Attention should be paid to all business flows that contribute to value creation.
- Second way. It involves creating a feedback loop that goes from right to left. Any initiative to improve processes should reduce and strengthen it so that the necessary amendments can be introduced into the project constantly.
- Third way. It involves creating a culture that is conducive to continuous experimentation, contributing to the adoption of risks and learning from failure and success, and will also make it clear that repetition and practice are prerequisites for mastery.
Using this integrated approach, a complete picture of the development model is formed, which takes into account the interests of all parties, clearly identifies processes and the integration mechanism. The whole methodology is built on these three principles.
Who is it for?
DevOps tools can potentially suit all organizations involved in the field of information technology. Large they will increase the speed of development, testing and presentation of products. In small organizations, there is an involvement of all people in the process, which allows for the interchangeability of employees. Although a situation is often observed when this is not of interest. After all, the implementation of DevOps involves a lot of work with new technologies, about which often nothing is known. Although in general terms this philosophy involves automation, standardization and a more active relationship, each company implementing it has its own distinct differences. To find out more, check out special literature, such as the DevOps Handbook.
About the advantages and disadvantages
Initially, the positive aspects of this methodology. In the event of its successful implementation, the company in the future can count on:
- Automation (reducing the risk of human error).
- Simplification and acceleration of the development and presentation of the finished product.
- Getting quick feedback from users.
What are the negative aspects of this approach? The most frequent:
- We should not forget and discard the successful practices of previous years. Many sin this, although ignoring something just because it was created a long time ago is a stupid approach that could negatively affect future activities.
- It is necessary to take into account the features of the team, because for various reasons this philosophy may not suit them.
Solved problem
If we talk about the most important aspect, the main thing that DevOps does is what? The old problem is "the trouble is not on our side." How often is a situation where programmers nod toward the system administrators and say that there is a problem with the server. Sysadmins say that the problems are with the code. The objective of the methodology is to improve the interaction between different units and to destroy the transfer of responsibility as a phenomenon.
To better explain this to employees, you can not only personally talk to them about it, but also organize a trip to the DevOps conference, where they can find out about this from other people and also learn from work experience. In general, the situation where the developer sees only his area of responsibility and does not want to interfere in someone else's, it is quite understandable. But from the point of view of the system, such a worldview is extremely harmful and must be eradicated. Therefore, in the event of butt problems, there must be someone who takes responsibility for correcting them. And it is advisable to generally create a system that can level the possibility of their occurrence.
Changes
It should be understood that the DevOps project does not provide for a well-read or universal system administrator and little by little participates in all stages, but creates a standardized production cycle approach. When this methodology is introduced, an additional abstract level of coordination and synchronization of work areas is created, that is, management and control are improved.
Initially, at first glance, unnecessary complications and indignation on the part of employees are observed, but in the long term, changes will give stability to the production process. That, it should be recognized, during the development of complex workable systems is truly priceless, because it saves from unpleasant regimes of emergency and blockages at inopportune moments. Such prevention through a pre-thought out and properly tuned methodology brings significant results. In this case, it is necessary to take care of the communicative interaction of different people. And the ultimate goal of all these changes is the development of a seamless and extremely adaptive architecture for creating and maintaining a systemic character.
Implementation Models
Depending on the objectives pursued, the following options for implementing DevOps are distinguished:
- The first model. In this case, it is envisaged to deepen the processes of software development in delivery. Provides for continuous integration of workflows.
- The second model. Provides feedback from seller to developer. A complete chronology of development and administration events is created, which should help in resolving problems, as well as provide an opportunity to analyze the causes of their occurrence wherever possible. It also provides for the creation of self-service services, where feasible, and information indicators, which indicate changes in the system when they are introduced.
- The third model. Integrates development and administration. It implies the inclusion of the team of creators in solving problems, the development of interaction between personnel and work to reduce the number of escalations.
- The fourth model. The whole team is included in the development, a close relationship is established between the staff, multi-stage user stories are created, where there is a deployment, code management during production, non-functional requirements are determined that can be applied in all projects.
What is the value?
Let's summarize what attracts DevOps. For business, it provides three significant advantages:
- allows you to quickly enter the market by reducing the development cycle and high deployment rate;
- improves the quality of the finished product (fewer crashes, more pieces of equipment on which the software can be run);
- increases organizational effectiveness, which affects the quality and speed of the result.
All this allows the DevOps methodology to confidently take its place.
Conclusion
Of course, theory is one thing, and practical implementation is another. Sometimes, even the best undertakings can be ruined or sabotaged. How to prevent this? First of all, it is necessary to adequately and honestly assess the situation that has developed at the enterprise. If it is just being formed, then one should determine the goal and the desired development algorithm.
After this comes the turn of planning. At the same time, it is desirable to pay attention to even the smallest little things. Subsequently, if the need arises, there is no need to neglect the need to change the original plan. To better understand the situation, you can attract specialists who are directly affected by optimization. Their opinions can be invaluable in terms of creating a comfortable environment.