Best DevOps practices to ensure a smooth and scalable pipeline.
Looking to initiate a DevOps pipeline, or refresh an existing one? The below pointers will give you enough insight to get started the right way!
1. Using Agile to develop software.
Fusing your development and IT operations teams is going to bring with it a whole host of variables. No matter what challenges come your way, ensuring that both teams are on the same page is absolutely vital to develop software which aligns with mutual objectives. This is exactly what Agile will help to achieve, since regular communication and a constant openness towards feedback at any stage of the software development process is welcomed for the purpose of building optimal software.
Since Agile will go perfectly well with the perpetually iterative nature of any DevOps lifecycle, encouraging your team to embrace an Agile workflow will deliver working products in less time, while also keeping costs at a minimum.
2. Incorporating Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD).
As the amalgamation of development and IT operations teams focus on leveraging feedback that is received from end users for improvement, integrations, deliveries and deployments, all of this will constitute big chunks of the DevOps process. Teams can be spared laborious and monotonous tasks through automation, which is precisely what CI/CD can invite into your overall process.
Which automation tools are needed is a matter of candid communication, experimentation as well as a deep-seated knowledge of what will be suitable for the project at hand. Ultimately, getting CI/CD right will save your team lots of time and effort, not to forget money as well as users.
3. Constantly tracking and evaluating progress.
With inter-departmental collaboration comes the likelihood of loopholes, with some being more obvious than others. Monitoring all working parts down to the tiniest details is crucial, since it will determine problem-free functionality, while also aiding in future endeavours such as expansion and scalability. This means that your development team needs to be alerted about any shortcomings, whether it’s bugs within the application, or any bottlenecks anywhere along the pipeline. This will help your team immediately get to work in order to resolve issues, so your DevOps pipeline is always running smoothly.
4. Fostering openness and collaboration within the team.
Irrespective of which project management methodologies, tools, techniques and technologies you adopt for your DevOps team, it eventually boils down to team solidarity that puts communication, collaboration and transparency first. This is what will help you to sustain a successful DevOps pipeline, while prioritising on stakeholder feedback and constantly striving towards building a highly powerful yet effective digital product.
In a nutshell…
DevOps is a combination of ensuring your development and IT operations teams are working together to routinely release high-performance software, while nurturing candid communication in an open working environment. In order to determine exactly what your specific team needs, identifying any loopholes, bottlenecks and shortcomings within your team (and addressing these issues first) will be a great starting point for maintaining a smoothly flowing software development pipeline.
