5 Advantages of DevOps Over Other Methodologies

DevOps stands for the combination of Development and Operations which presupposes a close collaboration between the teams that usually operate rather isolated from each other.

The approach is not widely adopted yet, but there are already experiments conducted to prove its efficiency. And the results are quite impressive. Let’s go through the main points.

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Advantages of DevOps

Open Collaboration

If one wants to order an assignment from an essay writer at EssayWritingService, they are usually curious whether it is possible to communicate directly. Isn’t it much easier when you don’t have to pass messages via third parties? There will be delays, the communication will remind the messenger game, does anyone really need it?

By unifying operations and development teams, a company can get rid of unnecessary boundaries in the same way. Those are usually established for the sake of keeping responsibilities divided and clear. Yet, what it leads to is the actual division between departments. It influences communication in general.

Sometimes, one team may even feel inferior to another due to lack of knowledge. Yet, the point is, there's not a single thing that can be created only by one team specializing in one area and be deemed a viable product or service.

Take, for instance, the developers who can write amazing code for an app. Will the code satisfy the product owner? Nope. To succeed, they'll need at least:

• Scrum master
• Team lead
• Web-designer
• Security manager

Is the role and knowledge of any of those people less important? Again, nope. Can a developer take over some of those responsibilities? Possibly, but not for a long time, and they won’t be as proficient as the expert in cyber security, for instance. That’s actually the reason why DevSecOps movement has been born.

Meanwhile, when the team comprises several specialists from different areas, their communication improves, the barriers fall. The team members can feel free to share ideas in an open form and almost immediately.

Unity

Being in separate teams may often mean having divergent goals. Someone wants to finish the project as soon as possible as the deadline approaches. Another person doesn’t even want to deal with that project. Another one has too many responsibilities to keep up with, so they forget about the project. An everyday example would be that of cooking a meal.

Imagine several people working isolated on cooking soup. However much they are hungry, there’ll be a mess. They will cut and chop the products in a disproportionate manner, salt the soup like three times (‘cause nobody said they already did it). Somebody will add their favorite cilantro everyone else hates. Enjoy your meal!

At the same time, a DevOps team is that group of people that will:

• discuss what they are going to cook;
• clarify how they’re going to do it;
• inform each other when a stage is finalized;
• give timely feedback and prevent the cilantro situation.

No Barriers

Operations teams may not be aware of many specifics developers work with, and vice versa. Such unawareness leads to miscommunication and even conflicts. Employees may underestimate each other’s skills which creates an impression that some of them are superior over others.

Removal of such barriers is not only about improving the way employees handle the social and technical aspects in the workplace. It’s also about sharing knowledge and gaining experience that will help one improve their CV and increase the number of job opportunities in the future.

Increased Speed and Efficiency of Product Development

Without the barriers mentioned above, DevOps can help avoid some bureaucratic steps that slow down the process of developing and releasing the product. In addition, DevOps borrowed from the best methodologies the Agile philosophy can offer.

The Scrum methodology presupposes working in sprints which is good and efficient. Yet, without combining development and operations, some sprints can be devoted to purely fixing the problems that could have been avoided. DevOps can remove the necessity for those sprints at all.

Another approach DevOps borrows from is extreme programming that helps to create a minimum viable product without much fluff and too specific features. It goes without saying that it is extremely useful when you have tight deadlines and an ever-changing opinion of the product owner.

Improved Product Quality and Cost Efficiency

Take, for example, a team where several developers, a UX Designer, a marketer, and operations work jointly. As the product is being created and everyone is involved and aware of the process in detail, it's easier to predict potential issues and prevent them.

However, imagine a project that progressed too far - so far that it may be too late to integrate some security measures. They could have been noticed earlier and avoided when sticking to the DevOps approach. Yet, what you have now is a faulty system that has to be fixed somehow.

Now, there are two options:

• come up with a workaround that at some point, will lead to a serious bug;
• invest more resources to reset the product to its earlier version and start again (if not from scratch).

None of the suggestions above will be fully feasible anyway. There will be delays, additional costs, or deteriorated quality that will have to be improved sooner or later.

Data Security

When collaborating with times, it’s important to pay close attention to data security. Tools like active directory management can help users connect with the network so they can complete work in a timely fashion while managing privileged access permissions and ensuring critical data remains secure.

Summing Up

The popularity of DevOps has been on the rise but hasn’t reached its peak yet. Despite the benefits, many companies got used to the way things work. Some of them lack resources to reorganize the departments and teams.

Finally, not all employees may be willing to accept such changes. The transition should be smooth, and most corporations are yet to get prepared for it. However, taking into account the merits the approach offers, it will probably make its mark with time.

So this sums up some of the advantages of DevOps over other methodologies.