5 Facts About DevOps Methodology

Many enterprises are adopting the DevOps culture, but most people are yet to understand what this concept entails. For example, software companies working on a product need a DevOps culture or philosophy to guide the process.

But before implementing the DevOps approach, you need to familiarize yourself and the team with the basic concepts.

Over 77% of IT companies have a well-established and functional DevOps culture — and the number continues increasing exponentially.

So, this article will help those starting their DevOps journey to understand the definition and fundamentals of this engineering approach.

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What Is DevOps?

The term "DevOps" comes from the words "development" and "operations." Simply put, DevOps combines development processes with operations to create a fast-paced, quality-driven engineering ideology.

Origin of the DevOps Concept

Patrick Dubois coined the term "DevOps" in 2009. While working for the Belgian government, Dubois discovered that several structural obstacles prevented him from collaborating effectively with development and operations teams.

As a result, he created a new collaboration model, touting it as an automation-centered methodology that unites both teams.

Eventually, other DevOps advocates like Andrew Schafer and John Allspaw popularized this methodology and introduced it to the tech world. Later in 2010, the first-ever DevOps conference took place in the US.

Since then, DevOps has become widely accepted as an engineering approach that reduces the software development lifecycle by ironing out the difference between independent teams.

5 Facts About DevOps

DevOps is a relatively young management approach and is limited to software development, but together with the team of writers from DoMyEssay, an essay and paper writing service for students, we have gathered some interesting facts about this methodology.

DevOps Is a Hybrid Methodology

The DevOps concept emerged from the hybridization of existing methodologies. Before 2009, most companies used either ESM (enterprise systems management), Lean, or Agile approaches in their engineering processes.

System administrators preferred the ESM model, while developers fancied the Lean and Agile methodologies. Consequently, this often caused rifts between developers and administrators since they couldn't agree on a unified approach.

To this effect, forward-thinking IT experts and managers decided to develop an engineering-friendly approach that addresses the differences between development and operations — this birthed the DevOps methodology.

DevOps Hastens Innovation

When operations and development teams use separate models, the speed of innovation reduces significantly. A lot of time will go into resolving conflicts and unifying standards instead of working on the product to meet the stipulated deadline.

However, companies can apply the DevOps approach to shorten the software development cycle. And as a result, encourage more frequent code releases from the development team, leading to faster innovation over a shorter time frame.

DevOps Relies on Automation

Automation is the spine of any DevOps operation if you want smooth collaboration between teams. Your organization can adopt platforms and software integrations to facilitate every stage of the software development cycle.

Some of the most common DevOps automation tools include:

• Jenkins — an integration server that automates the entire build cycle;
• Docker — a container application that enables packaging and deployment, regardless of the running environment;
• Splunk — a tool that helps to build a secure application infrastructure;
• GitHub — a collaboration platform that fosters fast code iterations and interactions between team members;
• Sentry — a customizable tool that assists bug detection.

With the help of these tools, every team involved in the software development process will stay on the same page and work with a unified timeline.

DevOps Encourages Collaboration

Since DevOps relies on automation and open source tools, teams can easily stay in sync with each other.

For example, platforms like GitHub enable team members to receive notifications every time a new build is pushed or when changes are made to the existing version.

Besides, the project's visions are clearer to every team member since they are in clear view.

DevOps Values Regular Testing

Nowadays, testing is the core of every DevOps process, considering the financial implications of releasing buggy applications.

Since DevOps relies on automation and constant integrations, teams need to plan and conduct tests at every stage.

Besides, the DevOps philosophy does not abdicate the responsibility of testing to the QA. Instead, testing is interwoven into the entire approach.

Why Should Your Company Adopt DevOps?

At the moment, most IT companies are adopting the DevOps methodology as a core aspect of their software development. Even government agencies are now implementing this approach to unite teams.

Currently, project managers, product managers, executives, and testing managers also implement DevOps in their daily processes.

But how does this approach affect your startup or business?

• Enhanced collaboration

DevOps keeps your operations and development team on the same page. By using a unified feedback loop, the collaboration process becomes fine-tuned and seamless.

• Stable operations

Using a unified approach for independent teams stabilizes the software development process.

• Better security

Automation integrations can diminish the structural integrity of your software architecture. A DevOps approach uses regular testing to detect these flaws before they become critical.

• Faster deployment

DevOps teams can deploy multiple iterations a day instead of scaling through months of bureaucratic stalemates.

Conclusion

Adopting the DevOps culture in your company fosters collaboration between your development and operations teams. These engineers will also meet the company's software development objectives within the specified timeframe. So, if you are yet to adopt the DevOps methodology, start working on it right away.